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REBECCA ARMENDARIZ
Friday, November 21, 2008
The
chairman
of
a
family-owned
property
development,
management
and
construction
company
based
in
Rockville,
Md.,
donated
$50,000
to
support
Proposition
8
days
before
it
passed,
according
to
public
records.
Sid
Foulger,
a
Mormon,
established
Foulger-Pratt
in
1963,
according
to
the
company’s
web
site.
His
sons
and
son-in-law
have
since
taken
leadership
positions
in
the
business;
they
did
not
make
Prop
8
contributions.
The
company
is
divided
into
four
operating
units:
Foulger-Pratt
Contracting,
LLC,
Foulger-Pratt
Development,
Inc.,
Foulger-Pratt
Management,
Inc.
and
Pioneer
Building
Services.
Sid
Foulger
does
not
directly
manage
any
of
the
branches,
but
acts
as
the
chairman.
His
office
did
not
return
calls
seeking
comment
on
the
Prop
8
donation.
Among
Foulger-Pratt’s
completed
projects
is
the
Mormon
temple
in
Kensington,
Md.
The
contracting
portion
of
the
company
is
in
charge
of
a
large
Silver
Spring,
Md.,
transit
center,
and
the
development
company
has
projects
in
the
works
at
the
University
of
Maryland
and
with
Kimpton
Hotels.
San
Francisco-based
Kimpton
earned
a
perfect
score
on
the
Human
Rights
Campaign’s
Corporate
Equality
Index
and
has
a
strong
gay-friendly
reputation.
Foulger-Pratt
has
signed
a
letter
of
intent
with
the
hotel
chain
to
build
a
four-star
hotel
in
Park
Potomac,
an
“urban
village”
in
Potomac,
Md.,
for
completion
in
2011.
Alan
Baer,
senior
vice
president
of
people
and
culture
for
the
Kimpton
Hotel
Group,
confirmed
plans
for
the
project
but
said
it
hasn’t
broken
ground
yet.
“From
a
business
perspective,
you
don’t
sit
around
the
board
room
table
and
discuss
your
religious
or
social
preferences,”
said
Baer,
who
is
gay.
“If
we
go
into
a
room
where
it’s
publicly
known
that
the
company’s
beliefs
are
[anti-LGBT],
then
we
would
certainly
question
whether
we
want
to
do
business
with
them.”
Baer
emphasized
that
Sid
Foulger’s
donation
to
support
Proposition
8
was
a
personal
contribution
and
not
a
corporate
one.
“When
we
talk
about
diversity
and
inclusion,
it’s
not
just
about
ethnic
or
religious
background
or
sexual
orientation,”
he
said.
“It’s
more
fundamentally
about
diversity
of
thought.
The
worst
thing
I
could
think
of
would
be
a
board
room
full
of
people
with
my
exact
background
and
my
exact
beliefs.”
Baer
said
he
wasn’t
concerned
that
working
with
Foulger-Pratt
would
tarnish
his
company’s
pro-gay
image.
“I
don’t
know
what
part
of
the
decision
Sid
Foulger
had
in
hiring
us,”
he
said.
“Their
organization
hired
Kimpton
to
run
and
operate
the
hotel
that
they’re
developing.
They
hired
us
knowing
who
we
are
and
how
we
operate
our
hotels.
People
can
support
what
they
want,
but
we’re
not
going
to
operate
our
business
any
differently.”
Kimpton
Hotels
has
a
campaign
in
place
to
raise
funds
for
HIV/AIDS
research.
The
D.C.
beneficiary
of
the
company’s
Red
Ribbon
Campaign
is
the
Whitman-Walker
Clinic.
Transgender
activist
Dana
Beyer,
who
works
for
at-large
Montgomery
County
Council
member
Duchy
Trachtenberg,
said
that
focusing
on
Foulger’s
donation
is
counter-productive.
“Sid
Foulger
isn’t
a
player
in
the
business
anymore,”
she
said.
“The
name
is
out
there,
but
he
himself
made
a
personal
contribution.
He’s
an
87-year-old
guy.”
But
Dan
Furmansky,
executive
director
of
Equality
Maryland,
said
the
donation
raises
serious
questions.
“Across
the
country,
there
are
jurisdictions
that
have
established
laws
to
ensure
that
the
contractors
a
city
or
county
does
business
with
adhere
to
equality
practices,”
he
said.
“Citizens
of
Montgomery
County
need
to
hold
our
elected
officials
accountable
for
doing
business
with
a
company
whose
chairman
and
CEO
has
contributed
to
the
devastation
of
thousands
of
families.”
The
Mormon
church
aggressively
supported
Prop
8,
which
bans
same-sex
marriage
in
California
and
puts
about
18,000
such
marriages
already
performed
in
legal
limbo.
Reaction
to
Prop
8’s
passage
has
included
protests
at
Mormon
churches
and
boycott
threats
targeting
companies
that
donated
to
the
effort.
Local
activists
did
not
immediately
call
for
a
Foulger-Pratt
boycott.
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