Board OKs Minimum Wage Law

Minutes after a divided Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved a minimum-wage ordinance Tuesday, the man who led the yearlong fight to get it passed stood before jubilant supporters and vowed to take the movement to city halls across the county.

“This is step one,” said Marcos Vargas, head of the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition, made up of 42 faith, community and environmental groups. “We should relish this. But next, we’re on to Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Barbara.”

Vargas said his group intends to take its “living wage” campaign to all 10 Ventura County cities and possibly some school districts. The local coalition will also work with groups in neighboring counties to push for local minimum-wage laws in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, building on a labor movement that has been gaining strength across the nation.

Under Ventura County’s ordinance, anyone contracting with the county will be required to pay employees at least $8 an hour with health benefits, or $10 an hour without. The mandate, to be formally adopted next week, applies only to contracts worth more than $25,000.

Supporters say it is needed because minimum pay set by state and federal laws has not kept pace with the high cost of living in regions such as Southern California, where housing costs are among the highest in the nation. California’s minimum hourly wage is $6.25.

The rates set forth in Ventura County’s law seek only to bring the lowest-paid workers above the federal poverty line, about $16,550 for a family of four, the measure’s supporters said.

But opponents at Tuesday’s meeting said approval should be delayed until supervisors can consider the $1.2-million estimated cost as part of its June budget hearings. Critics also called the ordinance “a blunt instrument” that will do little to address the underlying causes of poverty.

“If we really want to help the working poor, we should focus on child care, education, health, those kinds of things,” said Supervisor Judy Mikels.

After listening to more than an hour of public comment, Supervisors Steve Bennett, John Flynn and Kathy Long voted for the new wage standard. Mikels and Supervisor Frank Schillo opposed it.

Although that split was expected, the vote came after spirited board debate that included a quotation from Pope Leo XIII and insults traded by two supervisors.

Mikels said it is fiscally irresponsible for the county to take on the added expense while it is facing a projected $7.3-million shortfall in its $1-billion budget. Negotiations with employee groups are underway, adding to the prospect that operating costs will spiral, Mikels said.

The Simi Valley supervisor also objected to a provision in the ordinance that gives automatic cost-of-living adjustments to the contracted employees.

“I don’t believe in guaranteeing raises for only a small portion” of the county’s work force, Mikels said.

But Flynn, whose Oxnard district includes the county’s highest concentration of blue-collar workers, told colleagues a “living wage” is a moral obligation. He cited a papal encyclical issued 110 years ago that called on government to protect a “suffering multitude” that cannot protect itself.

Flynn also noted that an uncontrolled market in the 1920s led to the Great Depression.

“Capitalism, in order to survive, has to be regulated,” he said.

Bennett said that rather than postponing a decision until after summer budget hearings, it made more sense for department managers to know the costs in advance so they can build them into their spending plans.

“What we are now saying is this is a priority,” Bennett said.

When Mikels suggested that managers report back in June about how much the ordinance would cost each department, Flynn called the suggestion “totally an immoral act” that would place blame for an unbalanced budget on one group of workers.

Mikels shot back that she simply wanted to determine the financial effect of the ordinance and accused Flynn of being “boorish and a bully.”

The debate was just as passionate among those who spoke to the board.

Mike McBain, who has a $60,000 contract to provide the county with courier services, questioned wage supporters’ assertion that the county would save money in the long run by reducing need for social services.

And Don Facciano of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. reminded the board that just last year it was being criticized for allowing its budget to spiral out of control. He urged the board to wait until the county’s fiscal health for the coming year is known.

But Camarillo real estate broker Ron Cuff said he supported a local minimum wage, calling it the “morally responsible” thing to do.

“You’re looking at someone who cut his teeth on Ayn Rand--a free-marketer,” Cuff said. “But I support a living-wage law.”

Advocates of wage laws have been making their case to local governments across the nation. Sixty-three similar ordinances have been passed by cities, counties and school boards, and 75 such measures are pending.

Los Angeles County and city have passed similar laws. A community coalition in the city of Santa Barbara is asking what could be the highest rate in the state so far, $11 an hour.