The missing Independent Compliance Monitor for the Atlantic Yards CBA: it should have reported on the construction job training initiative, now subject of a lawsuit

I've written several times about the failure of Forest City Ratner to hire an Independent Compliance Monitor (ICM) as required by the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement.

That failure has saved Forest City up to $100,000 a year and has helped the developer stave off a closer look at total number of jobs at the project site.

Beyond that, it seems, the failure to hire an ICM has diverted scrutiny of Forest City's pre-apprentice training program, the subject of a lawsuit filed today by trainees who said they were promised jobs.

The missing reports

There's no ICM, so we've never seen a report on the training program. However, the CBA, excerpted at right, requires quarterly reports from the Developers to the CBA Coalition (representatives of the eight signatories) and ICM, including:

Number of Community residents presently enrolled in the Pre Apprentice Training initiative; Community Boards in which they reside and percentage of Minority (by category) and women workers; household income; number who successfully completed such initiative, and number who obtained jobs at the Project Site; successful participants length of current employment at the Project Site; percentage of successful participants as to number of total apprentices at Project Site”

(Emphasis added)

Had such reports been issued, the lawsuit might have been averted. Similarly, had figures who advocated for Atlantic Yards by citing the CBA--like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio--spoken up, it would not have taken a lawsuit to bring the lack of a compliance monitor to light.