1) What are the biggest issues facing working people in the City of Gainesville?
Working people who are working hard and playing by the rules are falling behind. The cost of living is rising and incomes are stagnant, which makes affordable housing, utilities, transportation, and food harder to provide.
2) Do you support paying a living wage for all City workers including part-time, temporary, seasonal, and contracted workers? (The ACLC defines a living wage as 125% of the Federal Poverty Level – currently $14.78 an hour).
a. How will you ensure contracted workers are paid the set wage?
b. What is your plan to get us there?
I will always support a living wage for all workers. Employment should be beneficial not a burden. I would like to see a wage boards. Also, collaborations with other state agencies to see how they track and provide ways for employees not to be afraid to stand up.
3) What other ideas do you have to help improve wages and benefits for workers throughout our community?
Teaching skill sets, and apprenticeship programs, so that the community will have greater chance to be hired for jobs that pay a livable wage with benefits. We need to provide streamlines straight to employment that provides sustainably.
4) Do you support providing paid administrative leave for part-time, temporary, seasonal, and contracted City workers in the event of emergency work closures (e.g., hours missed due to Hurricane Irma)?
Yes I do. A day not paid, is a day that the bottom can fall out. There has to be a safety net for all employees.
5) If you are an employer: Do you pay all your workers a living wage? If you do not: How are you making an effort to do so?
Not Applicable
6) Do you support a “Renters Bill of Rights’” which would:
- inform renters of their rights under existing laws
- offer an alternative to costly courts to settle disputes over security deposits and damages
- protect renters from high utility bills by enacting policies that require landlords to make basic investments in energy efficiency
Yes, this is being proactive to increasing and protecting affordable housing.
7) Do you support a local hiring preference that includes the use of certified apprenticeship programs for taxpayer funded projects?
Yes, this creates better connections to prospective employers that pay livable wages.