Press Room - Press Release

CFEC Helps Overturn Discriminatory Agreement in City of Palmdale

For Immediate Release             November 14, 2007

Contact: Eric Christen 719-964-0243

CFEC Slams Mayor Ledford and Councilman Hofbauer for Racist Remarks during Debate over Discriminaory Ordinance in City of Palmdale  

Group calls on pols to apologize or step down, successfully defeats ordinance   

November 14, 2007 – PALMDALE, CA – The Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction today called for Mayor James Ledford and Councilman Steven Hofbauer to either apologize or resign after making derogatory, racially-charged remarks during a debate that led to the defeat of the Mayor’s union/IBEW-backed “Electrical Safety Policy.”  After countless hours of hearings, CFEC staff, along with representatives from the Associated Builders and Contractors and Western Electrical Contractors Association, successfully overturned and replaced the city’s original “Electrical Safety Policy” with a balanced measure that will ensure fair and open competition on city projects..

The final debate grew so heated that at one point CFEC Executive Director Eric Christen was ejected from the council chamber when he called the two out on their racist comments.

Remarks from Councilman Hofbauer were perhaps the most explicit.  The councilman targeted workers of Hispanic heritage when he said: “The issue really is…when I go out on these (construction) job sites and I’ve got to go hunt around for somebody to speak English out there, that’s a huge problem for me.  I’ve got some marginal Spanish skills here, but that’s usually problematic for me…  Even the foremen out there have marginal English skills.”  Earlier, Mayor Ledford and Councilman Hofbauer both insisted that they would rather have brain surgery performed by a graduate of Yale or Harvard than “the guy from MLK.” “MLK” is universally accepted as a reference to the initials for the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. Seeing how there is no “MLK” university the implication the two were making seems clear.    

“At the very least, these two have a lot of explaining to do – especially to the minority workers who are all too often the target of the union-backed discrimination Ledford and Hofbauer pushed here,” said Christen.  “We can only be thankful that three council members had the intellectual wherewithal to overturn this specious policy and replace it with a balanced measure that will prove beneficial to the workers of Palmdale, including minorities.  In the meantime, Mayor Ledford and Councilman Hofbauer should either apologize for their racially biased remarks, or resign – or even both.  Having watched these two in action for some time it is clear they do not have the temperament to serve. ”

The debate can be viewed by going to http://palmdale.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 and clicking on the November 7^th meeting, and then clicking Agenda Item 12.2

Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC) is a group of concerned contractors (union & merit shop), associations, and businesses dedicated to educating owners, elected officials, the construction industry, and taxpayers about the flaws and inherent unfairness of union-only Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s), and other discriminatory practices. To date over $3 billion in construction projects has been saved from PLA’s because of CFEC's efforts.