Chicago is moving forward in supporting entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Several have been working very hard for the past couple of years for this
to happen.  it is a tremendous commitment of leadership by the Mayer and
the business and corporate leaders that joined him yesterday to take this
move in support of people with disabilities as compared for agencies for
people with disabilities.

Kelly


Chicago Sun Times

Daley backs set-asides for disabled contractors

October 4, 2002

BY FRAN SPIELMAN
CITY HALL REPORTER

Contract set-asides that have opened the once shuttered doors of City
Hall to minorities and women will be extended to people with disabilities
to reduce a 70 percent unemployment rate among Chicago's 400,000-strong
disabled population.

Mayor Daley on Thursday declined to reveal the percentage of the
disability set-aside. He would only say that it would be in addition to
the 25 percent and 5 percent cut of city contracts earmarked for
minorities and women, respectively.

Last year, a federal judge overturned Cook County's 40 percent set-aside
requirement, prompting concern that the city's ordinance, now before a
federal judge, could face a similar fate.

A disability set-aside could give recalcitrant white contractors who have
dominated the construction industry even more ammunition. But Daley said
he's not concerned.

"I hear that a lot: 'I don't want to hire an African American. . . . I
don't want to hire a women-owned business.' Why not? It's not the good
ol' boys club anymore. You need diversity--both in the work force and in
your contracts," the mayor said.

To that end, Daley promised to earmark a percentage of city jobs for
people with disabilities when a budget crisis that has prompted 425
layoffs comes to an end.

He urged business leaders at a breakfast meeting at the Cultural Center
to do the same.

"Whether we have 10 employees, 100 or 500. It's the idea that you are
with us," the mayor said.

Marca Bristo, president of Access Living, applauded the mayor for
broaching the subject. A focus group conducted by the city recently
identified 13 area businesses owned by people with disabilities. The
actual number may be far greater.

"I know that quotas, these days, are a dirty word. But we have to wind
the clock back and look at what an important role setting targets like
that played in enabling women and people of color to break into the work
force at a different moment in our history," Bristo said.