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SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2000
Two sides face
off on living wage
Jeff Adler
OUR TIMES
PACIFIC PALISADES —Two key players representing opposite sides on Santa Monica’s
living-wage issue presented their causes to the Rotary Club of Santa Monica on
Fnday amid the posh backdrop of the Riviera Country Club.
Speaking in favor of Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism, or SMART,
was the Rev. Sandie Richards of the Church in Ocean Park.
Supporting the business-backed ballot initiative created by Santa Monicans
For A Living Wage was Tom Larmore, chairman of the Santa Monica Chamber of
Commerce’s committee on the living-wage issue.
SMART’s initiative, which the City Council is currently reviewing, proposes
to boost the wages of those working in companies with 50 or more employees in
the city’s coastal zone, including many upscale hotels, to $10.69 an hour with
benefits. Santa Monicans for a Living Wage, which is supported by the Santa
Monica Chamber of Commerce and has received more than $436,000 in support
from luxury hotels, prefers a law that would increase the pay of certain
workers in businesses that contract with the city to $8.32 per hour with health
benefits and $9.46 per hour without health benefits. A city study estimates that
such a law would cover approximately 200 workers.
Richards explained that she supports SMART because she feels that citizens
owe a debt to Santa Monica’s working poor.
“I benefit from the labor of these low-wage workers by the fact that their
work contributes to the prosperity of my town,” Richards said. “1 feel a
moral obligation then to stand up alongside of them and say they ought to make
enough money to pay their bills, to have, rent, to buy shoes, and put food on
the table.
Larmore, however, was quick to point out that while m a n y workers could
stand
to benefit from a living wage, he felt that the SMART proposal would do more
harm than good if adopted.
Said Larmore: “Businesses are not going to locate here if they have to deal
with that kind of a wage requirement."
He added that he would have preferred the City Council form a
commission with representatives from businesses and labor organizations to reach
a consensus on the issue. With the absence of such a body, however, he supports
the business-backed initiative, which allows voters to decide the matter rather
than the City Council, whose decisions, he said, may be politically motivated
and not in the best interest of the city.
Several of the Rotary Club’s members, many of whom are business owners and
members of the Chamber of Commerce, empathized with Richards and the workers but
tended to side with Larmore.
“Personally, I think that the SMART proposal is well intentioned, but
poorly thought Out," said Dr. David Rimer, who serves on the staff
of Saint John’s Health Center. “It doesn’t attend in any way to the facts
of the situation."
John Lehne, president of the Rotary Club of Santa Monica and
owner of Lehne and Son Painting Contractors, was apprehensive that the SMART
proposal could potentially become a citywide standard if adopted.
“I’m in great agreement that everybody needs a decent wage," Lehne said. “But it could expand to include all businesses of all-size employee groups and I think that would be a hardship on a lot of small businesses that are paying good wages now. Where does it stop then?"