CC Minutes - 01/29/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Taylor agreed the City would not wipe out poverty on its own, but she believed that the City should pay its employees an adequate amount of money. She suggested it was more important to have jobs that pay wages that a person could live on rather than to create more jobs that do not. Ms. Taylor pointed out that many of the working poor were working two or three jobs. Those people could not get by on one job, meaning they will need more jobs, which did negative things to the social and family structure. Ms. Taylor did not think the City was sufficiently concerned with preventing people from becoming homeless. She was willing to use a phased approach but wanted to adopt the ESSN proposal with triggers to phase in the pay increases. Ms. Taylor said people should not be forced to apply for the earned income tax credit. If they were working at a job and doing a good job, they should be paid for that. The City should set an example. Ms. Taylor indicated willingness to exempt apprentices from the ordinance. Mayor Torrey also thought the proposal a bad one. He suggested that while those in the faith- based community were sincere about the living wage as a way to better the lot of the people in the community, the major emphasis for the proposal appeared to be its utility as a negotiating tool for the City's unions. He pointed out that Eugene had a city manager form of government that required the City Manager to negotiate contracts with employees. He suggested that if the council was concerned about the community's needy, it could direct whatever dollars proponents were prepared to spend on the proposal to the Budget Committee and asked the committee to spend it on social services that would help the community's most needy. Mayor Torrey said the voters' recent rejection of Ballot Measure 28 would create a tremendous impact in the community on those without jobs. Mr. Kelly noted support across the political spectrum for a living wage as expressed by former councilor Pat Fart. Speaking to the mayor's suggestion that the proposal was a union bargaining tool, Mr. Kelly found the suggestion offensive, as the president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, City, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) vowed in writing not to use it as a negotiating tool. Mr. Kelly expressed frustration with the process, saying that until the council had a draft ordinance before it to review, he did not see how it could make a decision about what to include or exclude. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to direct the City Manager to draft a living wage ordinance to be brought back for a public hearing in April 2003 that would be based on the ESSN proposal, with implementation starting in fiscal year 2005, with a wage level of $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without benefit (benefits primarily meaning health insurance). The ordinance would include City employees at a threshold of over 900 hours year, service contractors with contracts above $15,000 annually, and businesses that receive financial assistance from the City greater than $25,000 yearly. Implementation would be phased over three years, with the first year being fiscal year 2005. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 29, 2003 Page 7 Work Session