Hidden Impacts

Carl DeMaio and the contractors bankrolling this measure are not being honest with the voters.

They aren’t revealing that it:

• Cuts off state and federal funds to San Diego
• Bans living wages
• Kills local jobs
• Bans workplace standards for safety, quality and environmental impacts

Cuts Off State and Federal Funds

The initiative’s broad wording (“… or other trust funds”)  would cost our city tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funds for public works projects ranging from fixing potholes to building a new library.

Since state and federal public works funding requires contractors to pay into apprenticeship trust funds, this clause in the city charter would prohibit use of much funding San Diego deserves.  If it passes, San Diego would be banned from entering contracts requiring employer contributions to apprenticeship trust funds.

The loss of that money would halt needed roadwork and major public works projects — leading to a great loss of local jobs.

Those state and federal funds come from our tax money, and we deserve to have our fair share spent here in San Diego.  In this time of tight budgets, it is outrageous that this sham initiative would cut off funds that are due to us for essential projects.

Bans Living Wages

One hidden but very deliberate effect of this ballot measure is to overturn and permanently ban San Diego’s Living Wage Ordinance.

The 5-year-old Living Wage law has been a resounding success — for working families, for employers, and for our local economy, as described in a recent City report.

But the contractors bankrolling this ballot measure want to pay minimum wage, which is a poverty wage given San Diego’s cost of living. Section c(2) of the initiative would ban the City from requiring any contractor to “provide its employees with compensation or benefits in excess of the levels expressly required… under state and federal laws and regulations.”

That means state minimum wage, $8 an hour, with no healthcare. For a year of full-time work, that’s about $16,000. No one can live self-sufficiently on that in San Diego.

This initiative would push workers back into poverty who are barely making ends meet now. They would no longer be able to pay their bills or support their families, and that raises costs for all of us — except the contractors.

Kills Local Jobs

This initiative would remove the City’s ability to require local hiring on city contracts. The ambiguous wording of section c(7) would certainly be used to challenge any local hire requirements and the initiative also bans project labor agreements, which have strong requirements for training and hiring local residents.

This is designed to allow contractors to bring in workers from wherever they like. And it does that by rewriting the city charter, so it could only be changed through another ballot measure.

In this recession, plenty of qualified workers live in San Diego who need jobs to support themselves and their families.  If a company wants a contract from the City of San Diego, the City must have the leverage to make sure that contract provides jobs for those local workers.

Bans Workplace Standards

This measure puts lives at risk by dissolving key work and quality standards. Section c(8) means the City could no longer require training and certification of any contractor.

Poorly-trained, inexperienced paramedics, sewage treatment workers, electrical workers and many others would put themselves and city residents at great risk.

Because of the broad ban on requiring certification programs, the initiative also would let companies avoid certification programs such as LEED for green building standards — taking San Diego a huge step backwards in environmental planning!