| RFP
Draws 1; Baughan Reapplies |
| |
By Anne DeCecco
Observer Staff Writer |
| When the third request for proposals for a new operator
of the day labor site closed Monday the town had received
only one application, according to public information officer
Anne Curtis. |
| Dennis "Butch" Baughan said in an interview Tuesday he did
reapply for the contract this time after his proposal and
one other unidentified proposal had been deemed "non-responsive"
at the close of the second RFP process June 22. Curtis would
not say whether the one application received by the town was
Baughan's. |
| The special exception permit to run the Herndon Official
Workers Center currently held by Project Hope and Harmony,
a coalition group of Reston Interfaith, is due to expire Sept.
15. The town has issued three requests to find a new operator
for the day labor site who will ensure that only people who
are legally authorized to work in the United States will receive
service at the site. The first RFP closed Feb. 9 with no bids
and the second closed with two that were determined to be
unacceptable. |
| Curtis said the current application will be evaluated by
staff and then will go before the Town Council at its August
14 public hearing. If the council finds the application acceptable,
the town's long search to find a new day labor site operator
could come to an end just as Project Hope and Harmony's special
exception expires. |
| Baughan said Tuesday he did not change any of the original
ideas of his proposal, but just added "more criteria" to it
that the town required. Baughan declined to say what exactly
he changed about the application, but said, "I tried to respond
to everything they asked." |
| A draft copy of Baughan's proposal obtained by The Observer
proposes to operate the site through a business he would create
especially for the task, named the Dulles Area Employment
and Vocational Education Center. The purpose of the business
would be to provide education, training and employee-employer
matches for day workers who are legally eligible to work in
the United States as well as high school drop-outs, homeless
people identified by Fairfax County and potential employees
identified by the juvenile court and other groups. |
| Baughan said in a previous interview he is qualified to
run the site for these purposes because he ran the Work Experience
Co-op Employment Program at his alma mater, Herndon High School,
for about 15 years beginning with its inception in 1986. Baughan
said he took classes in special needs and at-risk youth education
and developed the curriculum for the WECEP program. Baughan
also holds Virginia teacher certification in kindergarten
through 12 grades for health and physical education, technology
education, vocational electricity, unclassified trades, vocational
special needs and real estate. |
| Baughan's draft proposal states that in addition to providing
matching services between workers and employers, the business
would train all its clients in resume preparation, speech,
English as a second language, interviewing skills, professional
appearance, general safety habits and business letter writing
skills. |
| It states that Baughan's business plans to "become a one
stop service delivery site as outlined in the Workforce Investment
Act and implemented by the Virginia Employment Commission." |
| Baughan said one possibility for how his company would check
workers' legal status would be by looking at driver's licenses,
although he said there are states where licenses can be obtained
without immigration documentation. Licenses from those states
would not be valid, he said. Another possibility would be
to have workers fill out I-9 forms, which require documentation
of legal residency. |
| But questions still remain as to whether having a new operator
who checks the legal presence of all its clients will pass
legal muster. The town currently enforces an anti-solicitation
ordinance that prohibits people from seeking employment and
from hiring employees in any part of town except the day labor
site. |
| In an ongoing legal battle, Reston man Stephen Thomas is
challenging the constitutionality of that ordinance, and General
District Judge Lorraine Nordlund recently ruled that if the
day labor site did not exist, she would have to strike the
ordinance. Nordlund's ruling, which is currently being considered
by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge under an appeal filed
by Thomas, made it unclear if the ordinance would continue
to be permissible if the labor site only served qualified
workers and not everybody. |
