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representatives Phil Barnhardt, Terry Byer, Al King, Vicki Walker, and Senators Susan Castillo, <br />Tony Corcoran, and Bill Morrisette. He noted that 20 percent of Lane County residents had <br />needed food boxes during the previous year and stressed that a living wage ordinance would help <br />the working poor. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner noted that the ordinance was not a minimum wage law but was only proposed for City <br />employees and City contracts. He noted that none of the people who signed the letter read by Mr. <br />Kelly had proposed a living wage in the State legislature. He raised concern that the City could <br />not pay for wage increases and suggested that the issue needed to be handled by the State. He <br />noted that, of the five cities in Oregon that had implemented such an ordinance, two had excluded <br />their own employees outright and a third did not include half-time employees or excluded <br />temporary employees. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor said he strongly supported the concept of a living wage. He said there were two issues. <br />The level of the living wage definition and key provisions and exemptions. He said the cost to the <br />City could be reasonable and the higher wages would go back into the community. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor said everyone deserved a living wage and said that the City should do its part. She <br />opined that increased wages would improve employee loyalty and productivity. She read part of a <br />letter from a union representative named Stefan Ostrach, which stated that committing the City to <br />pay a living wage would contribute to economic development. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey distributed a sheet of questions and read the ones he thought were most important: <br /> <br /> 1. How many City of Eugene employees did not qualify for a living wage as <br /> suggested? <br /> <br /> 2. What would be the impact of bracketing compensation levels? Would increasing <br /> lower level employee wages drive executive wages up? <br /> <br /> 3. Would a living wage ordinance preclude the City from privatization of its services <br /> in the future? <br /> <br />City Manager Carlson said there was a definite intent that the City could not privatize its services <br />to save money but could privatize if the workers were included in the living wage ordinance. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey said he had talked with other mayors in cities that had enacted living wage <br />ordinances and remarked that, in all cases, the mayors had said they wished they had known <br />more about the effects of a living wage ordinance before implementing it. He noted that the City <br />of Corvallis had to alter its ordinance because it could not afford to pay a person with a disability at <br />the compensation level they were being asked to pay. <br /> <br />In response to a question from Mayor Torrey regarding what the City of Springfield was doing to <br />address the living wage issue, City Manager Carlson said that nothing was being done in <br />Springfield to address the living wage issue. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly suggested that the City of Eugene could profit by the experience of the other cities that <br />had enacted living wage ordinances. He suggested using a defined metric that would stop the <br />implementation of the ordinance if the financial health of the City became endangered. <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 12, 2002 Page 7 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />