Members of the Community Maritime Park Associates’ Equal Business Opportunity Committee met last night to digest the final report concerning minority participation in the park project. While the mood initially had the hint of a finish-line celebration, it quickly soured.
“This is a good time,” said Committee Chairwoman Audra Carter. “A great time for us.”
But as the EBO committee began to dive into a packet entitled CMPA Contractors Academy/Equal Business Opportunity Program Final Report – which Carter stressed was “just a small piece” of a larger report yet to be completed – collective buyer’s remorse settled over the room.
As they began looking over the report – compiled by EBO Program head George Hawthorne – committee members started asking questions about the lack of data. The report itself noted that the figures it did contain were not entirely accurate.
Pensacola City Councilman John Jerralds soon began reducing the report to “somewhat incomplete, “a lot of fluff and stuff” and “a whole lotta crap.â”
“Don’t we know who we hired?” Don’t we know who was out there working? It’s right across the street,” said Jerralds, motioning toward the new ballpark from the city hall meeting room.
The purpose of the EBO program was to facilitate minority participation in the construction and operation of the park. Hawthorne, and his Diversity Program Advisors (DPA), took over the program in early 2011.
In his report, Hawthorne detailed the program’s background and lists its goals, team members and actions. While reading through a list of 18 actions, committee members continued to question the report.
“Who really cares about this one through 18, anyway?” asked Dick Baker. “What the DPA did or didn’t do is not really important. What was the net result? Did the DBA really do number 13 or not? Who cares?”
Members were disturbed that there was not a firm figure concerning the number of minority companies involved in the project. The report stated that such information had not been made available by MAGI Construction.
“There’s no way of knowing this,” said Committee member Dr. Samuel Bolden. “I think we’re wasting out time.”
Jerralds suggested making a list of information the committee expected from Hawthorne and require him to provide it. Others said they had wasted money on Hawthorne – reportedly 13 payments of $7,500 – and should give up trying to nail down the numbers. Bolden compared approaching Hawthorne for the data to “pulling teeth without anesthesia.—
“I think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot trying to do this,” said EBO committee member Jason Smith. “It looks like a lot of folks have been paid for essentially doing nothing – I’m looking at Tony McCray, I’m looking at the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce.”
By unanimous vote, the EBO Committee moved to “receive” but “reject” Hawthorne’s report. The committee forwarded the report to the CMPA board for their review and comments.
After finishing their review of the report, the EBO Committee considered whether or not to discuss a correspondence. Members of the audience were unaware of the correspondence up for discussion.
“It George asking for more money,” explained Bolden.
“$3,000,” added Smith, who was by that point hitting the coffee machine.
The committee then collectively rejected the letter. In the letter, Hawthorne apparently requested payment for outreach and marketing activities. Members of the committee, as well as some members of the public in attendance, also discussed how they remembered Hawthorne agreeing to perform the services in question free of costs.
The EBO board also heard from a contractor who expressed concern with the manner in which payments to workers involved in the program were handled. After some discussion, the committee decided to form a task force to investigate the program’s payment system.
In closing the more than two hour meeting – during which a stark light was cast on some concerning aspects of the EBO program – Chairwoman Carter described the session as “probably the best meeting I’ve been to.”
“We did something that was awesome,” she said of the overall effort. “I think it will be a model for other people going through it.”