Superior Court Judge Stephen Fortunato ruled in favor of local advocacy groups Friday when he ordered the city to comply with the First Source ordinance within 14 days.
The ordinance, designed to provide unemployed city residents with jobs, was first passed by the City Council in 1985 but has never been implemented. In recent years, certain city council members and local activists have made enacting the ordinance a priority. Along with three city residents, Direct Action for Rights and Equality and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice filed a suit against Mayor David Cicilline '83 and Thomas Deller, director of planning and development for the city, when they were unsatisfied with the city's response to their demands.
Under First Source, businesses and organizations that receive grants or tax breaks from the city must sign a contract promising to give residents preferential consideration when hiring, based on a list of names to be provided by the city.
Fortunato's ruling mandates the city hire or transfer one full-time employee within the next 14 days to work on implementing First Source; it may not award any grants or tax breaks in the next 30 days; and it must draw up language for an official First Source contract within the next 30 days. A poteential contract from the city is currently under review by the law department and businesses that will be affected by it.
"Just having a piece of paper doesn't mean somebody is going to do what they say they're going to do," Deller told The Herald two days before Fortunato's ruling.
"We are struggling with how to make this ... the best advantage for everybody," he said, adding that one of the things on his agenda is meeting with unions and "talking about how we get people off the First Source list and onto the union lists."
Currently, Deller said, there are over 100 names on the First Source list of unemployed city residents.
"I don't know how many people on that list need job training, but (we're going to provide them with it), we just have to find it," he said.
Though there was talk on Friday of the city appealing Fortunato's decision on claims that the plaintiff did not have grounds to file suit, Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal said this would be a bad move.
"To appeal (the decision) doesn't seem wise politically, and to appeal it is certainly not in the best interest of the people of Providence," said Segal, one of those who has been pressuring the city to act on the legislation for the past few years.
"We're all very excited and hopefully in not too long there'll be some finality to the whole thing," he added. "We've been trying ... to get First Source implemented for a long time and we saw some incremental movement, but it wasn't happening in the way that we had confidence in it."
"I think if the city abides by the court's orders it'll be tremendous for the people of Providence, and we're all very happy with the results to date," Segal added.
