Mayor-elect Vince Gray said he wants to create both incentives and punishments to get companies that contract with the District to hire city residents.
The city has long had a requirements that businesses receiving government contracts must hire at least 51 percent of their employees from the District. But the rule has been poorly enforced and widely goes unfollowed.
Monday morning, however, Gray took the advice of business owners who suggested during the mayor-elect’s “job’s summit” that the city create incentives for companies to follow the law. One suggestion was that companies that prove they’ve hired the sufficient proportion of District residents move to the head of the line for future contracts.
“We’ll have to have both the carrot and the stick,” Gray said in response to the suggestions. “If you don’t get the job done with District residents, you’ll have to pay up and get out of the way.”
