Norton Calls Out Some Federal Contractors and Schedules Meetings on Good Faith Efforts to Hire D.C. Residents

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the first monthly statistics on the number of D.C. workers on nine large General Services Administration (GSA) construction projects now underway throughout the city, as well as the number of D.C. residents employed by the four contractors working on the Department of Homeland Security consolidated headquarters construction site at the old St Elizabeths West Campus. Norton said, "I worked hard to get GSA money in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in order to modernize and rehabilitate federal buildings throughout the city. The record of Clark Construction -- 22% of its workers to date at the Coast Guard headquarters building at St. Elizabeths since construction began are D.C. residents -- shows in real time the size of the pool of qualified D.C. workers. With qualified residents in the city, which has a higher unemployment rate than most of the country, all federal contractors at work in the District must make a similar good faith effort to reach out and hire where they build." Norton is scheduling meetings with all of the contractors doing work on federal construction projects throughout the city.

The percentages of D.C. residents to date on federal construction sites here, other than the St. Elizabeths site, are as follows: Whiting-Turner, GSA headquarters building, 19%; Gilbane-Grunley, the Hoover building, 15%; Turtle Associates, the Roosevelt building, 14%; Turtle Associates, the Ronald Reagan building, 14%; MARADA Contracting-DS East, the Markey National Courts building, 13%; Grunley Construction, the Lafayette building, 9%; Teng Construction, the Cohen building, 7%; DS East Joint Venture, the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters building, 6%; and MARADA Contracting, the Weaver Housing and Urban Development headquarters building, 13%.

The three most recent general contractors on the St. Elizabeths project have caused the percentage of D.C. residents employed at the job site to fall to 17% to date, but at Clark Construction, which is building the Coast Guard headquarters, 22%, or 287 out of 1787, workers are D.C residents. However, only nine of the 228 workers on the Balfour Beatty Construction security perimeter fence contract have been D.C. residents; six of the 237 workers on the Balfour Beatty Construction site utilities contract have been D.C. residents; 26 of 125 workers on the Washington Gas central utility heating plant contract have been D.C. residents; and 32 of the 374 workers on the Grunley Construction adaptive reuse contract have been D.C. residents.

Norton said that federal regulations do not allow hiring on federal construction projects based on the location of the site, but do require outreach to local residents. "Some of these contractors are failing to make the necessary and good faith effort to hire D.C. residents, and it shows when comparing their figures of D.C. resident hiring with those of other contractors," Norton said. At her meetings with the contractors, the Congresswoman will make clear what is expected. She will also continue to make unannounced visits to federal construction sites.

Norton is the ranking Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, which has jurisdiction over GSA, including federal construction sites.

Published: May 3, 2012