Plan may put more Kane County tax dollars in hands of trade unions
In what might be the biggest test of Democratic power in Kane County since the November elections, a change in how the county awards its most valuable contracts is moving forward.
A GOP-controlled county board rejected an almost identical plan a decade ago, seeing it as a backdoor way of pushing tax dollars into the coffers of local trade unions.
The plan - a responsible bidder ordinance - would establish a new set of criteria the county would use in awarding bids for its construction projects.
State law requires public construction contracts to go to the company that comes forward with the lowest responsible bid. There is no ambiguity when it comes to what the cheapest price tag is in the low. But there's some wiggle room when it comes to the idea of what is a "responsible" bidder.
Josh Weger, policy director for the nonprofit Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting, wants Kane County to adopt 12 new standards for what it considers "responsible" bids. The most controversial of the proposals - and the one that torpedoed the plan 10 years ago - is a requirement that companies and workers the county hires for construction projects show proof that they've participated in apprenticeship training programs.
"Apprenticeship programs are the bachelor's degree of the construction industry," Weger said. "If you want to bid, you need to participate in apprenticeship programs."
Republicans pointed to that requirement 10 years ago as both forcing contractors to use union labor and pushing people who want to work in the construction trade into unions. They said, at the time, that unions have a near monopoly on apprenticeship training programs.
The word "union" never came up for discussion during Weger's presentation last week to the county board's committee of the whole. However, Weger's group is the same one that pitched the plan to the county and the Kane County Forest Preserve District in the past. The foundation has several union representatives on its board, including its executive director, Marc Poulos. He is the former associate general counsel of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150.
The plan must go through the county board's normal legislative process. But it appears to already have the backing of county board Chair Corinne Pierog. In her introduction of Weger to the board, Pierog acknowledged the board's previous rejection of the plan. Nevertheless, she said the opportunity is different now because of a $13 million pre-apprenticeship program created by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January.
St. Augustine College in Aurora got a $500,000 chunk of that money. Pierog said the college is targeting the program to improve diversity in the local construction trades by targeting Hispanic, Black and female students with pre-apprenticeship training that gets them ready to apply for full-fledged apprenticeship programs.
"A strong and equitable economy for Kane County is built on providing every opportunity to provide good-paying jobs by encouraging not only apprenticeship programs but also pre-apprenticeship programs at our schools," Pierog told the county board. "As part of our county's construction projects, we will be able to address equity and good-paying jobs within our area and also encouraging a trained labor force. This is about developing opportunities to bring people into the middle class."
The timing of the plan may be especially fruitful for local trade unions and union contractors. The county board is revamping its long-range plans for the county's administrative buildings. That may include the sale or revamping of its current campus in Geneva or the construction of a new facility - most likely at the county's main judicial center campus in St. Charles. Such a move could cost more than $100 million.