NOVEMBER 30, 2009, WASHINGTON, DC—A program launched November 5, 2009, in Essex County, NJ, will help small, minority and women-owned construction contractors. By participating in this program, these contractors will improve their business operations so they can qualify for surety bonding. Qualifying for surety bonding enables contractors to participate in federal, state and local government funded projects.

Seeking to promote economic development and enhance opportunities for these contractors to pursue business with Essex County and other counties in New Jersey, the Essex County Office of Small Business Development and Affirmative Action (SBDAA) partnered with The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA) to establish the Essex County Bonding Readiness Program.

“Essex County’s Bonding Readiness Program is the first-ever multiple county bonding program geared towards helping those target business populations in need of the necessary credentials to apply for government contracts,” said Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.

“For the past two years,” added SBDAA Director Deborah E. Collins, Esq., “we have courted the idea of launching a bonding program in partnership with The Surety & Fidelity Association of America. It was just an idea then, but today, the idea has become a reality with the receipt of a federal earmark from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Once again, Essex County makes history as we work to ensure that small, women, and minority business owners are positioned to achieve success in bidding on contracts in the public sector.”

SFAA plays an active role in diversity nationwide by assisting in educating small, minority, and women-owned contractors on how to obtain surety bonding or increase their bonding capacity and by providing technical assistance and program resources to state and local governments in the
areas of contractor development and bonding support. The Essex County program features educational workshops and a bond readiness component modeled after the SFAA Model Contractor Development Program.

“We are excited to launch this bonding initiative in partnership with the Essex County Office of Small Business Development and Affirmative Action,” said SFAA President Lynn M. Schubert. “This program is another reflection of the surety industry’s commitment to helping small, minority, and women-owned businesses obtain surety bonds or increase their bonding capacity. Our Model Contractor Development Program has been implemented in several state and
local jurisdictions throughout the country, where it has been highly successful in qualifying these contractors to participate in the public construction bidding process. We are confident that Essex County and its contractors will experience the same benefits and outcomes.”

During the educational workshops, participants learn how surety bonding relates to all aspects of their business operations and specific approaches and techniques that result in a successful bond application. Training focuses on business planning, banking and finance, construction accounting and financial management, bonding and insurance, claims and dispute resolution, marketing, estimating and bidding, and project management and field operations. The bond readiness component consists of one-on-one interactions with surety bond producers, underwriters and other professionals who work with participants to help assemble the materials and information necessary for a complete bond application. These professionals also work with participants to address any omissions or deficiencies that might deter the successful underwriting of a bond.

Preparing small and emerging contractors for surety bonding or increased bonding capacity is a critical piece in ensuring that they are able to play a significant role in government contracting. “Many times, what is perceived to be a surety bonding problem actually is a contract qualification
problem,” SFAA’s Schubert explained. “One of the primary purposes of surety bonds is to assure that a contractor is capable of performing a construction contract. Not all contractors qualify for all construction projects or surety bonds. This initiative provides the training resources and information these contractors need to eliminate barriers hindering successful surety bond underwriting decisions.”

A contractor’s ability to provide a surety bond to guarantee completion of a project, both public and private, is an essential element in the decision to award the contract. Women, minorities and other small business owners often have less experience and access to working capital. “This can make it difficult for them to obtain bonding,” Schubert said, “because a contractor’s credit worthiness and experience are among the most significant conditions insurers
consider in the underwriting process.”

The Essex County program will consist of an eight-week comprehensive business development course that will be offered four times a year over a two-year period. The goal is for each contractor who successfully completes the program to obtain a bond, a bond line, or increase his or her bonding capacity through education and direct assistance in the bonding process. Environmentally Based Green Building Owner Cindy Malinchak is excited about the
program. “I have worked on some public sector projects, but only as a subcontractor because I could not bid on programs,” she said. “I am excited about participating in this program because it is a great networking opportunity and I look forward to enhancing my credentials and better positioning myself to bid on projects in the future.”

Accolade Construction Group, Inc. President Faisal Ahmed, added, “Participating in the County’s Bonding Readiness Program will not only provide us with valuable information about bonding, but will also provide access to experts that can help us better understand how important estimation and other aspects are.”

