City's wage standard maintained City's wage standard maintained (January 14, 2005)

Minus the mayor, council appeared tied on issue

By Jon Wiener

For the second week in a row, Mountain View City Council member Greg Perry wound up on the losing side of a controversial issue.

A week after being snubbed in his bid for vice mayor, Perry came up short for his proposal to roll back a 4-year-old city policy that requires all city contractors bidding on major projects to pay their employees what is known as a "prevailing wage."

"Prevailing wage" is considered the most common wage paid in the city. Perry said that rate equates to union wage and drives up the cost of capital projects.

State Assembly member Sally Lieber drove back from Sacramento to lobby for the law she backed in 2000 while on the Mountain View City Council. Lieber said she found out about the proposal when Perry informed staff at her district office last week.

"I whole-heartedly hope Mountain View would not get a black eye over a policy change that has not been as well thought out as it could have been," Lieber said to the council.

More than 60 union members from across the South Bay filled the council chambers during the discussion. They said Perry's cost concerns were overblown and that any savings would be outweighed by an increased demand on social services by lower-wage workers.

Council members Laura Macias and Nick Galiotto agreed with them.

"We may save a little money, but I'm not sure in the long-term it's worth it," said Macias.

Many in the crowd held brightly colored pieces of paper with pro-union slogans printed in block letters. While their lobbying had little effect on Perry or Council member Tom Means, it did appear to anger Council member Matt Pear.

"What really bothers me most here is you all ask for other people to foot the bill," said Pear, who said his background as a non-union concrete worker convinced him to get an engineering degree. "It's more actually about being elitist. You guys can pack our city council chambers day in and day out; it's not going to change what I think about who I am."

Means, a professor of economics at San Jose State, said the rule was essentially a price control that unfairly favored some workers over others.

"If my dean went to my chair and said we need to pay prevailing wage, she'd get laughed out of the room," he said. Then, turning to the crowd, he asked, "Why do you need protection?"

Though a vote was never called, Council member Mike Kasperzak was the decisive factor. Kasperzak, the most veteran council member, opposed the passage of prevailing wage rules in 2000 and said he was prepared to support revoking it before changing his mind and siding with Galiotto and Macias.

With Neely on a trip in China, the council appeared deadlocked at 3-3, and the prevailing wage policy was maintained.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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