Aldermen Want Companies Doing Bond Business With City To Disclose Workforce Diversity
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Aldermen are recommending passage of a requirement to force companies doing bonds business with the City to disclose the diversity of their work forces, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.
The City Council Finance Committee has approved an ordinance that requires banks, financial houses, law firms and other companies to disclose how many women and minorities work for them and what jobs they hold.
West Side Alderman Walter Burnett said when he first started asking questions about things like that, banks started sending people to meet him.
"One big one, as big in this country, sent a guy to see me a guy to show me that they had a black person working for them. So I said, 'Where do you live and where are you from?' 'I'm from New York.' So I am saying, they had to send a black face from New York to prove to me that they've got African-Americans working for them," Burnett said.
He says one company had to hire someone just to be a part of the bond team.
More than a decade ago, the City Council required contractors to disclose any past ties their company may have had to the slave trade. That produced some tense hearings.