Steps taken by the city of Providence to enact First Source, an ordinance meant to find jobs for unemployed residents, have been insufficient, according to local advocacy groups now suing the city for its inaction.
Members of Direct Action for Rights and Equality and Rhode Island Jobs With Justice, among others, will be present next week at the next court hearing, scheduled for March 8 and 9.
The First Source ordinance, which has been adopted by cities across the country, requires companies that receive tax breaks from the city to sign a contract guaranteeing that if positions open within their company, those jobs will go to Providence residents first, so long as they are qualified.
To date, the city has a Web site, ProvidenceConnects.org, and a telephone number that unemployed residents can call to add their names to a list of Providence residents seeking jobs, but officials have yet to begin drafting a contract for companies to sign.
"There's no real excuse to not have done that - all of the best intentions in the world, if they're not met with actions, don't do any good," said Sara Mersha, director of DARE.
Though many of the city's current tax stabilization agreements with companies contain clauses requiring that a certain amount - usually 10 percent - of those companies' employees are Providence residents, the city has no method of following up on that requirement, according to Rachel Miller, director of RIJWJ.
The City Council first passed the First Source ordinance in 1985, but it was not until two years ago that advocacy groups and several City Council members began pushing for its enactment, and funds were actually set aside for enforcing the ordinance.
The ordinance calls for $250,000 of the city's budget to be set aside and spent collecting names of unemployed residents and providing them with necessary job training. An amendment made to the ordinance by the City Council calls for one full-time staff person to be hired exclusively for work on First Source-related issues.
Currently, the city has $150,000 earmarked specifically for First Source, according to Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal, although Mayor David Cicilline '83 originally put aside less money for the ordinance. The City Council later worked to increase that amount.
No staff person has been hired yet, and there is no vehicle for job training in place - the Web site simply refers visitors to companies that provide job training.
"We're not completely satisfied," Mersha said. "The most important thing is that unemployed residents are getting jobs, and that's just not happening - people are struggling, folks just don't have jobs."
Mersha said that though Cicilline has always been receptive to the idea of First Source, the planning department is responsible for implementing the ordinance. Its director, Thomas Deller, has "not been taking it seriously enough," she said.
Deller did not return requests for comment from The Herald.
Between fall 2004 and fall 2005, Mersha and several other DARE members, along with members of other local advocacy groups, collected 500 surveys from unemployed Providence residents and turned them over to the city. The surveys included questions about how the city could be most helpful to these residents in finding them permanent employment.
Though some jobs that com-panies might offer would require workers to have skills in trades such as carpentry, there are plenty of unskilled positions to be filled, such as hotel concierges and janitors, according to Segal.
Positions in skilled trades should ideally be filled by unemployed Providence residents, Segal said, even if it requires that they be trained by the city.
"It's harder, but then they're in a union and on a career ladder for the rest of their lives - it's rewarding work," Segal said.
"I hope they kick our butts and say, 'You need to put at least $250,000 into the ordinance,'" he said of his aspirations for the court appearance next week. "This is the best anti-poverty program that we have the means to implement - right now there's no real reason to think that it is benefiting the neighborhoods."