New Jersey Professional Estimators Association President Joseph P. Majewski will present a workshop session in December on marketing, estimating and bidding. “Many people were given the designation of a ‘small business,’ but they were not trained to compete for big bids,” he said. “We are excited to work with Essex County and the SFAA to provide this valuable information to business owners.”
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SFAA is a licensed rating or advisory organization in all states including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and has been designated by state insurance departments as a statistical agent for
the reporting of fidelity and surety experience.

Published on http://www.nj.com
By Anthony Coleman
March 07, 2009, 10:46PM

TRENTON — The way Derrick Wilson sees it, you get one chance to build your foundation.

Cie Stroud/For The TimesDerrick Wilson stands on one of the landings his company built between construction trailers at the Capital Health hospital going up in Hopewell Township.

“You are getting that first opportunity to prove yourself,” said the 37-year-old Ewing carpenter, “and then you can go on to other firms and other projects.”

Wilson, who has been in business with his wife, Chantel, for approximately six years, is taking advantage of just such an opportunity. He recently won a $70,000 contract to do interior and exterior carpentry for trailers at the construction site of the new Capital Health hospital being built in Hopewell Township.

The work is part of a commitment the Trenton-based hospital made to funnel some of the work on its $555 million hospital toward minority- and women-owned businesses.

The general contractor on the project, Skanska USA Building of New York, has a diversity program and is committed to such a goal, according to project director George Mote.

Without such a commitment, according to Derrick Wilson, he and other minority business people would miss out on the opportunity to prove they can do the same kind of quality work as larger, established businesses.

Some minority contractors are at a competitive disadvantage, Wilson said, because they lack the deep pockets, the track record, the union ties, and the networking that help land lucrative contracts.

So far Skanska has awarded $23 million in project work, of which $2.6 million has gone to minority-owned businesses and $9.5 million to women-owned businesses, Don MacNeill, spokesman for the hospital, said last week. With the hospital project in Hopewell still in its infancy, with a 2011 completion target, there is potential for minorities and women to win a lot more work, MacNeill said.

MacNeill said in some cases construction jobs have been broken down into smaller chunks so that it’s easier for small minority- and women-owned businesses to qualify.

Similarly inclusive policies have been implemented for a $45 million Trenton Fuld hospital renovation going on currently, MacNeill added.

Karen Hickey, president of Ed-O Insulation Co. of Ewing, says her business has been very fortunate to have landed contracts for work on both the Fuld and Hopewell projects.

The combined work, for insulating temperature control and ventilation systems, amounts to $1.5 million, and Hickey, a subcontractor on both projects, thinks this might just be the beginning. There is the potential for more work, she says.

“It’s very important to have a contract, to have this employment. During very difficult economic times it has been a fabulous opportunity and we are very happy to get these jobs,” Hickey said. They mean full employment for her 32 workers and she expects to hire more from the union hall as the work progresses.

The level of minority contractor participation in major projects in central New Jersey has frequently been an issue over the last 15 years. Minority contractors complained they largely were left out of two major building projects in Trenton in the 1990s — Waterfront Park baseball stadium and Sovereign Bank Arena.

Capital Health officials said the hospital is trying to address those market disparities while being cognizant of the fact that they must award contracts to the lowest qualified bidder. In addition, Capital Health has made its new hospital a union project, and is not only working to steer work toward minorities, but to ensure they are part of a union as well.

Toward that end, the hospital hired QWIC Inc., a Palmyra-based consultant.

QWIC, which stands for Qualified Women/Minorities in Construction, essentially gets the word out to minority businesses that the work is available, and it helps to coordinate training programs and workshops to educate contractors on such basic things as how to bid on projects and how to become part of labor unions.

Nancy Myers, the president of QWIC, said, “Through our network, we provide small, minority- and woman-owned businesses with technical assistance, support services, customized training and professional managerial counseling.”

QWIC, in cooperation with JPM Construction Consultants Inc. of Spring Lake, conducted a 26-hour class that met on weeknights to educate minority contractors on compiling bid specifications, meeting deadlines, filling out forms, and other basics.
Eleven such contractors recently successfully completed one such class, the importance of which cannot be overstated, some contractors said.

For minority contractors who may not have a track record of achievement, completion of the course serves as a kind of Good Housekeeping seal of approval that they can handle the work, said QWIC vice president Joan Walker and JPM president Joseph Majewski.

And, it puts them on an equal footing with more established firms when it comes time to bid for a job, Walker and Majewski said.

