Green Party takes on Santa Monica issues
By Daily Press staff
The Green Party this weekend will debate the city’s controversial proposed Living Wage ordinance and host a workshop on Santa Monica renters’ rights.
On Saturday officials from the Green Party, including Santa Monica Councilman Kevin McKeown, will discuss how advocates may enact living wage ordinances in their own communities. The workshop will be held in UCLA’s Haines Hall from 10:45 a.m. until noon.
On Sunday, tenant organizers from Santa Monica and Los Angeles will present a workshop on renters’ rights at the same location from 10:45 a.m. to noon.
Featured at the living wage event will be Madeline Janis-Aparicio of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which helped pass living wage laws at the city and county level of Los Angeles.
Those laws force contractors working for the city or county to pay their workers a higher wage and provide health insurance. If health insurance is not provided for workers then the employers must pay almost $1.50 per hour extra to compensate for a lack of benefits.
Santa Monica’s living wage ordinance goes a step further and demands businesses residing in what they deem the coastal tourism zone that do $5 million in business annually to provide their workers with benefits and wages far higher than the state’s $6.40 minimum wage. Citizens will have a chance to vote on the ordinance this November.
“Living wages and benefits will allow working families to sustain themselves in dignity and in health,” said McKeown in a Green Party press release advertising Saturday’s event. “We invite everyone who shares this vision to join us at UCLA and help build the movement.”
The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce is leading the charge against the ordinance, arguing that it is discriminatory and unfair.
“Here in Santa Monica businesses are always paying above the federal minimum wage rate because the market has already set a (higher) rate,” said Kathy Dodson, executive director of the chamber. “In this instance they (the city) are targeting businesses geographically and financially, but they conveniently exclude unionized hotels and city employees.
“This is really going to hurt business locally. Restaurant owners have already said many of them will stop serving lunch to get under the ($5 million) cap,” said Dodson. “And to do this to the (local) tourism industry at this low point in the economy would be very hurtful. The timing of this is all wrong.”
Featured speakers for the renters’rights workshop will be former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane and renter activist Nancy Greenstein. The two co-chair Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights, a 23-year-old political coalition originally formed to pass Santa Monica’s historic rent control charter amendment in 1979.
The Green Party state platform calls for the repeal of California’s 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, which weakened rent control.
“A primary goal of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights is to support, defend and enhance rent control and tenant protections even in the face of state intervention,” said Greenstein.
Also presenting will be Amy Schur of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which is working to unite tenant organizers throughout California to seek legislative action in Sacramento.
McKeown, a SMRR-endorsed elected official, said affordable housing for Santa Monicans is critical for a strong community.
The event is the first Green Party state meeting since the Greens received their official recognition as a national party from the Federal Elections Commission. It also marks the 10th anniversary of the Green Party of California, which now boasts a membership of 140,000 registered voters.
The workshop is open to the public for a suggested $10 donation.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 19, 2002. Read the original PDF.