Auburn Group defends hiring at Villages of Delray project

Delray Beach residents and contractors hired to build the Villages of Delray housing project tell their stories to the Delray Beach City Commission Tuesday evening. In the background are commissioners Angeleta Gray and Adam Frankel.

By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — The Auburn Group, developers of the $27 million Villages of Delray housing project, didn’t just produce numbers for the Delray Beach City Commission Tuesday evening.

It produced the bodies.

Faced with sharp criticism that it hasn’t hired enough Delray Beach residents and Delray Beach subcontractors for the Villages project, Auburn Group countered by having about 15 workers and subcontractors one-by-one address commissioners during Tuesday’s commission meeting. All are participants in a mentoring program either as laborers learning a trade or as employers providing training. And all are involved in the Villages project in the city’s Southwest neighborhood.

Clifford Wright, a Delray Beach resident and electrical contractor, told commissioners last month that when he inquired about work at the project — which is being funded with $27 million in federal stimulus funds — he was turned away. Others told similar stories.

Wright Tuesday asked commissioners to hold Auburn to what he said was an agreement with the city to hire locally.

“I hope you take this more seriously,” Wright said. “Do what you said you were going to do.”

As Wright spoke, representatives of the Auburn Group began to filter into commission chambers.

Allan Schnier, president of the Auburn Group, said Auburn has undertaken an extensive effort on its own to hire local workers, use local subs and train “kids from the neighborhood” in construction trades.

“It’s a very ambitious program,” Schnier said. “We are committed to Delray Beach.”

Cito Beguiristain, a vice president with Auburn, said of the 13 Delray Beach-based subcontractors that bid for work in the project, five received jobs; three other subs are based in Palm Beach County. Of the 133 contractors from outside the area that bid for work, only six were accepted.

“Auburn Group has made this extraordinary commitment because we felt it was the right thing to do,” Beguiristain said.

There were doubters even after Auburn finished its presentation. Ann Stacey Wright said Auburn didn’t do enough to get word out to local residents about job opportunities. “Thank you very much for hiring these young men, but there are more who need jobs.”

Through its course, the Villages project is expected to employ between 150 and 200 workers.

In other business Tuesday, commissioners approved final reading of two zoning ordinances intended to close loopholes that could allow so-called pill mills to operate in the city. In one case, the ordinance simply substitutes pharmacy for drug store or similar terms used in the zoning code so it conforms with recent laws the commission passed to put pain clinics that dispense large amounts of narcotics out of business.