Ald. Manaa-Hoppenworth Signs on to Letter Requesting Stronger Environmental Justice Considerations in Procurement Process
CHICAGO—Ald. Manaa-Hoppenworth has signed onto a letter to Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts requesting stronger environmental justice considerations in the procurement process. The Chicago Procurement Services Department oversees the contracts the city signs with its vendors to obtain goods and services, including construction and manufacturng vendors.
The letter acknowledges the city’s long and troubling history of environmental racism and calls on Officer Roberts to better enforce environmental provisions in vendor contracts to help protect communities of color who have historicalls shouldered the burden of industrial pollution.
The specific requests named in the letter are as follows:
Routinely review city vendors for environmental compliance before awarding them additional contracts.
Include environmental compliance in city trainings and guides.
Request documentation under current contracts to prove that work is being done safely and in compliance of environmental regulations.
Require emissions estimates in bids for city projects that create pollution.
Read the full letter and list of signees below.
Contact: Nicole Granacki, Chief-of-Staff - 773-784-5277
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2024 Oct. 1
Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts
Department of Procurement Services
121 N LaSalle St, Room 806
Chicago, IL 60602
Dear Commissioner Roberts,
We are writing with the hope that your leadership will bring urgently needed change to Chicago's procurement practices.
The city has a long and troubling history of environmental racism, and for decades has used zoning and development policy to concentrate heavy industry in communities of color. Some of those industries are also city vendors, manufacturing concrete, asphalt, and cement and resurfacing the roadways. This work has value, but it also has consequences for neighborhoods that must live with the resulting pollution.
The good news is that existing contracts include important environmental provisions: since 2014, vendors must report any citations or violations within 24 hours to the Department of Law; asphalt contractors must send monthly reports of recycled content to the Dept of Transportation; and in contracts awarded last year, the Chief Procurement Officer is empowered to request post-award documentation like sampling data, traffic studies, and fenceline monitoring to ensure that city work does not harm city residents.
The bad news is that these requirements are not enforced, these expectations are not communicated, and these powers go unused. DPS has no record of ever making use of environmental provisions in contracts they awarded, and guides published by the department do not even mention that environmental requirements exist.
In the ten years that vendors have been required to report their citations, zero reports were filed. Post-award documentation has not been requested. The department does not review city vendors for environmental compliance when awarding bids, or require emissions estimates for city jobs. Requests for price increases are routinely submitted, but CDOT has no record of any recycled content reports.
City Council members and community groups have raised these issues directly and explicitly for years, sending letters in 2021 and 2022 and asking at budget hearings where DPS and CDPH both denied responsibility for monitoring city vendors. Just last year, members of the city's Environmental Equity Working Group gave detailed feedback about the department's environmental justice action plan, which is mandated by the agreement Chicago signed with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
So far DPS has ignored these concerns. The action plan was not revised, and the letters were not answered. We hope that as the new Chief Procurement Officer, you will bring a new kind of leadership. We ask you to enforce the terms of existing contracts and make use of the tools you already have. Specifically:
Routinely review city vendors for environmental compliance before awarding them additional contracts. Have they been cited for pollution? Did they report it? Do they have operating permits that are current and valid? Have they met the requirements of existing contracts?
Include environmental compliance in city trainings and guides.
Request documentation under current contracts. You are empowered to request an air quality study, traffic study, sampling data and fenceline monitoring. These contracts allow vendors to request price increases, and they do. The same contracts allow the city to request proof that work is being done safely, and it should.
Require emissions estimates in bids for city projects that create pollution. Chicago has set important goals to reduce its carbon emissions, but it cannot reduce what it does not measure. DPS guides other departments through the process of creating bid requirements, and can help them to include these estimates; but it is immediately possible under the discretion of the Chief Procurement Officer, who may request any bidder submit additional information deemed necessary.
These are basic, necessary actions in service of a larger goal: to align city procurement with the principles of environmental justice. As a starting point, Chicago must be responsible for the environmental consequences of city projects. To do that, we must know when vendors are following the rules, request and review the documentation they agreed to provide, and understand the emissions city contracts will generate.
If you would like to discuss these requests further, we are available to meet at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Alfredo Romo - Executive Director: Neighbors For Environmental Justice
Ald. Julia Ramirez (12)
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40)
Ald. Maria Hadden (49)
Ald. Matt Martin (47)
Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26)
Ald. Angela Clay (46)
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35)
Ald. Michael Rodriguez (22)
Ald. Ruth Cruz (30)
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25)
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48)
UIC School of Public Health Community-Engaged Teaching & Learning Initiative*
Community Members for Environmental Justice
Friends of the Parks
Illinois Environmental Council
Radical Public Health
Cross Roads Collaborative
PERRO
Green Latinos
Rafael Cintron Ortiz Latino Cultural Center - UIC
We Want Green Too
Chicago BIPOC Birders
ELPC
*Individuals from this group have signed on to the letter
