Federation wants more scrutiny on RDA projects in Gary

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Pastor Dwight Gardner, president of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations, (second from right) strategizes with a group of supporters shortly before the start of the Board of Works meeting at Gary City Hall in Gary, Ind. Wednesday January 18, 2012. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: February 21, 2012 8:25AM

GARY — Members of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations asked the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety for detailed information on Regional Development Authority projects and asked the board to stop letting RDA contracts for now.

RDA Executive Director Bill Hanna said the state-funded agency appreciates the federation’s concerns, but he said stopping projects, especially the time-sensitive runway expansion at Gary/Chicago International Airport, will not help anyone.

The federation is pushing especially hard for a regional community benefits agreement on jobs and training, said Dwight Gardner, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Gary and president of the federation’s board of directors.

“You get a shell game or a game of smoke and mirrors” on information related to RDA hiring, Gardner said. “Nobody knows if the citizens of the local community are being helped.”

About 23 federation members attended the meeting to ask the Board of Works for total man-hours worked, in total and by Gary residents, on the RDA-funded Marquette Park Lakefront East project in Miller; the total wages paid to all workers and to Gary workers on the project; and an agreement that the city will work with the federation to form a regional community benefits pact.

In April, the RDA abandoned its support for local hiring ordinances in Gary and other cities in favor of a regional approach, requiring its funded jobs to hire from Northwest Indiana to support the regional economy, Hanna said.

The federation also asked the city to stop the bidding process on the RDA-funded portions of the airport development, a point that is especially sensitive. The airport could lose out on critical federal funding if it doesn’t finish the runway expansion by the end of 2012, Hanna said.

“The RDA does not have the option of stalling projects,” he said, adding the RDA wants to work the federation and others on identifying job and training candidates. “And, at this point, stalling projects ultimately fails every resident in Lake and Porter counties.”

Hanna said the RDA understands the need for jobs and jobs training on its projects and has met with the federation on the issue. He also added the RDA pioneered requirements that its project managers hire 5 percent women-owned businesses and 15 percent minority-owned businesses.

Deputy mayor and board of works president Delvert Cole said the city will look into the requests within the two-week period the federation requested.

“We’re going to look it over and get the mayor’s input on this and, hopefully, we can get back to (the federation) in the prescribed time frame,” Cole said.