07-28-08 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 28, 2008 jobs within the first year representing a new annual payroll of $160,000 to $260,000. The project will retain thirty-one (31) existing permanent, full-time jobs (of which 29 are minority employees) with an annual payroll of $1,125,000. Mr. Deahl noted that at the Community & Economic Development Committee this afternoon brought to GTA’s attention that although they may be commended on a very large or high percentage of minority employment, there is zero diversity within the minority employment. Being that 100% of the minority employees at GTA are currently have been for the past couple of years Hispanic employees. Between the committee meeting and this evening’s meeting GTA has tried to take an in-depth look at how they attract employees, what their hiring practices have been and how they can propose using this project as an opportunity to expand diversity within the minority employment at GTA. A couple of factor that were learned this afternoon, is that although GTA does big business they are not terribly sophisticated when it comes to Human Resources and their HR management. Currently, they don’t have a written application form and they hire employees when needed primarily through word of mouth and general advertising in the newspaper. They have found that among the Hispanic employees when they internally announce a job opening there will be generally through word of mouth the introduction of family or friends of existing employees to the company and they have found that has been a successful way of hiring dependable people who take a value and interest in working for GTA. This afternoon it was apparent though that doesn’t reach beyond the current employment base of GTA. In order to increase diversity among and within the minority employees there, they have proposed to do a few things. One is to create a written application form that can be available to people if they come in and request an application. Second, in connection with their proposed plan to post jobs, target the census tracts and work with the Council to identify organizations that they could distribute jobs postings to which could increase the applicant pool. A few of the organizations were the YWCA; Food Bank of Northern Indiana; the ministerial association; King Center and other organizations that the Council recognizes and recommends to post job openings to increase the job pool and drive up diversity within the minority category of employment at GTA. Thirdly, is to keep on file applications, currently they don’t consider applicants unless they have a job opening. If they were to have a job application form and were to retain those forms, they could pull out kind of past resumes or applications of employees who maybe interested when jobs openings arise. Mr. Deahl asked the Council for their favorable approval. Councilmember Davis asked how soon GTA would put those items in place. Mr. Deahl stated that there would be an immediate need as GTA moves forward to hire for the new positions and train individuals within the next 90 days. He proposed that within the next two weeks to identify those organizations to distribute job openings and have an application form that can be used by GTA to evaluate candidates as they apply for positions. A Public Hearing was held on the Resolutions at this time. The following individuals spoke in favor of the Resolution. th Mr. Bob Mathia, Community & Economic Development, 12 Floor County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, Indiana, stated that he has been working with this company for several weeks on this tax abatement. He stated that one of things that he wanted to note was that GTA is very anxious and willing to meeting the City’s wants and desires. Mr. Mathia stated that one of the things that he noticed when reviewing their tax abatement petition, GTA had one contractor listed who had independent contractors as workers as opposed to direct hire employees. The City likes to see direct hire employees, when he pointed this out, GTA contacted their prime contractor who removed that lower level contractor and took over the job himself. So they are very interested in trying to meet the needs of the City and play a useful role as a community citizen in the city. Simon Addicott, Vice-President, Manufacturing, GTA, 4201 Linden Avenue, South Bend, Indiana, stated that he wanted to reinforce the competitive aspect of this business. There were actually two contract awarded. The other competitor is located in Illinois. 17