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.