Emanuel wants 5-year extension of construction set-aside program

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Ten years after Chicago’s construction set-aside program was overhauled to satisfy the demands of a federal judge, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to extend the set-asides until December 2020.

After surviving Chicago’s first-ever mayoral runoff with 57.3 percent of the black vote and 39 percent among Hispanics and promising to be more sensitive to both groups in a second term, the last thing Emanuel wants to do is to eliminate a program that has given both groups a leg up on city contracts.

The mayor quietly introduced an ordinance Wednesday to extend the program, which is set to end Dec. 31. The ordinance justifies extending the contract set-asides based on studies and consultations with Dartmouth College economics professor Dr. David Blanchflower; the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago; attorney Don O’Bannon; and the law firm of Pugh Jones & Johnson.

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