Debate over the city's commitment to complying with the decades-old First Source ordinance continues one year after three members of the Providence City Council brought the ordinance back to life. First passed in 1985 and signed into law by then-Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr., the ordinance went 20 years without city funding and still receives less than two-thirds of its mandated financial support. This has caused local activists to question city officials' willingness to comply with the First Source hiring program and provide job training for city residents.
The First Source ordinance requires any business receiving grants, tax breaks or other financial inducements from the city to hire employees from a list of unemployed Providence residents registered with the city's Department of Planning and Development. A business' failure to comply could void its contract with the city and force the company to return any financial benefits received. Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal, Ward 9 Councilman Miguel Luna and Ward 10 Councilman Luis Aponte resurrected the First Source ordinance after it went unfunded for 20 years, amending it before the council in September 2005.
Mayor David Cicilline '83 earmarked $150,000 for First Source in the city's 2005-2006 budget, but the ordinance calls for $250,000 from the city each year. Funding for First Source will remain below $200,000 in the proposed 2006-2007 budget, according to Stephen Vadnais, director of compliance and monitoring at the planning department.
The ordinance made headlines in March 2006 when local residents and activists took Cicilline and Thomas Deller, director of the planning department, to court for the city's failure to comply with First Source mandates. Though the council amended the ordinance for enforcement in 2005, the city had neither an individual supervising the hiring program nor an official First Source contract between businesses and the city. On March 10, 2006, a Superior Court judge ordered Deller to hire a full-time supervisor within 14 days and to ink a First Source contract in 30 business days.
"Since March, we've fully implemented (the ordinance) to the letter of the law," Deller told The Herald. "We've seen a fairly good compliance rate."
Vadnais agreed with Deller's assessment of the program. "There's been no difficulty in getting companies to comply," he said.
Local activist groups, however, dispute the extent to which the city and businesses have complied with First Source hiring guidelines. After meeting with city officials in June, Sara Mersha, executive director of Direct Action for Rights and Equality, said she was "not satisfied" with the city's progress.
"Companies still had not been hiring people off the list," Mersha said. No company, however, has lost financial benefits or a contract with the city since the March ruling.
The list of Providence residents seeking employment through First Source has surpassed 500. Out of 75 First Source agreements signed between the city and developers, only 31 job vacancy forms have been filed. The city made 52 referrals for job candidates for those positions, but only six individuals have been placed in First Source jobs so far, according to Vadnais.
The ordinance subjects all ongoing projects started after 1985 to the First Source hiring practices, but no new development projects have begun since the March court order. An upcoming project in downtown Providence by development company Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse will be the "first real test" of the success of the program, Vadnais said.
Struever Bros. has worked on several urban renewal projects in and around Providence, but local activists have questioned the firm's willingness to comply with First Source in the past. According to Mersha, a Providence resident seeking a construction job on one Struever Bros. project was forced to travel across state lines to fill out a job application.
"I wouldn't call that acting in good faith," she said.
Providence residents seeking employment can register online through a site dedicated to the First Source ordinance, or through organizations like DARE or NetworkRI, a job placement group. So far, a few individuals on the list have interviewed for jobs ranging from clerical positions at nonprofit organizations to construction work, according to Mersha.
Most registered First Source job seekers do not have access to computers, forcing the city to invest in quarterly newspaper advertising in both the Providence Journal and local Latino publications, Vadnais said.
In addition to the names of job seekers, the First Source hiring list includes "any special skills, training or education which the job seeker may have," according to the language of the ordinance.
Deller and Vadnais cited working with unions on job training, apprenticeship programs and job placement as vital to the program's success.
"We've gotten some agreement with the unions to offer job training," Deller said, but "it's a convoluted issue."
"There is a huge need out there for good jobs," said Mersha, who added that she and other DARE members plan to sit down with city officials later this month to re-examine the city's compliance with the ordinance.
