Updated: Wednesday, 18 Aug 2010, 8:06 PM MDT
Published : Wednesday, 18 Aug 2010, 8:06 PM MDT
For the city of Santa Monica, California, it doesn't matter that Arizona's new immigration law was partly blocked. They are sticking to their boycott, and it's costing an Arizona business a contract worth millions of dollars.
The mayor of Goodyear is blasting that boycott, saying, it's 'inexcusable.'
The contract was to build 20 manufactured homes, to replace older ones, at a mobile home park owned by the city of Santa Monica.
The lowest bidder was Phoenix-based company Cavco West -- but it was thrown out due to the boycott.
They lost a $3 million bid, after working on the bid for more than a year, and before any protests or boycotts over the controversial immigration law.
"Well, we feel it's unfortunate, we have 200 people employed at that facility that was to build those units, so it will mean less work for them," says Cavco president Joe Stegmayer.
Even though Cavco's bid was the lowest by $2 million, the Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously to reject the winning bid over SB 1070.
In a statement to the Santa Monica Daily Press, Councilman Kevin McKeown said, "I don't think we were trying to merely politically posture, I think we really did mean to send a serious message to the state of Arizona."
Jim Cavanaugh, the mayor of Goodyear, says the boycott will hurt many people in his community, since the Cavco manufacturing plant is located on the edge of the city.
"We're going to lose jobs -- and there will be people of all types of cultural backgrounds that will lose a job because of this action," he says.
With Arizona out of the running, Santa Monica is now rushing to find another company to deliver those homes, which they estimate will cost them an extra $2 million.
While Santa Monica's City Council is sticking to its boycott, other cities haven't exactly.
Los Angeles voted to boycott Arizona, but then it extended its contract with Scottsdale-based American Traffic Solutions for speed cameras. And Cook County, Illinois also voted to boycott Arizona, but one hour after the boycott vote -- it signed a deal with American Traffic Solutions.
(via MyFoxPhoenix.com)
