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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2002)
City council votes to develop living wage ordinance Members meet to levy the ordinance, which would provide a higher wage for temporary city employees By Jillian Daley Oregon Daily Emerald Yesterday, city council members discussed a proposal for a Eugene living wage ordi nance during the first work session held in Eugene concerning this issue. The council voted unanimously to devel op a city living wage ordinance that they will later decide to pass or reject. “It’s the quintessential economic develop ment strategy,” Eugene City Councilor Bon nie Bettman said during the work session. Bettman said raising city wages keeps mon ey in the local economy, which is a sound strategy for alleviating the current recession. A living wage law is not a federal standard, like the minimum wage. It usually focuses al most solely on full-time city workers. However, the proposed ordinance would focus primarily on temporary city workers, who often receive lower pay. It would also increase the income of employees of business that have a contract with the city as well as employees of businesses that receive signifi cant financial aid from the city. During the work session, City Councilor Nancy Nathanson raised questions about the proposed ordinance, but eventually support ed the proposal. The effort to push the proposal, led chiefly by the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Net work, has been developing for some time. ESSN organizer Sarah Jacobson said that at first the group thought the living wage should be only a few dollars above the mini mum wage, but as Eugene’s cost of living has risen, so have ESSN’s standards for their liv ing wage proposal. Last August, the Economic Policy Institute’s 500-city study helped provide more impetus for new legislation. The findings showed that a one-adult, one-child family has to earn more than two times the federal poverty level to be making enough to sustain themselves. Since it is hard to determine a living wage value, the EPI compared it to the poverty level of the adult-child, two-person family. The EPI’s study listed $11.42 an hour with health care benefits and $14.28 an hour with out as an appropriate wage for a one-adult, one-child family. The ESSN used these findings to set the wage standard for the proposed legislation. However, there are reasons in addition to the EPI’s study that have inspired the ESSN and more than 30 other community groups to support a new initiative. “There are two issues,” University labor education instructor Lynn Feekin said. “One, it’s an issue of fairness, and two, it’s an issue of accountability around the use of tax dol lars.” Feekin said that more tax dollars should support city workers, rather than be ing poured into city projects. “It’s very hard to gauge where this is go ing,” Feekin said. “I assume that there will be many issues that follow, but at this point we’re at the beginning of the process.” The City Council will later setup a hearing to vote on whether or not to pass the ordinance. Contactthereporteratjilliandaley@dailyemerald.com. Senate brief ASUO Student Senate hears special requests The ASUO Student Senate held a meeting Monday to make more summer financial transfers and hear special requests from the Women’s Law Forum, Outlaws, Project Saferide and the ASUO Women’s Center. The Women’s Law Forum requested a $162 transfer to buy a new banner to display at conferences. The WLF also requested $750 to finance a program aimed at introducing first-year law students to the group. Outlaws — a group representing gay, les bian, transgender and bisexual law students — requested $230 to purchase a banner for their student group. Saferide requested $15,276 in transfers to cover payroll expenses. Student groups must always obtain senate confirmation when dealing with payroll accounts. The ASUO Women’s Center requested $1,122 to send the office coordinator to an in ternational conference about campus sexual assault. The Center hopes the skills learned from the conference will benefit their sexual assault programs at the University. The senate granted $715 to cover registra tion to the conference and airfare. —Jan Montry ■ i M—-i 014334 Locally owned LUBE, OIL, FILTER • Chassis Lube • New Oil Filter • Up to 5 Qts. 10W-30 Chevron Oil • Clean Front Window • Vaccuum Front Floor Boards • No Appointment necessary • Most light cars & trucks • 3/4 or 1-ton & Extra Cab Trucks Additional Chevron MOTOR OIL POUR IN THE PROTECTION DOWNTOWN 2975 West 11th 1320 Willamette *485-2356 344-0007 • OPEN Sundays 11-4 1 4 NEED CASH ? 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Eviction continued from page 1 which hurts him financially and emotionally. “I have a wife that is very sick, and this is going to make an impact on our wage earning because she can’t work,” Sellars said. Sue McGuire has owned Alder Street Market, located on 798 East 11th St., for 12 years, and stands to lose a significant amount of money because of the timing and short no tice. McGuire said she had just bought her liquor licenses and paid other fees for the month, which amounts to between $500 and $1,000, and the fees and licenses are nontransferable. “I’m very angry at the way it was done. It’s a mean-spirited thing to expect businesses to move in 30 days,” McGuire said. McGuire plans to fight it. She’s begun working with a Salem legis lator to try to raise a bill to length en the amount of notice for busi ness owners. McGuire has made tentative arrangements for a new location, but she would not disclose the lo cation. She said she wanted to move near campus, as students are her main clientele. Students who live in Sigma Nu, a nearby fraternity, say they will miss McGuire and Sellars and their businesses. “I think everyone is going to miss Sue,” University student and Sig ma Nu member Geoff Kessler said. “She’s been a great person to us. Even when we don’t have money, she’ll front it to us.” Despite the amount of time estab lishments have been in place and the friends the business owners have made, they will have to move on. Although Sellars and McGuire have made plans for their new busi ness locations, the property own ers’ lack of an explanation for the evictions and the short notice has created some bitterness. “Give me five minutes of four-let ter words, and that pretty much ex plains how angry everyone down here is,” Sellars said. Wheeler Properties, LLC, could not be reached for comment, and its attorney, Standlee Potter, and the property management company, Jennings & Co. Property Manage ment, would not comment. Contact the reporter atjilliandaley@dailyemerald.com. Oregon Daily Emerald^™—, The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Friday during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private proper ty. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law NEWSROOM — (541)346-5511 Editor in chief: Michael J. Kleckner Man aging editor: Jenni Schultz Sports editor: Brad Schmidt Reporters: Jillian Daley, Jan Montry Copy chief: Lauren Tracy Online editor: Marilyn Rice De sign editor: Scott Abts Photo editor: Adam Jones ADVERTISING — (541)346-3712 Director: Becky Merchant Special pub lications manager: Trina Shanaman Sales manager: Michael Kirk Sales rep resentatives:Tim Bott, Michelle Chan, Aaron Golden, Kim Humphries, Jenn Knoop, Lindsay McNamara, Mickey Miles, Laura Staples, Sherry Telford, Je remy Williams Assistant: Erin O’Connell BUSINESS — (541) 346-5512 General manager: Judy Riedl Business su pervisor: Kathy Carbone Receptionist: Helen Geesman Distribution: John Long, George Choi, Jillian Daley, Joel Domreis, Laura Pfeiffer PRODUCTION — (541)346-4381 Manager: Michele Ross Production co ordinator: Tara Sloan Designer: Laura Chamberlin
