COMMUNITY BENEFITS

AGREEMENTS

 Community Benefits Agreements

are legally enforceable contracts
between community groups and
developers setting forth what the
developers agrees to provide for
the community.
COMMUNITY BENEFITS
AGREEMENTS
 Community Benefits Agreements often
focus on developments which receive
government subsidies.
 Community Benefits Agreements are
often attached to development
agreements between the government
and the developer.
 Community Benefits Agreements are
often enforceable by the government as
well as the community groups.
Building Blocks for
Community Benefits
Agreements
 Preexisting Local ordinances make the
negotiation of Community Benefits
Agreements easier.
 Community Benefits Agreements often
incorporate terms or concepts from
preexisting local ordinances.
 Applicability of Local ordinances can be
expanded through policies incorporated
in Community Benefits Agreements.
 Community Benefits Agreements often
build on coalitions formed to pass Local
SUBJECTS OF COMMUNITY
BENEFITS AGREEMENTS
 Quality Jobs and Local Hiring
 Affordable Housing
 Environmental Guarantees
 Parks and Recreational Facilities
 Social Services and Child Care
Facilities
 Neighborhood Oriented Tenants
Quality Jobs and Local
Hiring
 Living Wage Agreements
 First Source Hiring
 Local Hiring Goals
 Standards for Responsible Contracting
 Standards for Responsible Tenants
 Community Benefits Analyses
 LIVING WAGE
ORDINANCES
 A living wage ordinance requires
employers to pay wages that are above
federal or state minimum wage levels.
 Only a specific set of workers are
covered by most living wage
ordinances, usually those employed by
businesses that have a contract with a
city or county government or those who
receive economic development
subsidies from the locality.
LIVING WAGE
ORDINANCES
 In addition to setting wage levels, many
ordinances also have provisions
regarding benefits (such as health
insurance and paid vacation), labor
relations, and hiring practices.
 The rationale behind the ordinances is
that city and county governments
should not contract with or subsidize
employers who pay poverty-level
wages.
 Over 120 Localities Have
Adopted Living Wage
Ordinances

Miami-Dade County
 Contracts over $100,000 per year for

services
 All contracts for services by the Aviation

Department
 $9.44 an hour if employer-paid health

benefits are offered, or $10.81 without

health benefits
 Broward County

 County employees
 Companies contracting with the
County to provide certain services
 $9.57 an hour – or $10.82 an hour
if health benefits are not provided.
 Miami Beach
 City employees
 Certain service contractors with
contracts over $100,000
 $8.56 an hour if employer-paid
health benefits are offered, or
$9.81 without health benefits,
indexed annually.
Other Living Wage
Ordinances Florida

Orlando FL
 City employees and employees of

private contractors
 $8.50 an hour

 Additional 20% if no health

benefits.
Other Living Wage
Ordinances Florida

Palm Beach County

 County construction contracts

greater than $100,000

 $9.57 an hour
Other Living Wage
Ordinances
Sonoma CA 2004
 Applies to service contracts over

$10,000
 Requires 12 paid and 10 unpaid

vacation days
Other Living Wage
Ordinances

Durham County NC 2004

 Wage set at 7.5% above poverty

 Applies to all service contracts including
temporary contracts.

(Durham CAN - Congregations,

Associations and Neighborhoods)
LOCAL HIRING
STRATEGIES
 Require developers who benefit from
public money to reserve a percentage
of jobs for local residents. 
 Ensure that un- or under-employed
residents in economically isolated
communities benefit from economic
development and reinvestment
happening in their community and
promotes balance within a region's
employment opportunities.
Types of Local Hiring
Strategies

 Federally Mandated Programs

 Local Hiring Requirements

 First Source Hiring Programs

Federally Mandated
Programs
 Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) Section 3 Program
 HUD CDBG Program
HUD Section 3 Program
 Employment and contracting opportunities
generated through HUD funds be directed to
low- and very-low income County residents.

