No Blacklisters Please: Decency in P3 Contracting

Elected Officials in Texas, California, North Carolina, Illinois, Virginia, and Massachusetts need to raise the decency bar when awarding P3 contracts. Balfour Beatty and LAZ Parking run public works, such as:

1. The Alameda Corridor (CA)
2. Metro Goldline (CA)
3. Chicago Parking Meters (IL)
4. North Antelope Rochelle Mine (WY)
5. Alfred Cunningham Bridge (NC)
6. Dulles Airport Expansion (VA)
7. Dorchester Tunnel (MA)
8. Highway 130 (TX)
9. City of Norwalk Parking Authority (CT)

etc.

The United Kingdom Information Commissioner recently named Balfour Beatty and LAZ Parking Company's parent, Vinci, as having funded a secret 15-year long blacklisting operation.

Privileged information about workers was obtained inappropriately and covertly by these two P3 firms and their eight allies. The information was used to create a secret intelligence database of over 3,000 citizens. Data was compiled on union activities and conduct at past jobs.

Comments were made about specific workers with union involvement such as:

"Communist party"
"a sleeper and should be watched"
"Do not Touch!"
"very bad news"

The guy who ran the operation for Balfour Beatty and its allies had worked previously for the Economic League, which had been in operation from 1919 to 1993. The League was a vetting agency that collected names of citizens which it considered subversives--and was part of the United Kingdom's version of McCarthyism.

The UK government thankfully just shut down this Balfour Beatty-sponsored operation. The UK Deputy Information Commission made the following remarks:

Not only was personal information held on individuals without their knowledge or consent, but the very existence of the database was repeatedly denied [by firms like Balfour Beatty and LAZ Parking].

Our elected officials should be under an affirmative duty to seek out this type of information about potential contractors, before awarding them long term lucrative public works contracts.