Improving equal access
to St. Paul’s economic
opportunities for women, minorities and people with disabilities
is the intent of a plan announced June 5 by St. Paul Mayor Chris
Coleman. The plan is in response to an independent audit on inclusion
completed in November 2007 after more than four years of pressure
by community organizations to change city practices. Those changes
would not have included individuals with disabilities without the
participation of Kaposia, Inc., a national leader in employment services
for persons with disabilities. While the city has fallen short on
its participation goals for women and minorities in employment and
contracting, most of those goals do not even exist for individuals
with disabilities.
In 2003, the Equal Access
Working Group was formed by the St. Paul City Council in response
to heated testimony at a public hearing about the lack of access
to economic opportunities. Kaposia was the only organization representing
individuals with disabilities to participate in the public hearing
and to work collaboratively with community organizations representing
women and minorities throughout this process. For four years, beginning
with Mayor Randy Kelly’s administration, the
Equal Access Working Group pushed for an independent audit to determine
whether the City of St. Paul’s employment and contracting opportunities
were providing access for women, minorities and people with disabilities.
In November of 2007, four years after the city council hearing, the
long-awaited audit report was completed by the Milwaukee-based Hall
Legal Group. This report identified significant shortcomings by the
city in accountability, coordination and communication between departments
and in resources.
Surprisingly, the Hall Report identified the City of St. Paul as a
leader in disability rights for even considering participation goals
for individuals with disabilities. In short, St. Paul was a leader
because it was doing something in an area in which most cities were
doing nothing.
St. Paul’s demonstration of leadership was that it had adopted
an employment goal of 10% for people with disabilities in 2006 for
the affirmative action plans of contractors doing business with the
city and also for the city’s own workforce after ongoing pressure
from Kaposia. That goal is 2% higher than adopted by the City of
Minneapolis.
After the release of the Hall
Group Report, Kaposia challenged Coleman to demonstrate true leadership
in disability rights by following through on recommendations made
by Kaposia in 2003 and the Hall Report in 2007 by:
• Establishing
employment goals for individuals with disabilities on city-funded
construction projects to open up more opportunities like the Rondo
Community Outreach Library and housing project in which three individuals
with developmental disabilities earned union-level wages, a first
in the region and possibly in the nation.
• Creating
a category for business owners with disabilities in the city’s
Vendor Outreach Project, a category which was eliminated by the city
in 1995.
• And most importantly, achieving
(or even exceeding) the 10% employment goal for individuals with
disabilities in the city’s
work-force and for contractors doing business with the City of St.
Paul. The city reported 4.6% employment for persons with disabilities
in March of 2008.
The city’s implementation
plan does include the recommendation to create goals for individuals
with disabilities. But the true measure of change will be when
organizations like Kaposia no longer need to remind anyone that
economic opportunities to correct injustices to women and minorities
also need to correct injustices to people with disabilities and
when every workplace in the Twin Cities reflects equal access for
women, minorities and people with disabilities.
The report and a press
release are available at www.ci.stpaul.mn.us/index.asp?NID=2566 ![end of story]()
Carol Rydell is the Service
Development Coordinator for Kaposia, a St. Paul-based nonprofit corporation.
Kaposia has been a national leader in providing opportunities for
thousands of individuals with developmental disabilities and other
challenges to access employment. To learn more about Kaposia, go
to www.kaposia.com
