Philadelphia City Council Wants Better Effort On Spreading Economic Opportunity
CITY HALL (CBS) -- Philadelphia City Council is not pleased with the pace of efforts to increase economic opportunity for under-represented groups, their dissatisfaction was reflected in two actions at Thursday's council meeting.
Council president Darrell Clarke introduced a bill that would make it harder for companies that do business with the city to get around requirements for hiring women, minorities and the disabled. He said taxpayer money shouldn't be going to firms that don't live up to city standards for an inclusive workforce.
"We need to get very aggressive on disbarring these people from attempting to do business in the city of Philadelphia. It's just not fair," he said.
Meanwhile, the full council approved a resolution scolding the commerce department for being late with a report on how the city is doing in awarding contracts to women, minority and disabled-owned businesses.
"A three or four month report is just unacceptable..."
The department did issue a partial report showing the city awarded 300-Million in contracts to such businesses last fiscal year.