* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Young
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Environmental Consent Decree - Minority Business and Worker Participation
Title
FOR the purpose of requesting the Director of the Mayor's Office of Minority Business Development to report to the City Council on the percentage of minority business participation in contracts awarded to meet the requirements of the Environmental Consent Decree and the percentage of City residents employed by all businesses awarded contracts to perform any services associated with the Decree; and to ensure that residents and businesses in our City who wish to participate directly benefit from performing services that correct conditions that for years negatively impacted the public and environmental health of themselves, their families, and their neighborhoods.
Body
Recitals
On September 30, 2002, the City of Baltimore, Department of Public Works Bureau of Water and Waste Water joined a growing list of municipalities facing Environmental Consent Decrees to address sanitary and combined sewer overflows that resulted from an aged and obsolete wastewater collection system. The purpose of the Decree is to maintain public and environmental health by upgrading the system and will ultimately protect Baltimore's harbor and streams, the Chesapeake Bay, and the overall well being of the citizens of Baltimore.
The primary focus of the Environmental Consent Decree is the elimination of sanitary sewer overflows and combined sewer overflows, including the elimination of 50 overflow structures that currently discharge to storm drains of streams. The work, expected to be complete by 2016, will provide business opportunities related to the Decree in the areas of elimination of sewer and combined sewer overflows, sewershed planning and evaluation, sewershed rehabilitation, and upgrades in the operation and maintenance program.
Elimination of the sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) will be accomplished by the completion of 26 Capital Improvement projects that will be under construction from 2003-2007, with $150 million in fees; the sewershed studies and evaluations will take place from 2006-2010, with $100 million in fees; the sewershed rehabilitation will take place from 2008-2016, with estimated fees and construction costs between $460 to $650 million; and upgrades in the Operation and Maintenance Program will occur over the life of the Consent Decree, with an ongoing need for workers to clean, repair, de-root, and de-grease the entire system.
The work associated with the Consent Degree requires participation of all sizes of businesses and all levels of skilled workers. There is a need for engineering consulting and design firms, sewer cleaning and repair firms, sewer overflow and rainfall monitoring firms, and sewer construction firms, and workers will be needed to aide City workers in cleaning, repairing, bypass pumping, root removal, and grease control.
Residents of the City have suffered for years through winters of interrupted water and sewer service and hazardous traffic conditions caused by frozen and broken pipes, emergency evacuations from 6-foot flood waters caused by water main breaks, property damaged and health threatened by smelly and noxious sewage spills, and tunnel fires that caused them to fear for the safety of their families. If anyone should profit from the work that Baltimore has been ordered to perform, it should be the very people who suffered from the neglect that led to the Consent Decree.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Director of the Mayor's Office of Minority Business Development is requested to report to the City Council on the percentage of minority business participation in contracts awarded to meet the requirements of the Environmental Consent Decree and the percentage of City residents employed by all businesses awarded contracts to perform any services associated with the Decree; and to ensure that, for the duration of the Consent Decree, residents and businesses in our City who wish to participate directly benefit from performing services that correct conditions that for years negatively impacted the public and environmental health of themselves, their families, and their neighborhoods.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That Director of Public Works is requested to participate in the hearing concerning the Environmental Consent Decree and to share with the City Council knowledge of minority participation in associated contract awards.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the Director of the Mayor's Office of Minority Business Development, the Director of Public Works, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
dlr05-0329~intro/02Jun05
ccres/decree/nf
dlr05-0329~intro/02Jun05
- 2 -
ccres/decree/nf