>From Choua Vue at the Asian American Institute... We had an amazingly successful past 2 days at City Hall !
There was incredible turn out over 150 concerned Asian and non-Asian community supporters for a 9:30 press conference on the 5th floor outside of Mayor Daley's office on Tuesday --correct me if i am wrong, but a first for the Asian American community. Aldermen Ed Burke, Danny Solis, Ricardo Munoz, Joe Moore, Walter Burnett all spoke in support of our efforts to keep Asian American contractors included in the soon to be rewritten Affirmative Action ordinance for Construction. A representative of Congressman Danny Davis also spoke and gave the Congressman's support of our efforts. We were featured on Channels 2, 7, and 12. We also had WBEZ, the Chicago Defender, spanish language stations and Asian newspapers at the press conference - choosing us over a competing press conference arranged by the City, one floor below. We also got articles in the front of the Tribune's business section, and page 3 of the Sun-Times. Thank you to the staff of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights for helping to get the press out. About 15 of us - contractors and other community representatives gave testimony at the Task Force' Public Hearings immediately following the press conference Tuesday and Wednesday, getting our perspectives on the public record. Particular recognition to those who stood up at the press conference: Ernest Wong, Tina Chung, and Eric Mah (who also stood up to hostile questioning during the hearings) We were informed by one of our friends on the Task Force that they were surprised by the organization and presence by the community and felt it helped our cause greatly. The second day really showed some positive movement from our efforts. Alderwoman Troutman said that she did not interpret the judges ruling as saying Asians should be excluded. This was echoed by the President of Black Contractors United. A special thanks goes to Alderman Bernie Stone, who despite being very ill, made a trip to City Hall to specifically speak on behalf of Asian Americans. He said he thought it was ridiculous that anyone would think that Asian Americans have not been discriminated against. Please send a thank you letter to all of the aldermen/women for their support, especially if you live in their ward! They need to hear from us. >From what we have heard, the next steps will be that the Task Force will send a draft >of the ordinance to the City's Budget committee. The Committee will hold more >hearings beginning April 14th. After that the ordinance will most likely be >introduced to the full City Council at the beginning of May. We will keep you all updated. Again, THANK YOU ALL AND CONGRATULATIONS ON OUR ABILITY TO GET SO MOBILIZED SO QUICKLY !! We did a great job !! Christine & Tuyet ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Asian Americans vie for contracts Chicago Sun Times - Chicago,IL,USA ... Tuesday. "We're here to say, don't set aside Asian Americans," said Tuyet Le, executive director of the Asian American Institute. ... <http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-minor24.html> -------------------- Minority businesses urge rescue of set-asides -------------------- By Rob Kaiser Tribune staff reporter March 24, 2004 A task force charged with restructuring the City of Chicago's set-aside program for minority- and women-owned construction firms got an earful of complaints and suggestions at a public hearing Tuesday. During the first hearings since a district court judge ruled in December that the current program is too broad and inflexible, 37 business owners and activists told the panel that the program is critical to the survival of many minority-owned firms as well as employment in minority neighborhoods. "All we want is the opportunity for parity," Deborah Dillon, president of Dillon Telecommunications Inc. in Chicago, told the 16-member task force and more than 200 others who gathered in the City Council chambers. Despite fielding opinions at public hearings, which are scheduled to continue Wednesday, the task force and city appear to have little latitude in crafting a new ordinance for the program. Ruling in December on a lawsuit against the program, U.S. District Judge James Moran gave the city until June to overhaul the contract set-aside program or eliminate it. The judge outlined several changes he expected to shrink the program and make it more flexible rather than a quota where minority-owned firms get 25 percent of contracts and women-owned firms get 5 percent. Colette Holt, an attorney specializing in structuring affirmative action programs who was retained by the city, said at the hearing that the city needs to follow the judge's guidance to save the program. Most similar set-aside programs that have been legally challenged, including one in Cook County, have lost and shut down. "It's important that people understand how hostile the courts are to these programs," Holt said. Chicago's program is currently in uncharted territory since Moran is the first judge to give a locality time to fix its program. The most inflammatory issue so far is whether Asian-owned firms should remain in the program. There is a dispute about whether Moran's decision calls for Asians to be excluded. In a prior presentation to the task force, city officials said only businesses owned by African-Americans, Hispanics and women were recognized by the judge as deserving of the program. Moran noted in his 31-page decision that evidence was "thin" to support discrimination claims of Asian-owned firms, though he did not explicitly say they should be excluded. Before the public hearing, Asian business owners and community leaders held a press conference outside of Mayor Richard Daley's office to demand a meeting with the mayor and continued participation in the program. Several aldermen spoke in favor of keeping Asian-owned firms in the program. "I think there's been a misreading of the judge's decision by some lawyers," said Ald. Edward Burke (14th). People familiar with the issue said studies did not show clear discrimination against Asian-owned construction firms and that the city had trouble getting Asian business owners to testify at the trial about discrimination they have encountered. The city has ordered further studies into whether Asian-owned firms were discriminated against, and several business owners testified Tuesday about the importance of the affirmative action program to their firms. Norman Dong, president of Electrical Power & Systems Inc., said his business had less than $200,000 in annual sales before joining the program. His company currently has about 30 employees and $6 million in annual sales, most of which comes from the city. "The only way I could flourish was through the program," Dong said. Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune ------------------------------------------------ visit http://www.geocities.com/sapacchicago email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe sapac" in msg body to unsubscribe
