Mandatory local hiring to provide more jobs

By Fleur Bailey
The Guardsman

In an effort to lower the unemployment rate, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is taking steps to implement mandatory local hiring to provide extra jobs for city residents and strengthen the local economy.

Supervisor John Avalos requested that the city attorney draft an ordinance to amend the Local Hiring and First Source Statues at the Jan. 26 board meeting. The legislation would require local hiring on all San Francisco-funded projects.

“There is a high unemployment rate in San Francisco,” Avalos said. “We want to make sure San Franciscans get the benefit of this, especially those of low-income.”

In the request, Avalos identified some of the goals of the legislation as creating jobs for San Francisco residents, combating systemic poverty, supporting community development for the most economically challenged communities and reducing green house gas emissions from commuting.

“The ultimate goal is to ensure San Franciscans are able to access the jobs available in public infrastructure projects,” he said.

Avalos gave examples of possible projects, including developing new water systems and subways in San Francisco and building a new police command center or forensics lab.

“There is a process that we need to go through, working with community groups and city departments,” Avalos said. “We hope to have the legislation drafted by May and to have something in place by the summer.”

Oakland, Richmond and Los Angeles are three California cities that have adopted mandatory local hiring, requiring that a percentage of construction and non-construction jobs stay local, in an effort to boost the local economy.