The "fair contractors law" currently before the Cranston City Council prequalifies contractors to insure that the City will hire companies appropriately qualified to do their construction projects safely and reliably. It is a practice commonly utilized by many entities in the public and private sectors to insure that they get a quality project at a reasonable price. As a consequence, contractors, workers and many citizens of Cranston support its re-enactment.

There are a variety of factors used by both public and private entities to insure that the best-qualified contractors are hired at the best possible price. For example, the State of Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority will soon enact comprehensive prequalification criteria on its new construction contracts. Both Amgen and Florida Power & Light (the Johnston power plant) recently decided to construct their massive projects with strict prequalification criteria, and the Town of North Providence recently completed reconfiguration of two of its schools utilizing only contractors that were prequalified. The Florida Power & Light and Town of North Providence projects were all completed on time and within budget and the Amgen project is "on schedule".

On the other hand, when it decided to build a new high school, the Town of North Kingstown did not to impose any prequalification criteria for the contractors who bid on the project. As a consequence, the school was completed late (causing school for the entire district to be delayed) and cost several million dollars more than originally agreed on with the contractor. The City of Woonsocket had similar problems in constructing a new elementary school. Clearly, these decisions had substantial negative financial implications to the citizens of their respective municipalities.

The proposed ordinance in Cranston is a similar form of prequalification that has been successfully enacted in sixteen cities and towns in Massachusetts, and four in Connecticut. One of its provisions, which has received an inordinate amount of attention, is the proposal's requirement that all contractors "participate" in a bona fide apprenticeship program as defined by State of Rhode Island, a provision that the General Services Administration of the Bush administration now takes into account when it awards construction contracts.

In its editorial published on July 12, 2003, the Providence Journal supported abolishment of the City of Cranston's "fair contractors law" because of this issue without inquiring into the reliability of any evidence from which it drew conclusions; therefore its conclusion is fatally flawed.

For example, as demonstrated above, if the ordinance is implemented it will probably save the City money. Second, prequalification (which could include mandatory apprenticeship training) is common in the private sector. Third, the Journal omitted the fact that currently there are more nonunion apprentices than union registered with the State Department of Labor and Training. Fourth, it cited a particular contractor who said it would cost "$50,000 annually" to operate an apprenticeship program. However, according to the DLT, it would cost less than 1/10 of the amount the stated in the article to participate in an apprenticeship-training program. Fifth, the Journal relied on the testimony of a school committee member on the increased cost associated with the ordinance for construction of the Scituate Avenue elementary school versus that of Republican Councilman Randall Jackvony, and former member of the Board of Contract and Purchase, who stated at the same meeting that the ordinance did not add to the cost of the project (note that the school is currently being completed on time and within budget).

Lastly, by including Mayor Laffey's misguided analysis of the impact of this ordinance on minority contractors the Journal appears to be endorsing this view. However, the class of contractors that Mayor Laffey is concerned about is minuscule. According to the State of Rhode Island Minority Business Enterprise web site, there are twenty companies the mayor is protecting, and of those, eight already participate in apprenticeship training programs. Moreover, the mayor represented that he met with the black contractors association and they told him that they are against the ordinance. However, according to its president, the association never developed an official position on the ordinance. In fact, he and another member of the association have since written letters to the City of Cranston Ordinance Committee to express their personal support for it.

The reasons for implementing this ordinance are the same as the reasons private companies like Amgen and FPL and many others use prequalification criteria: it is their best business interests to do so. That is why their projects are being completed on time, and that is why they have worked a combined 2.1 million man-hours without a reportable accident (as defined by OSHA).

This ordinance will insure that the City hires contractors that are qualified, and that the work will be completed safely. Otherwise, the citizens of Cranston, like the citizens of North Kingstown, may have to pay millions more for a project than originally agreed upon with their contractor, a result the citizens of Cranston will be especially adverse to during its tight economic times.

Gregory A. Mancini, a lawyer, is executive director of the 21st Century Labor Management Partnership, an equal partnership between the unions of the building trades and their over 400 contractors.