My name is Yvonne McGinnis. I’m the owner of We’re Cleaning Incorporated. We’ve been in business since 1985, and we ’re the oldest minority- and female-owned business in Chicago. We began by cleaning offices and small office buildings. Twenty-seven years later, we clean 65,000-seat stadiums and arenas.
Our client list includes the city of Chicago, Cook County and State of Illinois buildings, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Park District.
I’m proud to say I’ve hired hundreds of African American and minority employees over the years. As a result, our employees have been able to support their families and their neighborhood businesses.
We’ve worked hard to maintain a strong track record for many years. Unfortunately “The City that Works” is not working as well as it used to.
Chicago will spend 8.2 billion dollars in 2012. This includes hundreds of millions of dollars spent with contractors, and more money spent by the Public Building Commission. This is the company that builds police and fire stations, libraries and City Colleges of Chicago.
These public agencies must follow laws and codes that require them to spend between 20 and 35% with minority and female-owned firms. They are paying their chosen firms with your tax money. In 2011, between 2.4 and 3.6 billion dollars should have gone to minority-owned companies. Here on the South Side, especially in the Grand Boulevard area where my office is located, we didn’t see any of that money.
So where did it go? Simple. The money has gone to politically connected companies that give campaign money to public officials, which is highly unethical, not to mention illegal. My company and my employees have suffered because we don’t participate in this “pay-to-play” behavior.
We’ve lost major contracts with long-term, satisfied clients without being given a legitimate reason. For example, we successfully cleaned Soldier Field for 19 years until a new Park District board president was elected. He hired a firm that wasn’t minority-owned. We also lost established contracts with Live Nation and SMG to other non-minority firms without notice or a clear reason why.
These contracts enabled me to hire hundreds of people. And I’m not alone: many minority-owned firms can tell the same story. Some of these companies who replaced us have been exposed for corruption and “minority fronting”, but somehow still manage to keep the contracts.
If you wonder why the schools and libraries in our community are rundown or the local businesses are closing, it’s because the money we’re entitled to isn’t being divided fairly.
I’m currently involved in two lawsuits with the Chicago Park District and their contractors. Unfortunately, the city has time and money on its side. They’re counting on the fact I don’t have the time or the money to fight them properly. The business that I’ve built and love is in real trouble.
That’s why I’m asking for your help. Please take a moment to go to (website) and look up case numbers ___ and ___. You can see what I’ve been up against for many years. I’m also setting up a legal fund. The money you donate will only be used to pay the attorneys on this case. Please send whatever you can afford to the address you see here. Every dollar counts.
My company, my employees and my community – will be forever grateful.