- 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 $15.08 an hour)
Yes. Increasing wages paid directly or indirectly by the City of Gainesville continues to be the single most efficient tool the city has to impact income inequality in our community. By the time the city completes moving the overall wage floor to $15/hour, literally millions of dollars will have been added to the incomes of some of the previously lowest-paid workers in Gainesville. This is also part of what has made it a challenge to achieve: Those millions of dollars came from other parts of the budget and/or increased revenue.
- The Gainesville Living Wage Ordinance for contractors has so many loopholes that it applies to almost no contracts the City currently has. To address this issue, the City of Gainesville started to look into updating the Ordinance in December 2015, but no action has been taken until December 2018 when a six-month study was started. What will you do to ensure the timely and effective changes needed to the Gainesville’s Living Wage Ordinance?
I will continue to pressure the city manager and utility general manager to bring to the commission the necessary estimates to understand what the true budgetary cost of this will be – not to consider postponing past another fiscal year, but so the community can understand the full impact.
- What other ideas do you have to help improve wages and benefits for workers throughout our community?
The largest employer, by far, in our region and our city is the University of Florida and UF Health. Combined with Santa Fe College, they represent tens of thousands of workers. Moving the lowest-paid of those workers – be they part-time/temporary OPS workers, adjunct instructors or others – to the equivalent of $15 per hour will have a huge impact on income inequality in Gainesville. There is nothing else that come close to this as a tool for changing lives in our region. I will continue to support programs like GEAP (Gainesville Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program) that promote and nurture the creation and growth of diverse local business in our community, and I have ideas for targeted business incubators, but there is nothing that can compare to harnessing the economic engine that is UF when it comes growing wages.
- What do you envision as the role of large local employers in Gainesville in helping to improve wages, benefit workers, and reduce inequalities? How have/would you encourage these large local employers to address these issues?
As addressed in question three, the largest employers in the Gainesville area are primarily public-sector institutions. If we can improve the wage floor for each of the “Friendship Seven” to a living wage, competition for those jobs will force other large employers to raise wages as well.
- 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 a natural disaster)?
Yes, if a worker has cleared their schedule on behalf of the city and foregone other opportunities the city (and any employer) should be responsible for the time it has claimed.
- 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?
My current employment is as a city commissioner, and as such I bear responsibility for more than 2,000 workers. We have a plan to bring all of them to at least a living wage.
- Do you support a “Renters Bill of Rights’” which would: Offer an alternative to costly courts to settle disputes over security deposits and damages.
Yes, I believe this is a benefit to both the renter and the landlord.
- Protect renters from high utility bills by enacting policies that require landlords to make basic investments in energy and water efficiency.
Yes, I support this in principle, but details will be vital to a successful implementation. The intent is to improve efficiency and conservation, not to raise costs that might be passed on to renters.
- Require universal licensing and safety/health inspections of all rental property.
Yes, as above in B, I support the concept, and will insist on a careful implementation that does not accidentally create upward rental pressure.
- Offer protections against discrimination based on source of income and citizenship status.
Yes.
- Ensure greater disclosure of renters’ rights and responsibilities.
Yes, prominent inclusion of an easily-understood disclosure of a renters’ rights document with every lease is something we should already require as a city.
- What are some additional policies the City of Gainesville can enact to improve access to quality, safe affordable housing in our community?
The primary policies city government can implement to improve housing affordability and availability – and that are within our honest reach – have to do with land use and zoning. Rental affordability can be directly impacted in a relatively short time by permitting Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs or Mother-in-Law suites/”Granny Flats”) citywide, Single Room Occupancy development/Rooming Houses in carefully selected areas (not only in East Gainesville) and multi-family development (preferably two to eight units at a time as to be sensitive to neighborhood needs) in many areas where they make sense, but not only in or near existing pockets of poverty. These are the most significant things the city can do to increase the quantity and variety of housing stock in my opinion.
- Do you support a local hiring preference that includes the use of certified apprenticeship programs for taxpayer funded projects?
Yes. I’ve been working with the Central Labor Council to bring such an ordinance through the city commission’s policy development process. I hope we can continue to make progress and make this a reality in our community.
- Do you support offering free RTS bus passes for K-12 students and/or making RTS free for all Gainesville residents at the point of service? How can the City of Gainesville improve public transportation for people who rely on it and don’t work for UF?
Yes. I recently made a motion to remove RTS fares for everyone 18 or younger and everyone 65 or older. While that motion did not pass, I will continue to work toward this initial goal with the intent of including it in the 2021 budget. I see it as a step toward removal of the rate structure entirely. In a careful analysis, the system likely spends more on the process of collecting and accounting for payment than rates bring in. The city’s current transit plan includes expansion of the current “First Mile/Last Mile” pilot into four more zones around the city. This will bring on-demand small-bus service to areas that need it most.
- What is your position on SB168, which is the law that requires local governments to comply with ICE and detain people without a warrant?
I oppose it
- What would you do to advance healthcare outcomes in black and brown communities as well as racial equity overall in our community? What steps can the City of Gainesville take to address unequal access to quality food?
Improving Gainesville’s income gap, access to affordable housing and transit will directly and positively impact access to both health care and food while still keeping the city working on services that are within the city’s responsibility. The city is currently working hard on facing and improving racial equity through a variety of measures. I am pleased to serve on the racial equity committee, and I look forward to implementing the work we’ve been researching.
- What will you do to ensure UF is a better corporate citizen in Gainesville (e.g., payments in lieu of taxes, moving more services to GRU, etc.)?
The current relationship between UF and the City of Gainesville is more positive than it has been in many years, and there is greater opportunity to improve it right now than I remember there ever being. UF is a top-ten (paid) user of each of GRU’s utility services, and without the revenue UF provides our transit system RTS would barely exist. Still, there is always room to improve, and much of it is fairly obvious. The best thing anyone in Gainesville can do to move more money from UF to the city, whether an “in lieu of taxes” program or greater purchase of GRU services is to advocate those programs through the legislature. We should continue to improve communication with a plan leading to better cooperation in providing services to city residents.
- How will you work with UF to ensure better access to affordable, quality housing in Gainesville?
One potential way UF and the city might be able to impact workforce housing is to work together on funding for a community land trust. We can also work together on implementation of the Renters’ Rights package discussed above.