Escambia County considers pledge to hire 70 percent local workers on county projects

A proposal under consideration by Escambia County could mean that county-funded projects would require 70 percent of workers hired for the projects to be local.

Pensacola businessman Quint Studer made the proposal he calls the "covenant for the community" to encourage the development of the local economy.

The County Commission will discuss the proposal Thursday at its monthly Committee of the Whole meeting. Committee of the Whole meetings are held for the commission to discuss policy proposals, projects and budget issues, and any action taken at a Committee of the Whole meeting must be ratified at a regular commission meeting.

Studer told the News Journal on Tuesday he developed the "covenant for the community" while working on projects for Community Maritime Park and applied the idea to his Southtowne project and the planned renovation of the old SunTrust Bank building set to become the Studer Community Institute.

"If you're trying to keep money in the community, keep money in the community," Studer said.

More:Southtowne apartments hope to lure millennials to downtown Pensacola

Many state and federal grants the county receives already have provisions for minority-owned business participation, but the county itself has no such requirement.

Studer said requiring 70 percent of workers to live in Escambia or Santa Rosa counties helps increase employment of minority workers.

"If you go local, your workforce starts looking a lot at the race makeup of the local community," Studer said.

Studer said following the covenant on the Southtowne project ended with 51 percent of the workforce being minority workers.

Studer said he has worked with Commissioners Lumon May and Grover Robinson to make a proposed covenant for the community that the county would be willing to adopt.

The proposal would require contractors bidding on a "covenant project" to develop a local business inclusion plan that would require 70 percent of workers to be local residents or require documentation that the contractor attempted to meet the 70 percent goal.

The contractors would have to submit quarterly reports to the county that detail the amount spent on local employees during the project, demographic information about the employees and how many local workers were hired during the course of the project.

May did not respond to the News Journal's request for comment, but during the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 10, he said he supported the idea of the covenant to get local and small businesses in the door of the county's procurement process.

"The bedrock of America is small businesses," May said. "Why would I want to enhance a business that's in Connecticut or New York, when I can help someone that's local? Is it about minority inclusion? Absolutely, you need to look at all minorities whether they be disabled veterans, whether they be women whether they be African American, whether they be Asian."

"Unfortunately, look at the procurement and who's made the big money in this county. Those guys have their systems because they've made a lot of money off this county for a lot of times. They've developed the relationships. They can afford the bid process."

Robinson, who Studer endorsed for mayor of Pensacola in June, said he believes the proposal will benefit both the county and the community, but he said it will also provide the county with data on job fields the county lacks.

"That allows us to see areas of labor that we're deficient in, and really begin to work with our partners like FloridaWest and Pensacola State to figure out how we address some of the deficiencies we have with skilled laborers," Robinson said.

Studer said he hopes other local governments will see the covenant in action in Escambia County and adopt similar policies.

"The hope to me was that other people would see this and say this is pretty cool," Studer said. "Because I've always heard if you keep dollar in the community, it turns seven times, versus pay a dollar and have it leave the community. So I was always hoping that this would catch on."

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com or 850-208-9827.