Branstad says he'll enforce labor agreement ban on convention center

The battle is on. And $15 million in state I-JOBS funding for the city's $75.6-million Convention Complex project is on the line.

Gov. Terry Branstad this morning fired back at Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, with the governor saying that he intended to enforce his executive order that prohibits state funds to go to construction projects which come with project labor agreements.

“That is the law,” Branstad said in a comment at the Capitol on Wednesday morning. “That is the order I signed. We do intend to enforce it.

“… The fact of the matter is we have said we are not going to release state dollars if there is a project labor agreement because they are now prohibited.”

The Cedar Rapids City Council has put such a labor agreement in place for the Convention Complex project, and on Tuesday evening, the council voted, 5-4, to push ahead and seek bids on a first contract related to the project despite a lack of clarity at City Hall about the governor's intent.

Council members in the minority said they wanted to know more from the governor's office about how it intended to proceed with the city's Convention Complex project.

However, Corbett repeated his position that the city's Convention Complex is a work sufficiently in progress that the governor's order in January on project labor agreements doesn't apply to it.

Corbett agreed that the order will apply to other coming city construction projects like the central fire station and the library because those projects are not as far along as the Convention Complex project is.

READ: Branstad's executive order on project labor agreements

branstadexecutiveorder

Corbett called it “speculation on rumors” to think that Branstad would take action against the city to withhold or seek a return of I-JOBS money for the Convention Complex project. The city already has spent about half of its $15 million grant, he said.

Nonetheless, council member Kris Gulick on Tuesday evening asked that the council seek an alternative bid on the demolition contract related to the Convention Complex project and have contractors bid on the project as if it were one with a project labor agreement and one without such an agreement.

The council rejected the suggestion, 5-4.

Council member Pat Shey said he feared that the council was setting itself up for litigation that could significantly delay the Convention Complex project and jeopardize state funding at the same time. He noted that the city is closing its U.S. Cellular Center arena and the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel attached to it for some 20 months as part of the Convention Complex project, and any delay for litigation may only keep those two venues closed longer, he said.

At the same time, council member Chuck Swore said the council put the project labor agreement in place and didn't need the governor to tell it how to do its business. Council member Justin Shields, a local labor leader, said the council shouldn't give in to “fear and speculation.”

Project labor agreement or not, the city will pay union-scale wages on the project as dictated by federal law. The agreement, though, is the council's attempt to ensure that many of the workers on the project are local workers. Branstad thinks such agreements drive up project costs.

RELATED:

• Feb. 9 -

RELATED:

• Feb. 9 - Cedar Rapids, Branstad at odds on labor agreement