"No black contracts — no light rail"

Dozens of people joined hands in prayer at a Sound Transit meeting yesterday, asking that politicians who run the agency find more jobs for black contractors.

The prayer ended a day of protest, in which 70 people waved picket signs at each end of a partly built train tunnel in Seattle, entered a fenced work area and briefly blocked traffic at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Rainier Avenue South. Some irritated drivers tried to lurch through the protest group, but no one was injured.

Demonstrators said they've been frustrated for three years by the light-rail project from Westlake Center to Tukwila, where construction is nearing the halfway mark.

In July 2003, Sound Transit delayed awarding a contract in Sodo after ministers said only 1 percent of the dollars were flowing to African-American-owned firms. Currently, about 2 percent of dollars in the overall project are going to them, according to Sound Transit figures.

"We pray for the board. We don't have any anger toward the board ... " said the Rev. Kenneth Ransfer, pastor of Greater Mount Baker Baptist Church, while leading the prayer at the meeting. "Wherever their hearts are hardened, may you soften them. Wherever their vision is blocked, may you unblock it." Filing out of the boardroom, the group chanted: "No black jobs, no black contracts — no light rail."

Sound Transit has hired an outside investigator to review complaints by black-owned businesses, said board Chairman John Ladenburg, who also is the Pierce County executive. Another board member, King County Executive Ron Sims, said through a spokesperson that "Sound Transit is committed to fixing the problem."

Talks are ongoing with the Community Coalition for Contracts and Jobs, which promotes black-owned firms and helped lead the day's demonstrations. But when Sound Transit asked to postpone talks with the group this week until mid-May, the activists decided to hold demonstrations.

Though black-owned firms are doing a relatively small percentage of the work, Sound Transit says that, overall, about 11 percent of all work hours, including those with large contractors, are going to black employees.

James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, and Pamela Green, the city's community liaison for light rail, said the black presence doesn't appear to be that large when they travel the route.

Federal regulations allow Sound Transit to set hiring goals for minority, female and disabled workers or business owners — but not for specific races. With more than one-quarter of jobs going to disadvantaged groups, Sound Transit says its major contractors are exceeding the goals.

"I hope that you know Sound Transit is serious about this issue and will continue to work with you," light-rail director Ahmad Fazel told demonstrator Charles Rolland along Rainier Avenue.

Rolland cautioned him, "Contents under pressure — if you don't relieve it, it's going to escalate."

In the 2000 census, 27 percent of people in Seattle neighborhoods near the route were African American, 42 percent Asian, 17 percent white and 7 percent Latino.

Kelly said transit officials made a "gentlemen's and ladies' agreement" to bring jobs into the community in exchange for tearing up MLK Way to build tracks on the surface.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com.