Fresno mayor vetoed a construction jobs deal. Here’s how the City Council responded
The Fresno City Council reaffirmed their support of a contract with union workers and apprentices on Thursday with a vote that overturned Mayor Jerry Dyer’s veto.
The Fresno City Council approved the project labor agreement, often called a PLA, earlier this month on a 6-1 vote, with Councilmember Garry Bredefeld casting the lone “no” vote.
Dyer vetoed the agreement with the Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare Building and Construction Trades Council on Monday, but the council’s second vote fell along the same lines on Thursday.
City Manager Thomas Esqueda said the city of Fresno’s own development team does a better job of hiring local workers than the building council. He says city-led projects dole out two-thirds of the workforce hours to local workers while the building council’s only reach half.
“This is not speculation. This is not Chicken Little, ‘The sky is falling,’ “ Esqueda said. “We have data.”
The agreement with the building council is for projects with a price tag of more than $1 million and prioritizes workers who are women, veterans, and those from disadvantaged communities. The agreement outlines requirements for work to be done by apprentices from the local unions.
The PLA supporters, like Councilmember Esmeralda Soria, say the contract not only benefits disadvantaged communities like the homeless or those who were in foster care but also develops a future workforce.
“You can’t show me any other apprentice program that’s doing that in an intentional way,” Soria said.
Detractors of the agreement argue it pushes up labor costs and makes it harder for Fresno-based businesses to win bids for city contracts. Non-union workers have expressed to the council they are concerned they will be locked out of the work as well.
The contract was part of a six-month negotiation, according to city staffers. The city had banned PLAs before that since about 2002, according to City Attorney Doug Sloan.
Dyer pleaded with the council on Thursday, asking them to at least exempt Fresno-based businesses from the agreement.
“I believe it was well-intentioned,” he said. “However, it has negative consequences.”
The council did not add an exemption to the contract.
Esqueda said the city plans to adopt a practice to ask contractors to fill out a form whenever they decide not to bid on a contract because the PLA made it too difficult to compete.
He said staffers would also track the extra costs the agreement bakes into individual projects so that it can be reported to the council.
The agreement will go into effect in 120 days and includes apprenticeship opportunities and local hiring provisions. Councilmembers said they plan to bring forward in 90 days a complementary proposal to invest in Fresno businesses who hire Fresno residents.
Councilmember Luis Chavez said the City Council will get quarterly updates and could revisit the agreement in a year.
