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Brief of diving:
- Contractors working with the city of Chicago have requested that their invoices be cut to the city, according to a letter that the city’s contracting office sent companies last month.
- A Copy of the letterSigned by Sharla Roberts, Chicago’s hiring chief, asked the sellers a reduction in prices of at least 3% of all invoices sent to the city for the next 12 months on contracts that are currently the main contractor.
- The letter shocked the city’s construction industry. Jacqueline Gomez, the executive director of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association, located in Chicago, said that the application was not uniform, since the contracts have already been signed. “We don’t think it’s a fair question,” he said.
Divide vision:
Henry Lopez, the President of Accestation, based in Chicago, said that his company has done jobs for the city for a little over a decade. ACCUS up to 70% of your public contract business.
When he received the letter for the first time, he initially thought it was a joke. He said that the margin of benefit of his company is often 3%.
“To ask, essentially, 100% of our benefits is an insult,” said López. He told the city that nothing would change and that he still had to have a conversation with other construction professionals.
The March 16 letter did not describe the specific economic conditions that precipitated the application, but the city faces a $ 175 million budget decline Due to a failure of Chicago public schools to refund the city for pension payments, according to local news ABC7.
He also collected taxes and taxes on parking, streaming of service bags and bags to help close a $ 982 million gap in his budget of $ 17.1 billion, which was approved in December.
Sheila Marionneaux, director of the public affairs of the city’s contracting department, said that it is a regular practice for municipalities to seek costs in different budgets in times of urgent need.
“The purpose of the application for the reduction of costs to the sellers is to develop the budget commitment to support the objective of the department’s budget,” Marionneaux said in an email.
Gomez said that the city has made similar requests for reducing prices in the past, under the administrations of the former mayors Rahm Emanuel and Richard Daley, but not without giving a first warning. But doing it now puts contractors in an almost impossible position, he said: “Particularly from the small companies that feel this,” if I do not do it, will I get a future work? “”
The letter states that the city would appreciate an answer “even if you cannot accommodate the application right now.”
Gómez warned that the application, if the vendors met, could put small businesses with a significant financial tension. If a main contractor takes the 3% reduction and reduce it to their subcontractors, Gomez warned, as the benefit margins could already be further reduced.
“We are talking about small businesses that can get out of the business,” Gomez said.
