NL Council votes to rescind 2008 contractor ordinance

New London - In a split vote Thursday that ran along party lines, the City Council rescinded a two-year-old Responsible Contractor Ordinance, which halted a movement for a citywide referendum on the issue.

The council then passed a resolution requiring contractors who work in the city "to make a good faith effort" to hire at least 25 percent of its work force from New London County with those in-city getting a priority, and to hire at least 10 percent of its apprentices in state licensed trades from the city.

Mayor Rob Pero, Deputy Mayor Adam Sprecace, Councilor Martin T. Olsen, all Republicans, and Green Party member John Russell voted to rescind the ordinance and in favor of the resolution.

Democrats Wade A. Hyslop, Michael Passero and Michael Buscetto III voted against the motions.

"What they did was wrong,'' said Dan McSparran, who collected enough signatures on a petition to bring the issue before the voters.

He said the votes "are not protecting the local people'' and leave contractors open to hire out-of-town workers.

With the vote to rescind the original ordinance, the petition became moot.

In 2008, the City Council passed an ordinance requiring contractors to have apprentice programs and asking them to "make a good-faith effort" to hire people from New London County.

But last month, also in a split vote, the council amended the ordinance to loosen requirements that all contractors who do work in the city have an apprenticeship program and required only those trades that are licensed by the state to have those programs.

On Thursday, nearly a dozen people with ties to the construction industry asked the council to keep the ordinance in place. Among those speaking were a New London man who was once homeless but learned a trade and now has a job, and a New London woman with no experience who wants to work in construction and said an apprentice program is the way for her to get a job.

One speaker asked the council to consider Jesus Christ, who, he said, was a carpenter's apprentice.

"Would you not want him working on the school project?'' Charles Appleby asked.

The apprenticeship program surfaced last month after several councilors alleged it has pushed up construction bids for the city's $61 million magnet school project.

k.edgecomb@theday.com