Ceremony Held Day Before Sound Transit’s Lynnwood Link Extension Opening; On Heels of 9 Signers in Chicago (See Release Here)
SEATTLE – On the eve of Sound Transit’s Lynnwood Link Extension light rail line's grand opening, leaders of five public entities and a major construction management firm signed the Equity In Infrastructure Pledge. These six signers bring EIP's Coalition of the Committed to 74 members.
Signing the Pledge during a ceremony at Seattle’s historic Union Station were:
- Dow Constantine, Executive, King County, Washington
- Bruce Harrell, Mayor, City of Seattle
- Goran Sparrman, Chief Executive Officer, Sound Transit
- Steve Metruck, Executive Director, Port of Seattle
- Ric Ilgenfritz, Chief Executive Officer, Community Transit
- Michael Smith, Regional President, Americas, Hill International
Other speakers/ key attendees included:
- Veronica Vanterpool, Acting Administrator, Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
- Roger Millar, Secretary of Transportation, State of Washington (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Terri Mestas, Deputy CEO, Sound Transit
- Toshiko Hasegawa, Commission Vice President, Port of Seattle
- Greg Kelly, CEO, STV (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Rob Slimp, Chairman & CEO, HNTB (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Jon Porterfield, Executive Vice President, Northwest Region, Anser Advisory, now a part of Accenture (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Marvin Thomas, Board Chair/Northwest Region Director, HW Lochner (Triunity Engineering) (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Stuart Sunshine, Senior Vice President, National Director of Government Affairs - U.S. Region, WSP USA (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Peter Aarons, Aviation Sector Leader, Americas, TYLin (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Chris Killian, Senior Vice President, Turner Construction (Previous EIP Signatory)
- Paul Pendergast, Founder, BuildOut
- Phillip A. Washington, CEO, Denver International Airport/Co-Chair, EIP
- John D. Porcari, Former U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary/Co-Chair, EIP
- Rick Jacobs, Co-Chair, EIP
- Diana Mendes, Corporate President for Infrastructure & Mobility Equity, HNTB/Chair, EIP Advisory Council
EIP’s mission is to build generational wealth and reduce the racial wealth gap by improving public infrastructure contracting practices to create more prime, joint venture, and equity contracting opportunities for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). Providing these opportunities also creates more competition, reducing costs to public agencies and allowing them to drive more value from their infrastructure dollars. EIP Pledge signers are heads of transit authorities, airports, ports, water districts, and engineering, financial, and construction firms from across the country–representing hundreds of billions of dollars of power to improve people’s lives. The White House has directly called upon Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grantees to sign the Pledge.
See EquityInInfrastructure.org.
“We are advancing a national movement whose power can be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Encouraging CEOs at both public and private entities to provide opportunities for historically underutilized businesses to operate as prime contractors will result in increasing generational wealth in underserved communities,” said EIP Co-Chair Phil Washington. “There is a value proposition to awarding more contracts to small and minority firms. EIP is not a social program – EIP is an economic development program. This is a program where we can squeeze more dollars out of infrastructure investments. That power is unlocked when CEOs take the EIP Pledge, all voluntary, to create more opportunities for prime, joint venture, equity participation for historically underutilized businesses.”
“When we think about equity and infrastructure, for us at the Federal Transit Administration, we see them as intricately intertwined,” said FTA Administrator Veronica Vanterpool. “The Pledge that is being signed today has an impact across the country. “The road to truly economic opportunities is long, but with the action of these signers here today, we're on our way.”
"King County is committed to advancing equity in contracting, and the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge aligns perfectly with our ongoing work to support minority and women-owned businesses,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “By amplifying opportunities for historically underutilized businesses, we seek to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to participate in and contribute to our region's prosperity. This Pledge is another expression of King County’s daily commitment to becoming a welcoming community where every person can thrive."
“This work in equity, it is not a destination. It's a journey that we are on together,” said Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. “The importance of this work cannot be stated loudly enough, and I want King County and Seattle, Washington, to lead the way … I am excited to sign this Pledge.”
"I'm not signing the Pledge today because I signed it 18 months ago,” Washington State Transportation Secretary Roger Millar said. “What we have to do in Washington is make the investments we're making with all of the communities that we serve, to the benefit of all of the communities that we serve. Providing opportunities to create generational wealth in all of the communities that we serve. So, EIP was just natural for us.”
“It's a focus on how we can achieve the greatest possible, longest-lasting value by investing in airports, bridges, tunnels, and utilities and getting a two-fer from it. Not just building a bridge, but a bridge to the middle class,” said EIP Co-Chair John Porcari. “Our whole mission at EIP is about advancing ways to increase value for project owners, communities, and taxpayers. If there are more companies that can compete as primes, joint venture partners, or equity partners, that means more competition. That means that those generational investments pay off in the long run. That lowers the cost to taxpayers and frees up dollars for more investments. That improves contractor performance at a very fundamental level and builds partnerships that didn't exist before. So, we're stretching our infrastructure dollars further. That's what it's all about.”
“Sound Transit is committed to leveraging its nearly $100 billion capital program, the largest public works undertaking in the history of the state of Washington, to help build generational wealth by leveling the competitive marketplace for small, diverse businesses and creating quality career jobs for local residents,” said Sound Transit Deputy CEO Terri Mestas. “Sound Transit has a history of exceeding its disadvantaged business enterprise goals, but we are transforming our approach to project delivery and procurement to create greater levels of participation by investing in continued capacity building to create more disadvantaged business and prime opportunities.”
“HNTB is honored to be the founding sponsor of the Equity and Infrastructure Project. We are committed to building strong, historically underutilized businesses because building those businesses is building strong communities. And when our communities are strong, we all benefit,” said EIP Advisory Council Chair Diana Mendes. “We're not just about the policy changes. We're about making them a reality. Concrete, implementable actions that will make a difference to small businesses that serve our community every day.”
“The Port of Seattle is a proud signatory of the Equity in Infrastructure Project Pledge,” said Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, Commission Vice President, Port of Seattle. “The principles involved in this voluntary effort firmly align with the Port’s own efforts around providing equitable opportunities to historically underrepresented contractors for public works projects throughout our region.”
“It is a huge honor for us to be here,” said Community Transit CEO Ric Ilgenfritz. “Smaller agencies have different roles to play, but it's no less important. As metro regions grow and as they thrive, people tend to find their way into the suburbs in search of affordability. We are on the cusp of a historic transition as an industry. We are investing modestly, but for us, on a huge scale, as we think about shifting our fleets from diesel to zero-emission. For Community Transit, we've committed to making that transition over the next 20 years. And the full value of that transition is expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.4 billion. To consultants who are skilled in the way of engaging small and disadvantaged businesses, we need your help and we want your help as we chart this future to find this talent in Snohomish County.”
“We, at Hill International, are very excited to be part of the EIP initiative," said Hill International’s Michael Smith. "We bring with us a track record of partnering with a variety of HUB firms because we believe these partnerships are key to helping grow our industry and enriching the lives of future generations. This is a win-win for everyone.”
