PDC wants to talk more about construction wages

PDC — the quasi independent development arm of the Portland City Council — has been under fire from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and construction unions for circumventing state prevailing wage laws on public-private projects that use tax dollars.

The PDC spends a quarter-billion dollars a year on construction projects.

PDC maintains that unless a project is public infrastructure, it is exempt from the prevailing wage law, arguing the law applies only if PDC contracts directly with a construction contractor or actually owns the project at its conclusion.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, charged with enforcing the prevailing wage law, has time and again ruled that the law applies to PDC on mixed-use, private-public projects that it helps finance. PDC sued in May 2005 to overturn a BOLI interpretation on one of its projects. A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge agreed with PDC. BOLI is appealing that decision.

Meanwhile, Portland city commissioners have been looking at eliminating the PDC board altogether and bringing the agency under city control, just like other bureaus.

The Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council and the Oregon AFL-CIO also are considering filing a ballot initiative that would bring PDC under city control, or possibly an initiative or legislation that would require PDC to pay prevailing wages on all of its projects.

Now, PDC says it wants to hold public hearings to determine whether it should establish its own policy to cover a wider range of PDC projects.

“I was speechless,” said Bob Shiprack, when told of the public hearings by PDC Executive Director Bruce Warner. Shiprack is the executive secretary of the Oregon Building and Construction Trades Council.

Shiprack, Warner and a dozen other individuals were part of task force organized late last year by Labor Commission Dan Gardner to discuss public-private developments and how pre- vailing wage laws should apply on such projects.

After eight months, the task force disbanded in a deadlock.

“Why do we need to do that all over again?” Shiprack asked. “It will be a rehash of the BOLI task force.”

Mark Rosenbaum, new chairman of the PDC, said the process “will provide an opportunity for us to engage a broad range of interested people in a discussion of whether construction wage standards should be established on PDC projects and how it would impact the community and our projects. We are committed to quality jobs and living wages in Portland.”

PDC says it pays prevailing wages on its public works projects, which are about 40 percent of its expenditures. Examples include street construction, light rail, parks, the aerial tram, the Eastbank Esplanade, and other similar projects. It also includes large scale demolition and site preparation by PDC. This amount was approximately $70 million for fiscal year 2005-06.

PDC says another 30 to 40 percent of its budget includes affordable housing, loans and grants for home or business improvement, Enterprise Zone and other small scale projects. About half of those projects are union projects.

The remaining 20 to 30 percent of PDC’s budget is for larger scale, high profile projects. For these projects, PDC typically acts as a lender to a private business.

“Assessing the public benefits and impacts of prevailing wage on these remaining 20 percent of projects is a key goal of the study,” said PDC Executive Director Warner. “The information we learn from the public discussion of this issue will give us important guidance on establishing a construction wage policy for PDC.”

Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who has been critical of PDC for its filing of the lawsuit against BOLI and for circumventing prevailing wage laws on so many of its projects, told the NW Labor Press that the public hearing could provide an opportunity for union leaders to dispel the myths about prevailing wage laws.

“I think PDC wants to resolve this in a positive fashion,” Leonard said. “When they told me about it, I thought it was a good idea.”

A majority of city commissioners have said they support prevailing wage laws.

“They (PDC) know where we’re coming from on this,” Leonard said.

Over the next three months, the commission will invite labor representatives, commercial developers, affordable housing advocates, BOLI representatives, minority contractors, local and regional elected officials and other interested parties to three public meetings to address the wage issue.