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Council OKs Cingular Deal: The Call Center Will Employ About 500 People at a Minimum $10 an Hour.

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 09:02 CDT

By Jeff Tucker, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

May 9--City Councilman Ray Aguilera may have jumped the gun during Monday night's discussion over a Cingular Wireless call center, but only by a fraction.

Prior to Council's official and unanimous vote to spend nearly $6 million to help bring the center here, Aguilera was already welcoming the company to the community.

"I would like to say welcome to Pueblo," Aguilera said, before he cast his vote Monday. "We've been waiting for this for a long time."

While it wasn't technically a foregone conclusion that Council would support the call center, it was probably as close as one could get.

Cingular and Council had been in closed-door negotiations for the past month and before the vote to release revenue from the half-cent sales tax for economic development, Council had already given initial approval to a rezoning and subdivision plan for the Cingular building.

The rezoning and subdivision will get final votes May 22.

Cingular has promised to employ at least 500 people at a minimum of $10 an hour at its inbound call center, which helps customers who have problems with their cellular service.

In exchange for the 500 jobs, the city will release $5.67 million to help the company pay for equipment in the center.

The money will not be used to help build the 75,000 square-foot call center, which will be constructed on private land owned by developer Louie Carleo.

Beginning in 2008, and continuing for the next seven years, the city will track the number of full-time employees at the center every quarter. Cingular will be charged about $400 for every employee it falls short of that 500-person goal every three months.

Aguilera was the only member of the Council who spoke about the issue and praised Cingular for the wages it has promised.

"We've been trying to raise the wages of people in Pueblo," he said. "Although it's not $20 an hour, it's a great start and it provides some of the competition we need."

Aguilera also said it would be a boon to Downtown businesses and restaurants, which will benefit from a spike in the number of workers within walking distance.

Council signed off on the project roughly a month after it voted to continue discussions with the company without the assistance of the Pueblo Economic Development Corp.

Dan Kramer, executive director of customer care strategic planning for Cingular, made a brief statement to Council after it cast the vote, thanking them and the city staff for their work.

"We are also excited to participate in the revitalization of Downtown Pueblo," Kramer said. "We believe we are literally bringing jobs to Main Street, U.S.A."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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Source: The Pueblo Chieftain

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