Quote Originally Posted by douglasm View Post
Can you not hire someone if they don't live in Detroit? There is an interesting legal question there that I can't answer, and no one has mentioned.

I did note that the article would generate $181M in taxes and fees over a 20 year period, and I assume employees at the plant are paying city income tax no matter where they live, so there is a net plus to the whole thing, not to mention taxes paid by employees on any purchases [[lunch, beer, whatever) made in the city.

And one other thing not noted anywhere is the condition of the plant. Would Marathon have considered closing the plant [[thus killing all the jobs) if the expansion were not undertaken?

Judging the value of a project over 15 jobs is a really silly way to judge if it was a good investment or not.
EO 4 Executive Order No. 4 establishes the Detroit-Based andSmall Business Program [[DSBP). EO 4 targets thirty percent
[[30%) of the total dollar value of all contracts awarded by the
City of Detroit for Detroit-Based and Small business
Enterprises.
EO 14 Executive Order No. 14 establishes HRD identification and certifications of Minority Business Enterprises [[MBE) and
Women Owned Business Enterprises [[WBE). Requirements
include at least fifty-one percent [[51%) bona fide ownership of the business enterprise by minorities or women, and control by minorities or women of the direction, policy and overall operations of the business.
EO 22 Executive Order No. 22 requires that worker hours on publicly funded construction projects be comprised of not less than 50% Detroit Residents; 25% Minorities and 5% Women.

So it may be illegal to require Detroit residents, but it apparently isn't [[wasn't) illegal to not hire those who don't.

You can do what you wish, but the City of Detroit cares about what you do and cannot give you a contract if you don't do what they want.

Is this really something we want our city to be doing? Do you really think the end result of these kind of programs is a vibrant, diverse, community-based workforce? Or is it kickbacks, shell companies setup to comply on paper but avoid real compliance, and of course greatly inflated costs to the city. Not to mention the cost of running a 'Human Rights Department' at all.