 Priority to recipients of government

assistance for housing, and to business
concerns that are substantially owned by, or
that substantially employ, these individuals.
 HUD Funds in Miami Dade

Approximate amounts allocated to the County and the City each

year

CDBG HOME HOPWA

Miami-Dade County $23,877,000 $7,799,637 $882,003
Miami $9,928,000 $5,131,235 $10715000
Local Hiring Requirement
Ordinances
Miami Dade County Community
Workforce Program
 County capital construction

contracts over the amount of

$250,000
 minimum of 10% of the persons

performing the construction trades

and labor work under the contract
be residents of Designated Target
Areas
Local Hiring
Ordinances
 Problems
 Difficult to monitor and enforce
 Easy to bring in outside workers
 Response
 Often combined with “first
source hiring” requirement.
FIRST SOURCE HIRING
 First Source Hiring can combine with
Local Hiring Programs to help link job
opportunities to low income
communities surrounding
developments.
 Employers agree to hire from a
specified source like a community group
or a One Stop Center.
 First Source Programs can help
employers by cutting down on their
recruitment and training costs.
FIRST SOURCE HIRING

 Local governments can provide

money and/or space to a
community organization so it can
do the necessary work in setting
up a First Source Hiring Program.
Oakland CA - Local Construction
Employment Referral Program
(LCERP)

LOCAL HIRING PROGRAM

 All construction projects of

$50,000 and all redevelopment

agency projects
 Must hire Oakland residents for at

least 50 percent of all work hours

and for 50 percent of all new hires
Oakland CA - Local Construction
Employment Referral Program
(LCERP)

FIRST SOURCE HIRING PROGRAM

 Outreach and referral through 35

community based organizations

 Referrals through union halls

 Database of of 2,637 workers

 Placed 1,618 workers

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
LOCAL HIRING ORDINANCE
 All publicly assisted projects of 40,000
sq. ft. or more - 40 percent of all trade
project hours must be performed by city
residents;
 50 percent of workers must be city
residents
 25 percent of all trade project hours
must be performed by minorities and
6.9 percent must be performed by
women;
 1 in 5 workers must be apprentices,
Standards for Responsible
Contracting
 Require the bidder to show
compliance with all laws and
disclose any violations of OSHA,
environmental, prevailing wage,
workers compensation, and other
worker protection laws.
Standards for Responsible
Contracting
City of Los Angeles -- Contractor
Responsibility Program
 Contracts Greater than $100,000
 Satisfactory compliance with all
laws, including but not limited to
health and safety, labor and
employment, wage and hours and
licensing laws affecting employees.
Other Responsible
Contracting
Ordinances
 New York City Council adopted an
ordinance requiring the city to buy
apparel and textile goods only
from responsible contractors that
comply with workplace and
environmental laws and that pay a
non-poverty wage
Service Worker Retention
Ordinances
 Designed to retain workers when
City contracts change;
LA City Ordinance
 Contracts over $25,000
 Requires successor employer to
employ prior contractor’s
employees for at least 90 days.
FINAL GUIDING PRINCIPLES

 When public subsidy or public

concessions are given then the
public should be benefited.

 Those who are most impacted by

publicly assisted development
should be particularly protected.
 FINAL GUIDING
PRINCIPLES
 The “project” itself is no longer
sufficient benefit.
 What kind of jobs
 What quality of jobs
 Who gets the jobs
 Construction
 Tenants
 Who are the tenants
 The Progression of
Community Benefits
Movement
 In many Cities it started with
individual ordinances – such as living
wage - which applied to contracts
with the Cities.
 It then expanded to Community
Benefits Agreements which expanded
the scope of individual ordinances and
added other guarantees to projects
assisted by the government.
Next Steps - Can Local
Gov’t Pass a CBA Ordinance?
 Local Government Ordinances are
limited by the power of the gov’t to
regulate.

 How far does that power stretch?

 TYPES OF
GOVERNMENTAL
INVOLVEMENT
 Local Gov’t Contracting
 Local Gov’t Cash Subsidies to
Private Developer
 Local Gov’t Land Use/Zoning
Concessions to Private
Developer
 MUSP
QUESTIONS AND
DISCUSSION