By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced the formation of the Office of Community Hiring and the appointment of Doug Lipari as its executive director.
The Office of Community Hiring will work with contractors to identify promising talent and provide employment and apprenticeship opportunities for low-income individuals and those residing in economically-disadvantaged communities. Once fully implemented, an estimated 36,000 jobs will be created annually for low-income individuals and impacted communities, allowing city contractors to leverage the full talent of the City workforce.
Community hiring allows the City to leverage its purchasing power, set hiring goals across billions of dollars of city procurement contracts, and build on the success of existing project labor agreements and agency-specific hiring programs. The Office of Community Hiring will advance the administration’s vision for an equitable, inclusive economy, and deliver on the promise to prioritize the needs of working people by creating pathways to careers with family-sustaining wages, Adams said.
“Our city’s economic recovery depends on opening up our workforce to those who have been denied a fair shot for far too long. But the Office of Community Hiring will be on the frontlines of ensuring that low-income individuals and economically disadvantaged communities have access to good-paying opportunities,” Hizzoner added.
Before being appointed executive director of the Office of Community Hiring, Lipari served as the deputy general counsel of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. Lipari played an instrumental role in negotiating the city’s recent Project Labor agreements, which cover several billion dollars of construction work, and established the city’s ambitious and first-ever community hiring goals for the construction trades. With nearly a decade of city procurement experience, Lipari recognizes the immense power of city contracting to connect local talent with the contractors who do business with the city.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duquesne University and a Juris Doctor from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Lipari will report to Office of Talent and Workforce Development Executive Director Abby Jo Sigal.
“The community hiring program is vitally important tool to address longtime disparities in hiring that have prevented many people from underserved communities from earning the incomes they need to build better lives for themselves and their children,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. “Initiatives like the community hiring program show our commitment to making sure someone’s ZIP code or socioeconomic status is never a barrier to economic opportunity.”
“Uplifting low-income neighborhoods and communities of color by driving economic stimulus and providing opportunities for hard working New Yorkers to pursue the middle class is absolutely crucial to the future of the city, and measures like the community hiring legislation will play an integral role in driving this forward,” said Gary LaBarbera, president, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. “This legislation will create opportunity through all sectors by leveraging the economic power of the city to ensure that New Yorkers from all backgrounds have access to good-paying, family sustaining careers. We look forward to collaborating with the administration to roll out the community hiring program and applaud Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul for pushing this important initiative over the finish line.”
