Testimony at Norton DHS Roundtable Shows Jobs & Small Business Contracts for DC Exceed Expectations

Testimony at Norton DHS Construction Roundtable Shows Jobs and Small Business Contracts for D.C. Residents Exceed Expectations

July 1, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC- The General Services Administration (GSA) reported that, of 741 workers hired since construction began for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) complex in Ward 8, 266, or more than one-third, have been D.C. residents. Of the 98 new hires, including nine journeyman electricians and four mechanical operators, 76 have been residents of Ward 8. Shapour Ebadi, GSA Project Director for the massive DHS complex under construction on the St. Elizabeths West Campus gave the statistical evidence at a Roundtable on jobs and small business opportunities for D.C. residents at the DHS site held by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton in the Rayburn House Office Building last evening. Norton said, "These results are impressive considering that federal law bars restricting hiring to the jurisdiction where a federal facility is being constructed." The District's population is 10 percent of this region, from which the workforce is largely drawn. Ebadi compared the D.C. hires to the GSA hires on a federal project in Maryland, where 10 to 12 percent of the workers are from the District.

Ebadi also testified that 42 percent of the contract dollar value so far has gone to small and disadvantaged business, including 25 D.C. small businesses. Norton said, "These very encouraging small business results show that the city's small business community is primed to successfully obtain contracts in the federal procurement system known for competitiveness and high quality."

Norton, who receives monthly reports on hiring and small business participation on the project, credited Ebadi and Clark Construction Vice President Lincoln Lawrence with working closely with her in doing the aggressive outreach that is allowed under federal rules to achieve these results. Under questioning about continuing these results, Ebadi testified that he believed he could improve on them. The Roundtable also received statistical evidence from Lawrence.

Despite slower funding from Congress for the project, Ebadi and GSA Deputy Public Buildings Service Commissioner David Foley testified that the project has been appropriated $1.4 billion, and ample work remains outstanding, including completion of the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters building, which is 40 percent completed, rehabilitating historic buildings that are part of a large reuse project at the site, and the perimeter fence.

Norton said that there is no substitute for the statistical evidence she requires in monthly hiring reports from GSA, but that testimony from residents was necessary in a city where there has long been skepticism about participation of local residents in construction. "In D.C., the public needs to hear directly from real people, the workers and small businesses on the job now," she said. Norton questioned four D.C. resident workers and four D.C. small business owners. The workers testified that they have to be on the job at 5:30 or 6 a.m. and described the duties of laborers, electricians and cement finishers. The laborers were hired with no experience on big construction sites, and the electrician and cement finisher were union workers employed through their unions.

The D.C. small business owners testified that they were able to get subcontracts by learning the bidding process and by building strong reputations with large contractors. They noted that small businesses often do not have the bonding capacity to take on very large jobs, so they must build a reputation for producing quality and timely work.

In addition to Ebadi, Lawrence and Foley, Norton took testimony from four residents who have construction jobs on the project, including laborers Marquis Wright and Brian Labord; cement finisher Freddie Harris; and electrician John Harper; and from four D.C. small business owners with contracts at the project, including the President of Milani Construction, Saeed Milani; the President and CEO of AV Smoot, Adrienne Smoot; the President of Scott-Wellington, Robert Scott; and Merrill Smith, the President of Metropolitan Fire Sprinkler, which also was named Norton's 2012 Small Business of the Year.