Dive Brief:
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The mayor of Akron, OH, has proposed starting a city construction company to handle municipal projects.
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Mayor Don Plusquellic said he wants Akron residents to get the construction jobs created when the city starts work on an upcoming billion-dollar sewer project.
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Plusquellic told The Akron Beacon Journal he was unhappy with how few locals were hired to work on recent school construction jobs, and with a federally funded bridge project going to a low-bidding Michigan contractor instead of a local company. “I’m tired of hearing, ‘I can’t find city residents to do these jobs,’” he told the newspaper. “We’re going to prove they can.”
Dive Insight:
The Ohio Contractors Association isn’t a fan of Plusquellic’s plan.
The mayor last spring issued an edict that any contractor chosen to work on the city’s sewer overhaul would have to hire 30% of its employees from Akron at the project's start and ramp up to 50% within three years.
The association legally challenged the rule as unconstitutional, but dropped its complaint a month later.