Fireworks at living wage forum

Before a packed hall at the Sonoma Valley Grange, 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin was blunt about a proposed mandatory “Living Wage” of $15 per hour for the county.

“We don’t have the money to implement this now,” said Gorin. “There is not a consensus on the Board over this and until we on the Board hear from our consultants on this issue, I cannot say I will support this at this time.”

Organizers of the meeting, which is part of a series of town hall forums designed to boost support for a living wage ordinance in Sonoma County, were not pleased.

“You campaigned in support of a living wage over your opponent in the last election. Can you provide leadership on this issue now?” asked Martin Bennett, a history professor at Santa Rosa Junior College and co-chair of North Bay Jobs with Justice, the organization that held the forum.

“What I supported in the campaign was not this ordinance,” said Gorin. “There are other important issues to consider. We need more housing, and improvements to infrastructure in this county. The cost of living is already staggeringly high.”

On a night when the Giants were winning game three of the National League Championship series, more the 60 people attended the meeting, most of whom were in support of the measure. If passed by the Board of Supervisors, the Living Wage Ordinance would require all employers doing business with the County of Sonoma to pay a base wage of $15 an hour to their employees.

“The county awards contracts to private firms and other businesses to provide services to the public and to county government; and the use of county funds to promote sustenance and creation of stable living wage jobs will increase consumer income, decrease levels of poverty and reduce the need for taxpayer-funded social programs,” states the ordinance.

Advocates say that county funds used to contract for services should demonstrate “an effort to promote an employment environment that enhances the general quality of life within the community.”

“Our intent is to raise job quality. Sonoma should be a model employer,” said Bennett. “Housing prices have skyrocketed in the county while wages have remained stagnant and have less purchasing power then five decades ago.”

Bennett noted that the counties of Sacramento and San Francisco had passed similar measures, while many cities, such as Petaluma, Sebastopol and the City of Sonoma, had become “living wage” cities.

But Gorin noted that cities and counties are not the same, and cities have more autonomy in how they spend money.

“All the cities in the county that have raised their minimum wages all have different wage levels,” said Gorin, noting that those individual cities have wage ranges from $11 to $16 an hour, depending on the benefits packages provided.

Her colleague on the Board of Supervisors, Chairman David Rabbitt, said the county was pursuing its own Living Wage proposal, but would not comment on the issue before the consultant’s report.

“We are on parallel tracks, but we have to see what the impact to public services would be if we were to do this,” said Rabbitt. “I told Marty (Bennett) this – that we would be working on a living wage proposal – but he chose not to wait. We know that some jobs do not pay enough, but we have to look at what is the best way to combat poverty. Many economists see living wage proposals as Band-Aids for reducing poverty and think the real investments should be in education.”

Local businessman Robert Piazza, who owns Price Pump Company on Eighth Street East, spoke out against the idea during the meeting.

“This violates the free-market and I can’t absorb this kind of increase in my costs of doing business without cutting benefits, letting some people go, or not hiring young people, who start with me to learn a trade,” said Piazza. “This is social engineering and the people who always pay for this kind of policy are the consumers, who end up paying more in prices, or lose jobs when companies move to places that are more supportive of business.”

But Episcopal Rev. Norman Cram, who sits on the board of Lagunitas Brewery and is a leader in the Jobs with Justice Organization that helped spur the Living Wage proposal, said the issue was a moral one.

“Food, housing, healthcare, clothing, transportation, and taxes – these are the necessities that a wage-earner pays for,” said Cram. “Our living wage ordinance would give … employees the dignity of self-sufficiency.”

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