Author: timtia

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.

1) What are the biggest issues facing working people in the City of Gainesville?

Increasing costs of living without increases in wages, healthcare costs, lack of affordable housing, transportation costs/access, childcare costs/access

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 support a living wage for all City workers. Companies that contract with the City must place a notice of the City’s living wage and wage theft policies in the workplace. Contracted companies must provide documentation to the City of compliance with living wage policies. If non-adherence to the policy becomes a problem, I support periodic audits. Multiple violations would harm future contacts between the City and violating businesses.

I support a step-up policy to get to a living wage while also looking at wage compression at the mid-to-lower paid positions

3) What other ideas do you have to help improve wages and benefits for workers throughout our community?

The work that the Alachua County Labor Coalition has done to bring attention to improving wages from the county’s top employers is a big step in making workers and employers aware. Many of the inequity problems we are studying and attempting to address are related to poverty due to low-paying jobs. Jobs and wages must be a constant part of the conversation about solving these inequities.

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.  No one can predict the damages a natural disaster may cause nor adequately prepare or assist the most vulnerable in the aftermath.  I support providing leave for part-time, temporary, seasonal and contracted City workers. We owe it to our employees to make sure that peace of mind is afforded in such times and that no matter the circumstances as an employer we value their commitment in helping to serve the residents of this great City.

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?

Yes. Often times in the past I’ve had to hire additional staff and I made sure they were paid a living wage.

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. Information is important and we should make it easy for people to know their rights, including rights as renters. And an alternative to court make sense for rental disputes. The wage recovery ordinance has been an effective local, alternative solution to court fees that low-wage workers, many of whom are renters, are unable to pay. I know that utilities are a heavy burden on a monthly budget. Weatherizaton of homes is one piece of the puzzle in lowering utility bills. I support finding ways to increase energy efficiency in rental units. High utility bills due to inefficient systems and homes are a problem in my district.

7) Do you support a local hiring preference that includes the use of certified apprenticeship programs for taxpayer funded projects?

I support using additional parameters that include social and economic requirements when evaluating bids for city projects. This may be in the form of a separate local hiring preference, or a general local economic impact preference. I want more vocational education training for young people in District 1 and in order for this to be successful, they must have a path to jobs after they complete their training. I need to learn more from the ACLC about local hiring preference and apprenticeship programs, but they are in line with my platform of more economic activities for District 1 and giving young people more choices for their future.

1) What are the biggest issues facing working people in the City of Gainesville?

• Jobs that do not pay a living wage or offer quality benefits
• The reduction in trades and occupations represented by labor unions
• Lack of jobs, especially in skilled trades
• Inadequate educational opportunities for workers and the children of working parents

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?

My goal is to get all City of Gainesville workers to $15 / per hour.  The biggest question is how do we get them there without causing too much wage stress for the remaining more experienced and higher paid employees.

At this time, we are increasing paying the wages for most employees by at least $.50 per hour per year.  Simultaneously, we are doing a wage study in order to increase wages for most employees.   We have set aside a large amount of money in the 2017/2018 budget for salary increases.  By raising the City minimum wage by approximately $.50 per year we will reach $15 / per hour in the next 4 to 5 years.  In New York State and California they have similar plans to reach $15 / per hour in 4 to 5 years.  So Gainesville will be in line with the major metro areas by then.

3) What other ideas do you have to help improve wages and benefits for workers throughout our community?

We need a progression of major employees in the community to state publicly that they will pay at least $15/per hour as a bare minimum wage, and do so within the next 4 years, at the most.  Ideally, they should enact such wages ASAP.  A good place to start is with the University of Florida, an institution that seems to have money for certain things but not for the Gainesville citizens who work there.  We then go to Santa Fe College, other large employers, and the Alachua County School Board.   We would ask all of them to raise wages for underpaid employees by 4% per year, 2% for normal cost of living wage increase and an additional 2% for raising the base salary.  In effect the 4% when rounded up should be at approximately $.50 per year, and or at least $2.75 over 5 years.

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.  It is a disgrace that workers who were displaced by the storms or other environmental issues should suffer twice by not being paid.

5) If you are an employer: Do you pay all your workers a living wage?

I do, as does my wife.  My television business pays all full time employees at least $15/hour, plus medical insurance and a travel stipend.  I have only one part time employee, paid $13/hour, but he works from home.

My wife pays her part-time employees a starting wage of $12.50/hour, and raises it $.50 every year.

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 to all of the above.  These are all great ideas and should be implemented.

However, we would need to carefully craft the policies to increase the energy efficiency of leased residences.  One way to start is with a simple requirement of full disclosure.  Landlords should provide their prospective tenants with some accurate record of the most recent utility bills, perhaps going back several years.

This requirement would work to increase the incentive for a landlord to make energy efficient renovations because, if the utility bills are very high, the landlord would be faced with the choice of lowering the rent and/or increasing the energy efficiency of the unit, in order to attract prospective renters.

In addition, instead of a blanket requirement that landlords install certain types of appliances, windows, doors, etc., we could come up with ways the City could incentivize such renovations.

7) Do you support a local hiring preference that includes the use of certified apprenticeship programs for taxpayer-funded projects?

Yes, this is a great way to increase the availability of trade education opportunities.  Until our county schools get the funds they truly need from the legislature, it is up to individual progressive municipalities like our own to find creative ways to provide education for skilled laborers.

1) What are the biggest issues facing working people in the City of Gainesville?

High GRU bills, high bills and fees, lack of good paying jobs, poor bus service, and crumbling city streets.

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’ve heard some pretty compelling arguments that applying salary requirements to contract workers has the effect of eliminating contract workers has the effect of eliminating contracts that might otherwise have gone to local family companies that have been able to undercut the big companies but under a forced salary requirement would lose that advantage and those contracts.

3) What other ideas do you have to help improve wages and benefits for workers throughout our community?

Bringing new businesses to the Eastside is the best way to improve the lot of workers.

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)?

Unnecessary expenditures in the city budget will have to be made in order to prevent job cuts and layoffs when economic downturns arrive.

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?

(No Answer)

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 damages
• protect renters from high utility bills by enacting policies that require landlords to make basic investments in energy efficiency

I don’t see any problem with the first two bullet points. The third bullet seems problematic to me. I would think that if the City simply made available the average cost of electricity in various apartment units around town and required that information to be made available to renters the market would take care of this issue.

7) Do you support a local hiring preference that includes the use of certified apprenticeship programs for taxpayer funded projects?

Any money related to employment may be more beneficial going to workers.