Dive Brief:
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Voters in Davidson County, TN, will decide on Aug. 6 whether the city must staff construction crews for large public projects with local workers.
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A proposed amendment to the joint charter governing Nashville and Davidson County would mandate that 40% of work hours on city- or county-funded construction jobs costing at least $100,000 be completed by residents.
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Labor unions support the proposal, and more than 16,000 Nashville voters signed a petition to get the measure on the ballot for the upcoming general election. But the outgoing mayor and some others — including the local homebuilders’ association, several commercial contractors’ groups, the American Institute of Architects and the local Chamber of Commerce — oppose it, favoring a change by ordinance rather than a permanent charter amendment.
Dive Insight:
Advocates of the charter amendment have said guaranteeing public construction jobs to local workers will benefit the Nashville-area economy. One member of the Metro Council — the legislative body for Nashville and Davidson County — said setting a minimum for the use of local contractors on public construction projects “simply ensur[es] that Nashville residents have a better shot at pulling themselves up, providing for themselves and their families, and spending their earnings in the local economy.”
Many builders, however, don’t agree. One said the amendment would result in a “painstaking calculation” for contractors. Others have argued that because of an industry-wide labor shortage — including a projected shortage of nearly 18,000 workers in Nashville by the end of 2016 — construction firms will be hard-pressed to consistently fill the proposed quota of local workers on every job.
“That will mean delays, and in the construction business, delays always mean extra costs,” John Finch, former mayor of Goodlettsville, TN, and the owner of a local commercial construction firm, said at a news conference earlier this month.
