Alarmed by the lack of minority – particularly African American – participation in the SunRail Project, state Senator Gary Siplin (D-Orlando) has written to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Edward Jennings and East Central Florida Regional Planning Council Chair, Commissioner Cheryl Grieb, urging that they take steps to ensure that contract opportunities generated by the recently awarded HUD planning grant are more equitably accessible.
In November, HUD awarded East Central Florida Regional Planning Council a $2.4 million HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant to plan development around the future station locations for the SunRail commuter rail system.
Siplin, in letters sent to both Grieb and Jennings, noted a history of minority marginalization in federal and state contract opportunities and urged that that the new rail project ensure greater minority participation.
“The Florida Department of Transportation has disregarded small and minority businesses – and particularly African American-owned businesses – in Central Florida in its awarding of contracts for the SunRail project thus far,” he wrote to Grieb. “I want to encourage you and the other members of the planning council to develop and follow a strategy which ensures the participation of minority businesses and – particularly African American-owned businesses – in the numerous contract opportunities that will be generated by this grant.”
Siplin’s letters to Grieb and Jennings follow an earlier communication to Gov. Rick Scott, urging him to place an administrative freeze on the awarding of all new contracts under SunRail due to lack of diversity. In that October 31, 2011 letter, Siplin cited documents that he had received from FDOT which showed that only one African American subcontractor had been awarded a contract for services for close to $150,000 out of more than $240 million that had already been awarded, to date.
“As communities begin to rebuild during these tough economic times, it is important that the newly built doors of opportunity are equally accessible to all,” Sen. Siplin wrote in his letter to Jennings. “There are many qualified minority business owners waiting in the wings for a fair opportunity – equal access must be a priority.”
The Sun Rail commuter rail system is scheduled to begin operations in 2014.
