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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 2002)
July 31, 2002 Page A4 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views o f (El¡tlln r tln n b (0baerucr QDbsrrurr E l> I T Cll‘' JJnrtlanb (Ohsmwr U » -I N - C H I E C o ri E .P l't L IS H E K E d it o The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN W HOLEOR IN PART W ITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. » Joy Ramos Charles H. Washington USPS 959-680 C » K A T I V E E D I T O K Established 1970 4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., D is T K iB V T io H M a n a g e W h » it e l l lC T O I », P hoto gkaeheh David Plechl Mark Washington Portland, OR 97211 D Paul Neufeldt Michael Leighton P ostmaster : Send address changes to P ortlan d Observer PO Box 3 1 3 7 , P ortland, OR 9 7 2 0 8 P e r io d ic a l P o s ta g e paid in P o r tla n d , OR » S u b s c rip tio n s are $ 6 0 . 0 0 per y e a r 503-288-0033 • FAX5 0 3 -2 8 8 0 0 1 5 • FMAIL: news@>tx)rtlandobserver.com subscriDtion& portlandQb9erver£ Q m. | a4s @BQr tl an s iQb§erver.Q<)m The Portland Observer-Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication-is a member of the National Newspaper Association—Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Repre sentative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. Progress on Minority Business is Our Goal A PROGRAM OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HEALTH COALITION 2800 N. Vancouver Avenue, Suite 100, 97227; 503 413-1850 Sponsored by the C e n te r s f o r D is e a s e C o n tro l a n d P r e v e n tio n and made possible in part by Legacy Emanuel, PSU-RRI and CareOregon. REACH WHAT? stands for Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health. It is a community action plan to decrease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Oregon African American community. in Oregon WHY? an African American is twice as likely to die from a stroke and one and one-half times as likely to die from a heart attack. higher incidence Of premature death, diabetes, stroke, heart African Americans have a attack and high blood pressure. For STAY TUNED... more information programs such as HOLLA (youth peer education) and Lookin' Tight Livin' Right (beauty and barber shop based education) to decrease the disparity of preventable chronic diseases. days, public owners set “good faith” goals, but then are often required by law to take the low bidder. That hasn’t stopped local gov ernment owners, or Hoffman, from reaching out to minority firms. We may have a long way to go, but no large Northwest contrac tor has been trying harder to in crease diversity on public con struction projects. On all of our public projects, we advertise in the Portland Observer and other community newspa pers. H offm an C onstruction Co. would like to thank Faye Burch- Wilson for her “guest view” in the July 17 Portland Observer. Taking Hoffman and our public owners to task for our record on minority contracting really surprised us. We thought the progress we were making in diversifying our jobsites had earned us more goodwill. For example, at the Oregon Convention Center expansion, we were given a goal of 10 percent minority, woman-owned, emerg ing small business enterprises. So far, we have achieved 19.8 per cent. T h at’s not entirely A frican A m ericans (that numberis about 16percent), but it does represent signifi cant ethnic and gender di versity. On one o f our private projects, the Brewery Blocks on B u rn sid e , we have achieved an 18.6 percent diversity factor. ForTri-Met at W ashington Park Station, we achieved a 19 percent diversity factor. The list goes on, sometimes as high as 20 p erc e n t, alm o st alw ays higher than the “good faith” goals set by the public owner. Still, if the column represents a perception within some segments of the Portland community; if that is true, Ms. Burch-W ilson has provided a service to Hoffman, minority contractors and local public owners. Many of her comments really resonate with us. She asked us to create more opportunities for m i nority subcontractors; she asked for greater accountability; she asked for a more focused effort to inject public construction dollars into the communities where the facilities are being constructed. We hear this. In the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings, most of our govern ment clients face even more chal lenges increasing diversity on their projects. There are no quotas, no set asides, no preferences. These lu tio n s th at w ill lead to m ea su rab le improvements. We opened lines of communi cation. Construction is a people business and many small, minor ity contractors have never been to visit us. What we heard is, our size and location makes us appear inaccessible. So, we began hold ing breakfast meetings in north east Portland. We invited minor-, ity subcontractors to tell us what we could do better. Some of the ideas that we have already started to put in place include the development of a more flexible payment system in order to ease some o f the cash flow challenges that plague small businesses. We work with M/W/ESB firms and their agents to better enable them to meet the insurance and bonding requirements, actively en courage our large subcon tractors to use M/W/ESB firms as second tier subs. We hold specific M/W/ ESB pre-bid conferences to help educate minority firms J on bid requirem ents and break up bid packages into “economic feasible units” that allow more M/W/ESB participa tion. This is only the beginning. We are eager to continue meeting with leaders within the African Ameri can contracting community to jointly solve the challenges of public contracting. In essence, Ms. Burch-Wilson challenged us to be an “industry leader” in the realm of minority outreach. We hope to earn her praise when we meet this chal lenge. It will take teamwork, coop eration, collaboration and two- way trust. W ith the continued help of lo cal public owners, community leaders, OAME and other organi zations that represent minority businesses, you will see more women and people of color on Hoffman jobs. * No large Northwest contractor has been trying harder to increase diversity on public construction projects. — Hoffman Construction Co. We belong to the Oregon As sociation o f Minority Entrepre neurs and we encourage the OAME membership to submit bids. We belong to the Port of Portland’s Mentorship Program, where we volunteer our time to mentor minority firms about the business side o f subcontracting. Hard work without excellent results is not good enough. In the last 6 months, we raised the bar on ourselves. E arly in 2002, we hired tw o c o n su lta n ts w ho sp e c ia liz e in m in o rity o u tre a c h . O ne is a m em ber o f the A frican L eader ship C ouncil. Both are people o f co lo r. T hey have done e x te n siv e re se a rc h w ith in the m in o rity c o n tra c tin g co m m u n ity . T h e y h av e id e n tifie d m ajo r pro b lem areas and are h elp in g H offm an d ev elo p so H. & B. Too NOW OPEN Oregon’s Oldest Licensed Pawnshop 4709 N.E. Martin Luther King Blvd. 2 blocks south of Alberta Weekdays til 6 p.m. - Saturdays til 4 p.m. Free Parking - State Controlled Rates - Se Habla Español www.hbloan.com Oregon Family Business for over 50 years Lie. #306 Stop in at your earliest convenience I I