“Now it’s up to the contractors to take it a step further, and do their due diligence,” said Campbell, who served with the Marines in Iraq, then returned home to go into business for himself several years ago.

James Fulmore of Fulmore Construction in Trenton agreed. “I’m honored to have a chance to bid on some of this work and have a chance to be as big as some of these other contractors,” he said.

Fulmore was unsuccessful in his bid, but managed to obtain work on the project through another contractor, according to MacNeill.

Construction is a relationship business, some said, and the minority contractor training program helps out those workers who have not had the opportunity to establish those relationships.

“You are an equal contractor to others in the bidding process,” Majewski said, who remains available as a mentor to minority contractors after they have completed the class. QWIC does follow-up to monitor how many minority contractors actually get some of the work.

Larry DiSanto, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Capital Health, said the hospital has not specified what percentage of the new hospital work it would like to see go to minority- or women-owned businesses.

“We are using a best effort to be as inclusive as possible,” DiSanto said. “This is completely voluntary on our part. This is not a requirement by any governmental agency.”

It is also not an attempt to mend fences, according to DiSanto. When Capital Health announced several years ago that it intended to leave its century-old hospital on Bellevue Avenue in Trenton and built a hospital somewhere outside the capital city, there was criticism that it was abandoning poorer, urban patients for wealthier suburban customers.

“We really didn’t look at it that way at all,” DiSanto said about the effort to channel work toward minority or women-owned businesses. “We wanted to make as meaningful a difference as possible to the economy of the region. This was the right thing to do.”

David Sulkin, vice president of sales and marketing for Billows Electric, which is owned by a woman, agreed. “It is a great statement,” Sulkin said, “that they feel compelled to give back to the community.”

Billows has supplied furniture for trailers to Skanska, the project’s general contractor, and according to Sulkin, they hope to win a bigger contract down the road to provide some of the office and administrative type furniture for the hospital itself.

Winning such a contract would mean a great deal for the Trenton-based Billows. “We don’t know yet what the scope will be from a furniture standpoint, but this project is going to run for three or four years,” Sulkin said.

The legacy will last longer than that, according to Derrick Wilson. “This is gonna be history here,” he said. Minority firms such as his will have a chance with the Capital Health project to prove themselves to other potential employers in the future.

Growing up, Derrick Wilson said, he learned that, “If they try to slam the door in your face, keep sticking your foot in the door.” In the case of Capital Health’s new hospital, he said, “Someone opened the door for us.”

Staff writer Tony Hagen contributed to this report.

MARLBORO — Three professionals are helping the township fight ongoing litigation.

In 1999 the Monmouth Housing Alliance sought permission to build a development of 37 apartments on Boun-dary Road near the Colts Neck border. The apartments were not a permitted use in the zone in which they were proposed.

The apartments would have been made available as affordable housing to people who have an income that meets regional guidelines established by the state Council on Affordable Housing.

Among the objectors to the plan was the township of Colts Neck. The Zoning Board of Adjust-ment eventually rejected the Monmouth Housing Alliance’s application for the development.

The alliance subsequently filed a lawsuit alleging that the zoning board violated New Jersey’s Fair Housing Act when it rejected the application, according to a previous article in the News Transcript.

Township Attorney Andrew Bayer said a trial on the litigation is currently taking place in state Superior Court, Freehold. There has been a few days of testimony and the plaintiff is currently putting on its case, Bayer said.

With that in mind, the Township Council took action recently to compensate professionals who are working on behalf of Marlboro.

Thomas A. Thomas of Thomas Planning Associates, Brielle, has been providing the township with advice relating to the claims made by the Monmouth Housing Alliance. A resolution approved by the council on Feb. 3 was to compensate Thomas Planning with a payment not to exceed $10,000.

Joseph P. Majewski of JPM Construction Consultants, Spring Lake, has been working for the township for several months, providing advice concerning the damage claims in the litigation. The council will compensate Majewski with a payment not to exceed $10,000.

The council hired Art Bernard of THP, East Brunswick, to provide advice concerning the affordable housing claims in the litigation with the Monmouth Housing Alliance. The firm’s payment will not exceed $10,000.

Council members said 100 percent of the money to pay for the professionals’ services will come out of the affordable housing trust fund. However, it is possible to get up to 50 percent of the money back from insurance, according to municipal officials.