City will keep paying prevailing wages
Danette Goulet
In chambers crowded with union workers, the City Council on Monday
unanimously voted to continue paying premium, prevailing wages.
“I view prevailing wage as a quality control,” Councilwoman Connie
Boardman said. “There is a reason some would be willing to work for less
than prevailing wage. You get what you pay for.”
Boardman, who gave her emotional stand on the issue -- including
acknowledging that her father’s union pay as a carpenter allowed her a
middle class upbringing -- was joined by several other council members in
voicing concerns over nonunion work standards.
The issue of prevailing wage came up after a street sweeping contract
was renewed in March. A city report indicated that doing the job in-house
would save money and yet the council voted to continue the contract,
which pays street sweepers $39.06 an hour.
The California Labor Code requires the payment of prevailing wages on
public works projects that cost $1,000 or more. While prevailing wage
must be paid on jobs using state or federal funds, but charter cities may
opt out of paying prevailing wage on projects payed for by unrestricted
city funds.
Prevailing wage rates, which in Orange County range from about $35 to
$41 an hour, take what the majority of workers in a profession make in an
area and bump it so they might afford to live comfortably in that area.
It is a topic that has been brought up in past years as well, most
recently in 1997 by former Mayor Dave Sullivan, who would like to see the
city charter amended to opt out of paying prevailing wage.
Of the 62 residents who approached the podium to speak at Monday
night’s council meeting, 38 were there to speak about the prevailing wage
issue.
Sullivan was one of a handful of speakers urging the council to quit
paying prevailing wage on jobs payed for with taxpayer dollars.
“We’re talking a potential million dollars annual savings and to just
blow that off like we have no financial problems is just amazing to me,”
Sullivan said. “[Council members] have fiscal responsibility to city.”
Council members responded by saying the report they received from city
staff did not contain conclusive evidence that there would be any
savings.
“It’s a complicated issue and I just didn’t think we had enough
information to go down that path,” said Mayor Debbie Cook. “There wasn’t
enough complete or persuasive information to make me believe that we
would save money by getting rid of it.”
Sullivan and activist Chuck Shide, who said he has researched the
issue in depth, disagree saying the information is out there even if it
was not in the city staff’s report.
“Despite what they gave, there are all kinds of reports of significant
savings,” said Sullivan, who cited the city of Irvine as one example.
Irvine opted out of paying prevailing wage in 1998. Sullivan said the
purchasing agent in Irvine, Tracy Hamilton, estimated a savings of 30% on
slurry sealing of streets.
But union workers who live in Huntington Beach were there Monday night
to assure the community and council that prevailing wage was not the gold
mine it seemed to be.
“It gives people a standard of living -- it’s a living wage,” said
Steve Sullivan, an electrician. “No one gets rich making prevailing
wage.”
The 7-0 vote settled the issue for now, and Surf City will continue to
pay prevailing wage on all public works projects of $1,000 or more, but
some community members promise the issue will return.
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