Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994 TAG: 9403180066
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And no wonder.
Hotel Roanoke, owned by Virginia Tech, and the conference center, which the city is building is a $40-million vision.
The project is designed to glue the city's past to its future. It has become a symbol of the community's attempt to create growth and develop the kinds of jobs that will attract and keep the young and the professional.
It is a preservation success story because much of the structure of the 110-year-old railroad hotel is being retained in the renovation.
It is an example of cooperation and outreach between Roanoke and Virginia Tech, a 40-mile stretch.
Their partnership is intended to provide the energy and the wherewithal to make Roanoke more competitive in the meetings and convention business and to further launch Tech as a provider of world-class continuing education.
And the project represents the first time the community has made an all-out commitment that local residents, especially minority citizens, will be given full opportunity to participate during the construction phases and later when hiring for operations begins.
The commitment to minority involvement was cemented by the hiring of Alvin Nash, deputy director of Total Action Against Poverty, whose mission was to assure that all of the community's residents had equal access to the project.
What a wonderful list of plusses to crow about! Except there's been little crowing.
Instead, the project has been played close to the chest. Its leaders have the attitude that they will tell what they want known when they want it known. That's the philosophy of some private companies, but it doesn't play as well when public monies are involved. It's also a strange approach when openness and empowerment are the buzzwords in every facet of society.
This proclivity toward secrecy especially extends to Ken Haley, a man who is a major symbol of the project's potential for success in involving minorities.
Haley, a Salem resident and a black contractor, got a $3 million contract in the Hotel Roanoke and conference center project. He did not bid on the contract. His role was negotiated.
Haley signed to be responsible for the work of several drywall and roofing subcontractors. In turn, he is to get project management experience under the tutelage of veteran contractors, which may help him obtain other large contracts.
But three weeks ago, when his role in the hotel project was reported, he declined to be interviewed, despite several phone calls and a reporter's visit to his office.
All Haley was willing to say was that he was qualified for the job, and his selection wasn't newsworthy.
His qualifications to work in a mentorship-type role with the project haven't been questioned. He has a Class A contractor's license gotten with no special treatment from anyone. He has owned Property Maintenance Corp., a cleaning and security business, since 1975.
The company advertised itself, in the 1994 Greater Roanoke Black Pages, as having 125 employees who clean more than 2 million square feet of commercial, industrial and residential space daily in the Roanoke Valley.
The ad also pointed out that Haley is on the board of directors for the Fifth District Employment and Training Consortium/Private Industry Council.
Despite his insistence that his role in the project was no big deal, however, Haley wasn't just another contractor getting a routine construction job.
He was the No. 1 example that the hotel project will involve minorities.
Indeed, he was Alvin Nash's success story. Nash refers to it as the deal "that fell through 20 times," but also calls it the deal that "opens the door."
But Nash - whose favorite poetry line is "Upon the plains of hesitation rest the bones of countless millions" - didn't really want a public revelation either.
Nash said the announcement wouldn't have been made when it was except that newspaper and television reporters found out about Haley's contract and were going to report about it anyway.
The official announcement that this prompted was filled with quotes from college, council and city officials about how Haley's contract proved everyone's commitment to minority involvement. It said not a word about how carefully the involvement had been crafted, only that it was "negotiated." There was no information about who Haley's subcontractors were and nothing about how much the contract actually is worth to him.
Haley didn't want any announcement, sources said. He was concerned that it might appear he got some breaks because he is a member of a minority, although it could be argued that that indeed is what was intended.
Because of Haley's position, however, and the project leaders' normal tight-lipped leanings, the community still hasn't heard the full good news.
by CNB