START CENTER
20th Anniversary Dance
Sept. 14, 2012

START Center Plaza
743 North Sam Houston San Benito, TX 78586
Local: 956-399-7818
1-877-478-2781

Make sure local people get the jobs and local businesses get the business!

$122 million in federal hurricane disaster recovery funds are heading to the Valley and we want local low income residents to be hired for the projects receiving federal assistance. But URS, the firm that our local representatives have hired to manage the funds, wants to hire contractors from other places to come to the Valley, do these jobs and leave. That’s why the Equal Voice Network is calling on our representatives to stand up and support our plan. The more signatures the better. We want to show our representatives that we are aware of the cause and are counting on them to support local people and local business. The sooner we collect signatures, the faster the Council of Governments will consider our petition and put RGV residents to work.

To:
The members of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Corporation Board
The Texas General Land Office
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development

We, the undersigned, believe that all expenditures of Hurricane Dolly money in the Lower Rio Grande Valley should produce jobs for local people and contracts for local small businesses. The spirit of the law is to produce these jobs, not just to try to produce jobs. In order to make this happen, the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council should require the giant international company URS (#267 of the 500 biggest companies in America) to adopt the Equal Voice Network's plan for Section 3 compliance, which will:

• Ensure that 30% of all work done with the Hurricane money is by local people.
• Ensure that local small businesses can compete and get contracts for the work
• Ensure that local people get construction training that will be useful to the improvement of the Valley in the future.
• Ensure that the training and hiring is monitored and therefore successful.

Make sure local people get the jobs
and local businesses get the business!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITIION