One Account of Last Night's Hearing on the Fair Wage Initiative

Editor's Note: This is a first-person account of last night's Albuquerque City Council hearing on Councilor Martin Heinrich's Fair Wage Initiative. It's been reported in the Albuquerque Journal that more than 240 people attended.

From Anne Kass:
Everyone, especially those of you who missed the meeting last night, as Bill did, this is my report to him.  Let me know if I got anything seriously wrong.  Anne

The Council meeting was interesting.  I got there at 5 after 5, thinking the living wage thing would be delayed, but in fact, they started promptly at 5.  The place was packed.  More than 90 people signed up to talk.  Appropriately the business people sat on the right side of the room, and the good guys sat on the left.  The speakers were more than 2 to 1 in favor of the living wage ordinance.

Those opposed used the same old arguments, without supporting evidence, and in the face of persuasive evidence to the contrary, which was pointed out numerous times.  Businesses would not move to Albuquerque, they would move to Rio Rancho, they would lay-off low-wage people and just not have the work done, yada, yada, yada.  It was the usual suspects--Chamber of Commerce, a woman from Presbyterian Hospital, Inc. (which truly pissed me off), Building and Industry, Inc., Hotels, Inc., and so on, each speaker claiming to speak for thousands of member businesses.  One woman talking for contractors or some such group warned that the ordinance would allow unions to demand to see private business employment records and let obstructionists block the entry to businesses, and even allow them to occupy all the business toilet stalls (This reminded me of  Phyllis Schlafley and her ilk who used to argue that the equal rights amendment and women in the military would result in co-ed toilets.  These people are so full of crap which may explain their obsession with toilets.)  And there were a few who said that it was obvious that this whole thing was the work of outside agitators.  One of those doofuses claimed that ACORN had filed a brief in San Francisco courts, after they passed their living wage ordinance, asking for a special exemption for their employees who gather petition signatures on a free speech theory, which Matt Henderson quickly pointed out was a lie.   There were a few individual restaurant and small business owners who insisted they would be destroyed and one lady talking for the Restaurant Industry who pissed the audience off so bad they booed when she said that "those on that side of the room have never owned businesses so they're naïve..."  Alan Parkman was there again with his laws of economics as though they were as immutable as the law of gravity.

Brad Winter was acting like a dictator/strict father, demanding there be no applause, repeatedly warning the audience to, "be nice," and repeating that the audience must "be respectful"  of the council members as well as the speakers.  (A number of us are going to e-mail him today to say that while it is appropriate to call for respect from the citizens in meetings such as this, he also should request respect from his colleagues on the Council.  Sally Mayer and Tina Cummings were out of their chairs for the first hour of citizen comment (they had been there for the budget meeting) until shortly after 6 p.m. and then they squirmed around in their chairs, tossed their hair, whispered to each other, left the stage and returned several times, whispered and wrote notes to other council members, and Sally took phone calls, and generally acting like spoiled brats.)

The good guys talked philosophy, ethics, morality, facts, studies.  There were citizens, representatives from the homeless assistance groups, small business owners who said they've paid more than $7.15/hour to all their employees and never gone bankrupt, union guys (who said after the Chamber of Commerce guy reported that he'd done a little survey and found that a loaf of bread cost 15 cents more in Santa Fe--supposedly after and because of its living wage ordinance--and milk too) said they'd be happy to pay more for bread and milk if it allowed their brothers and sisters to get out of poverty.  There were several senior citizens who responded, also to the Chamber guy's warning that a wage hike would hurt senior citizens on fixed incomes, that they'd happily pay more for groceries to help lift people out of poverty.  There was one wonderful older woman who said, "I don't have any degrees or statistics, but I'm 80 years old and what I do have is a lot of experience, and tonight I am experiencing deja vue.  Business people have never met a minimum wage they liked.  I heard all these same arguments beginning in the 1940's when the minimum wage was being raised and when safety regulations were being imposed and when the 8-hour day was enacted and...None of their dire predictions have ever come to pass."   She was just terrific.  One older man pointed out that the business argument that a wage hike would cause price increases and inflation was also bogus because the evidence clearly shows that price increases have ALWAYS preceded wage increases.  A public health physician, the same one who spoke at the County meeting saying that no one should be called a "charity case" noted that Presbyterian works to cure illness, but doesn't do a very good job at preventing it, and that the stats show that higher income and better health are clearly connected.

In the end, they put off voting until June 6, at Heinrich's request, I think because Debbie O'Malley wasn't there.  Good old Sally objected, claiming that, "these people who've been here so long tonight have a right to have an answer," as though she gave one little shit about the people who were there.  Rather, a vote last night would have tied or lost, depending on what Cadigan did, and she was pushing for that result.  Still, ACORN is going forward with petitions, calling for a $7.50/hour wage floor, indexed to the cost of living, and Bill Jordan said, when he spoke, that the people were out in front of the so-called political leaders on this, and that we'd get this done with or without them.  Eric Griego and Miguel Gomez both spoke with passion and eloquence.  Michael Cadigan is clearly still a swing voter and asked some not-so-friendly questions of Kay Monaco from Voices for Children.  Judy Espinosa showed up late and addressed the Council, calling for them to pass this ordinance, which pleased me enormously.   Ann and Melinda were there and a good time was had by most.