Port District Hit on Latino Hiring : ‘The Numbers Are Appalling’; Coalition Urges New Steps

A coalition of Latino organizations has criticized the Port District for what it called an appalling record in hiring and doing business with Latinos.

The group urged the San Diego Unified Port District to do several things, including hiring more Latinos at all levels and placing more in administrative jobs; hiring a Latino equal opportunity officer; offering the district’s contracts to Latino businesses, and establishing a Latino advisory committee.

Spokesman for the coalition, attorney Dan Guevara, of the Mexican American Business and Professional Assn., said in an interview Friday that “we want them to know we are watching this thing very closely. The numbers are appalling.”

13 Organizations

The coalition, consisting of 13 organizations, maintains that Latinos are greatly underrepresented at the Port District. “In San Diego County, the Hispanic population numbers approximately 473,800, which is 17.7% of the total population. In those cities that make up the Port District area, the numbers are significantly greater,” Guevara said a press conference. “The total percentage of Hispanic employees at the Port District . . . is 9.2%, which is 36 employees.”

“We pay our fair share of taxes for government services, we deserve our fair return in employment policies,” he said.

In the area of contracts, the coalition claimed that less than 2% of the Port District’s contracts are held by businesses owned by minorities or women.

Of the 52 companies that lease space from the Port District at Lindbergh Field only one--a shoeshine stand operated by a black man--is owned by a minority.

FAA Criticism

Latinos aren’t the only ones who have recently criticized the Port District over its hiring and contracting practices. The Federal Aviation Administration, for example, has questioned the lack of minority-owned businesses at the airport.

In response, the Board of Port Commissioners authorized creating the first-ever equal opportunity management administrator post in January. After a lengthy search, the Port District hired Ted Woodard, a black from the San Francisco Bay Area, in early May. But Woodard was barely on the job three weeks before he quit for personal reasons and returned to the Bay Area.

The Latino coalition wants the Port District to fill the position as soon as possible from the list of finalists compiled when Woodard was hired, rather than launching another nationwide search. There are several Latinos on that list, and one should be hired, said Guevara.

Don Nay, the Port District’s executive director, was not available for comment. Port District spokesman Jim Anderson said the agency’s plans are “to immediately look for a replacement.” He said the Port District has made a commitment to not only increase the number of minorities in its work force but to also increase “minority participation in contracts and as port tenants as well.”