The San Diego City Council voted 6-2 Monday to override Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s veto of the minimum wage increase and earned sick leave ordinance which will now go into effect Jan. 1, 2015.
“The veto has been overridden,” declared Council President Todd Gloria after the vote, adding that this will “boost wages for 172,000 San Diegans … and (allow) a quarter of a million people who will now be able to stay home when they’re sick.”
Jan. 1, 2015, the minimum wage will increase to $9.75 per hour and rise again a year later to $10.50 per hour. Jan. 1, 2017, the minimum wage will increase to $11.50 per hour, according to the 19-page ordinance.
However, some business leaders have threatened to get signatures and place this on a ballot for voters to decide. Public speakers urged residents not to sign petitions to place this on a future ballot. If enough signatures are obtained to go on the ballot, the measure would be delayed until the election.
Faulconer vetoed the measure Aug. 8 after the City Council originally passed it, saying it “made it harder for San Diegans to find work.” In his veto message, Faulconer wrote that smaller stores such as neighborhood boutiques might move out of the city limits because of increased payroll costs.
The vote was down party lines. The Council’s six Democrats, Gloria, Sherri Lightner, Marti Emerald, David Alvarez, Edward Harris and Myrtle Cole voted in favor, while the two Republicans, Scott Sherman and Mark Kersey voted no.
Republican Lorie Zapf voted against the measure in July, but she was absent Monday. The Council needed all six votes to override the veto. The mayor said he also vetoed the measure because the state legislature agreed to raise the minimum wage from $8 to $9 an hour in a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
“This City Council is standing up and demonstrating we value honest work and fair play,” said Gloria. “When 38 percent of people of this city who work do not earn enough to make ends meet, then something must be done.”
Jesse Thomas, a female student, told the Council she serves food in a business and comes to work when she is ill because she cannot afford to miss work and lose a day’s pay. A 53-year-old man told the Council he makes minimum wage and it’s not just teenagers who earn that wage.
Gloria said the measure will allow workers to have five earned sick days a year for 279,000 San Diegans.
Lightner made the motion to override the veto, saying the wage increase was needed because San Diego is among the top 10 cities in the U.S. as “most expensive to live.” Emerald seconded the motion and said increased wages would boost the local economy.
Several business owners who said they favored the override noted the absence of all the “outraged business owners” who opposed the minimum wage increase. Only one person urged the Council not to override the mayoral veto.
“This won’t raise people up. It will raise prices. It will cost jobs,” said Sherman. “$1.50 an hour more is not going to raise people out of poverty.”
“Why are we thinking if we raise costs on business, it is not going to affect business? We think businesses can afford it and they’ll keep paying more and more,” said Sherman, who added he feared some firms will relocate to Poway, Carlsbad or Chula Vista.
“We don’t ever talk about where the money is going to come from to support this increase … it’s going to be increased prices, automation, and lost jobs,” said Sherman. “You’re not supposed to be at minimum wage your entire life. I started at minimum wage. I bet every single member of this Council somewhere had a minimum wage job.”
“Look at the Council president. His parents came from very, very humble beginnings. In this country, with hard work, proving what you’re capable of doing, you can lift yourself out of that,” continued Sherman.
“He became the interim mayor of the eighth largest city in the country because he showed he had worth,” said Sherman. “He went out and proved his worth. Every single one of you in this audience can do the same.”
The override almost didn’t happen because Cole was in Duluth, Georgia Monday. She was able to listen to the proceedings on the Internet and vote by phone from Duluth City Hall.
Kersey also was in Lancaster, Ohio, and he was able to listen to the discussion online from his grandmother’s assisted living community center.
The Council declared the two sites as “additional teleconference locations” as part of the official meeting and even had signs and speaker’s slips available should anyone from Georgia or Ohio want to speak. Cole and Kersey were the only speakers from those locations.
