Last week, as a diverse group of community leaders and Olympic planners gathered to sign a document supporting minority participation and affordable housing set-asides as it would relate to a 2016 Games, the words of novelist Charles Dickens came to mind:
Last week, as a diverse group of community leaders and Olympic planners gathered to sign a document supporting minority participation and affordable housing set-asides as it would relate to a 2016 Games, the words of novelist Charles Dickens came to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
There we were standing together during the worst economic times this country has seen in decades, supporting Chicago in its Olympic bid. Yet, we were all nodding our heads in agreement that not only should minority- and women-owned business participation goals be set, Chicago should strive to exceed those goals.
The memorandum of understanding, as it’s called, was entered into between Chicago 2016, the city’s Olympic planning committee, and the 63-member Outreach Advisory Council made up of community leaders and aldermanic advisors. I am a member of the 2016 Committee and the Council. The agreement calls for a minimum hiring and contract procurement goal of 25 percent for minorities and five percent for women-owned firms. But it also stresses that the city should aim higher. A day later it did, when the Chicago City Council voted to increase the minimum goals laid out in the agreement to 30 percent for minority-owned firms and 10 percent for women.
Both marked outstanding achievements in a city where majority contractors once waged a 10-year legal battle to reverse the city’s minority and women set-asides on government contracts. By judicial order, the city’s set-aside program is scheduled to end this summer, but the support that has been galvanized around the city winning the Olympic Games has inspired people to come together and embrace diversity, inclusion and fairness willingly. So, in that sense, it is the best of times.
The agreement outlines several goals, including setting aside 30 percent of the Olympic Village as affordable housing; support for business mentoring and capacity- building programs; workforce development and training; and compliance monitoring and transparency.
Yes, Chicago’s diverse stakeholders made a commitment to fair play that has the potential to create a lasting legacy for how we do business with each other in the future and should be congratulated.
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