Philadelphia City Council has unanimously approved Councilman W. Wilson Goode, Jr.’s Economic Opportunity Enforcement Legislation, empowering City Council to bring debarment charges against city contractors for failure to make best and good faith efforts to implement economic opportunity plans.

The Philadelphia Code amendment will provide that Council may, by resolution, determine that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a participant, contractor, project developer, or applicant for or recipient of financial assistance has failed to comply with the economic opportunity provisions and should be subject to debarment.

Kevin Dow, of the City’s Commerce Department, said “Economic inclusion for all Philadelphians is a high priority for the current Administration and opportunities to reinforce this in the City’s contracting and procurement process are most welcomed. It is important that we fully utilize the tools currently available to the City to communicate our desire to achieve and hold firms accountable for robust participation within our contracts for minorities, women and the disabled.”

A. Bruce Crawley, who also testified in support of the bill, said “Clearly the enforcement measures that are already part of the City’s laws have not constituted a deterrent. Perhaps the threat of permanent debarment will be enough to finally bring meaningful inclusion.”