Notes from the Field
Submitted by Frank Murphy, December 14, 2010
During my tenure as principal of Meade Elementary School, I was actively involved in the local community’s efforts to renew and rebuild the housing stock in the area that encompassed my school. Since the mid 1990’s, it has been my privilege to serve as a board member of two separate local community development corporations. As a result of the work of these non-profit organizations, more than one thousand new homes have been built in North Central Philadelphia.
Through my experiences on these boards, I have been able to witness first hand, the challenges that small minority businesses face as they attempt to secure a winning bid on publicly financed construction projects. It isn’t an easy feat for them to accomplish.
Because they do not benefit from the economy of scale that large corporations enjoy, these small businesses lack many of the prerequisites that would help them to secure work on larger projects. As a result, they find themselves trapped in a “catch 22” scenario. In comparison to larger companies, for example, they are often underfinanced, have less company-owned equipment and have a smaller pool of qualified employees. In order to address these issues, they need to build a portfolio of lucrative projects. To do so they need to acquire experience and resources. The only way to accomplish this is by getting the work. But, they don’t get the work because they lack the experience and resources; thus the “catch 22”.
The School District of Philadelphia is a significant funder of construction activities in the city. The maintenance and general upkeep of the many facilities owned by the district is considerable. The school district has set a goal to award 20 percent of its contracts for professional services, procurement and construction work to firms owned by minorities and women. In setting this goal, the district is positioned to help provide greater opportunities for such firms to build their capacity and compete for larger contracts. The School Reform Commission’s intention to spur economic opportunities in this fashion for our local citizens, is a worthy and notable goal.
Unfortunately, the recent controversy concerning the school district’s awarding of a no bid emergency contract to a minority owned business has raised concerns about the manner in which the district is pursuing this goal. According to undisclosed sources, Dr. Ackerman directed her staff to give a $7.5 million no bid contract to a minority firm to install security cameras in 19 schools. In so doing, she overruled the prior decision of her staff to award this contract to another firm. At first, Ackerman denied that this was the case. Later, Leroy B. Nunnery II, her chief deputy took responsibility for making this decision. Amid the confusion and accusations, local leaders and government officials have offered their support for the superintendent.
The uproar generated by this decision has created an unnecessary and unfavorable distraction to the district’s noteworthy efforts to open up economic opportunities for minority owned businesses. The clumsy and heavy-handed tactics demonstrated by the district’s leadership in awarding a contract to IBS Communications is the wrong way to try to make right, the inequitable distribution of district work to disadvantaged businesses.
At a time when our city, state and nation are facing an increasingly difficult economic period, we must be especially careful to not tarnish our district’s credibility as a responsible steward of public funds. Such administrative bungling doesn’t repair the growing public distrust of the superintendent’s ability to lead. Nor does exposing minority businesses to this type of negative publicity help to advance their efforts in the long run.