WHEREAS, On March 6, 2015, the U.S Department of Transportation announced a pilot program that will enable Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grantees to utilize social and/or economic contracting requirements in order to evaluate impacts on the competitive bidding process. The pilot program will focus on local labor/geographic-based labor hiring preferences, economic-based labor hiring preferences, and labor hiring preferences for veterans; and
WHEREAS, The goals of the pilot program are to make it easier for states and cities to hire local residents for transportation projects and to test and evaluate the merits of local hire provisions that were traditionally prohibited by federal contracting rules due to concerns about adverse impacts on competition; and
WHEREAS, The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is one of the first agencies in the nation to implement an RFP evaluation factor as part of the pilot program requiring the proposers to include Local Employment Plans with a minimum of 10% of the total committed wages and benefits dedicated to Disadvantaged Workers. A Disadvantaged Worker is defined as: (1) being homeless; (2) being a custodial single parent; (3) receiving public assistance; (4) lacking GED or high school diploma; (5) having a criminal record or other involvement with criminal justice system; (6) suffering chronic unemployment; (7) emancipated from the foster care system; or (8) being a veteran of the Irag/Afganistan war; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provide a significant level of funding to SEPTA each year and establishing local hiring goals for both Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) contract opportunities will maximize the local investment to benefit Philadelphia's diverse workforce and the local economy; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That it hereby recommends the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to implement local hiring goals for contract opportunities for federally funded transportation projects by taking advantage of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Local Labor Hiring Pilot Program.
End
David Oh
Councilman At- Large
Jannie Blackwell
Councilwoman - 3rd District
Curtis J. Jones, Jr.
Councilman - 4th District
Maria Quiñones Sánchez
Councilwoman - 7th District
Mark Squilla
Councilman - 1st District
Bobby Henon
Councilman - 6th District
June 11, 2015