By Julio E. Urrutia

Alliance of Communiities
Transforming Syracuse

On Wednesday, Aug. 6, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) held a community forum at St. Lucy's Church.

ACTS obtained public commitments from a majority of members of the Joint School Construction Board (JSCB) to meet with ACTS and our community allies by Oct. 15 in order to begin negotiations for a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the Syracuse schools renovation project that is estimated to spend $1 billion over the next 10 years.

ACTS and our allies are committed to pursuing a CBA to ensure that community members will have input into and receive concrete benefits from this construction project.

Community Benefits Agreements are a new economic model being used successfully in many cities throughout the country. CBAs have been used to ensure communities benefit from development projects in their neighborhoods, ensuring accountability and transparency and benefits such as hiring and paying a living wage to local workers, and utilization of minority and women contractors and businesses.

A CBA is a binding contract between the community and the developer, which benefits both the community and the developer.

CBAs benefit the developer because they provide community support for the use of public monies for the development project. In our case, we are also looking to establish a youth development and training program in the city school district that will allow students to get experience in the building trades, thereby providing students with more options either to pursue college or to enter a building trade that will provide a decent salary with benefits that can facilitate the student to stay in the greater Syracuse region.

Close to 100 community members, representatives of allied community organizations, and six public officials representing the Joint School Construction Board attended.

Syracuse City School District Superintendent Dan Lowengard, school board members Ned Deuel and Calvin Corriders, Syracuse Common Council President Bea Gonzalez and member Van Robinson were in attendance and committed to our demand to meet with ACTS and our community coalition before Oct. 15.

Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll also committed to a meeting before this date, and although he was unable to attend the community forum, Christine Fix attended as his representative. The remaining members of the JSCB were unable to attend, but we are engaged in an ongoing dialogue with them, as we plan to have the full board at our first meeting of the JSCB with our community coalition.

Among our allies present and speaking to the importance of reaching a CBA were Sharon Owens, president of the Syracuse Alliance for a New Economy (SANE), Rita Paniagua from the Spanish Action League, Maria Revelles from SEIU 1199, and Steve Coker from the Minority Contractors Association of Central New York. Mr. Bill Towsley, president of the Central and Northern New York Building and Constructions Trades Council, was also present as a community ally of ACTS.

ACTS is an inter-faith, inter-racial, urban-suburban coalition of member faith communities and institutions in the greater Syracuse area, working on issues of common concern. Members include Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations as well as Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Syracuse and SEIU 1199.

Economic development and jobs is one of four key areas that ACTS has chosen to focus on in the last year. Issues being addressed by these task forces, including a proposed CBA, will be the subject of ACTS' upcoming public action meeting on Oct. 26.

Julio E. Urrutia is chair of the Economic Development Task Force of the Alliance of Communiities Transforming Syracuse.