RBAC’s outreach and assessment efforts regarding Priority Hire has netted 36 assessments, 26 referrals to pre-apprenticeship programs and 10 placements into pre-apprenticeship programs to date. Our focus has been economically distressed zip codes and people of color who live in them. Our goals for the year is 79 assessments, 38 referrals and 18 placements. You can see we have some work to do before the end of the calendar year. If you know people, particularly young people between the ages of 18-24 years of age, interested in the construction trade give us a call at 206.420.1010.
We said we would update you regarding existing City of Seattle capital projects particularly the work occurring at Key Arena. We’re tracking progress on at least 165 jobs projected for potentially economically distressed zipcodes of which 98118 and 98122 are in. The construction industry tracks its goals by job hours, therefore of the total of 79,985 hours to date on the Key Arena demolition and rebuild 2.8% of those hours have been priority hires apprenticeships and 14.3% have been priority hires journeyman. The majority of the work to date has been demolition with the primary contractor being Rhine Demolition. Of the 27,240 hours they have worked to date 2% has gone to priority hire apprenticeships and 12.1% has gone to priority hire journeymen. There has been some electrical work done, of the 923 total hours (Prime Electric is contractor) 46.6% has gone to priority hire journeymen. You asked “are these numbers meeting the intended goals we work hard for in getting folk from our community into the construction trade?”. They seem low but we are only in demolition phase and 8 months of a projected 24 months construction period. Rest assured we will continue to track this. Have some comfort that we are now able to track these numbers whereas before we were not monitoring them at all. Guidance we have for you is to stay informed and be diligent.