Furniture mart’s hiring plan may speed up project

Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 | 9:15 a.m.

An agreement reached on the World Market Center's employment plan proposal is fair to all, clearing perhaps the final hurdle for the project's go-ahead next week, city officials said.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed a previous "lack of a plan," supports the employment plan proposal for the center's Furniture Mart.

A participation agreement between the city and developers of the project, which has been delayed several times over such sticking points, is slated to come before the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday.

Although the 30-page plan does not call for quotas in hiring minorities, women, veterans, the disabled or the homeless at the site west of downtown Las Vegas, it spells out a number of ways the company will try to reach those groups.

The plan targets the hiring of residents of minority-dominated and relatively poor West Las Vegas.

"It is a much more encompassing plan than we've had in the past," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday at his weekly news conference.

Goodman, looking forward to the issue coming before the council, noted that after Phase 1 of the center opens in October 2003 it is expected to draw 8 million to 10 million visitors a year, "as opposed to the one or two homeless people" who currently traverse the site that was once Union Pacific Railroad yards.

The employment plan draft proposal reads: "It is the intent of the World Market Center to fill as many as possible new permanent jobs created as a direct result of the project by residents in the targeted areas who are economically disadvantaged, physically handicapped, members of racial minorities, veterans, homeless and women. A variety of steps are planned ... to meet this objective."

The city intends to provide the developer with up to $40 million in tax incentives over 20 years.

The initial employment plan angered area residents, veterans and the ACLU because it did not specify efforts to hire the disadvantaged. As a result, meetings were held to hammer out something everyone could live with.

The revised plan to fill 400 new permanent jobs that will be created in Phase 1 and 2,800 more jobs in the next five phases, calls for the company to:

"The issue at stake is if the government is going to spend public dollars on development projects it should assure that all segments of the community be treated fairly including those in the impacted area, as covered by state law," said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the ACLU.

"This plan does that, and the city should be recognized for dealing fairly with all parties." Peck said that under the plan, the company would report to the city on a quarterly basis, detailing whether it is meeting the obligations in the plan.

Submitted as part of the proposal were nine pages of charts showing the ethnic population breakdown, jobs and other 2000 U.S. Census statistics of the impacted area -- Carey Avenue to the north, Martin Luther King Boulevard to the west, Charleston Boulevard and Sahara Avenue to the south and Bruce Street and Mojave Road to the east.

In addition to the three-phase construction of the Furniture Mart to be completed by 2005, a convention center and world trade fair are expected to open in 2006 and world pavilions are planned to open in 2007.