Council members split on urgency of minimum wage discussion, put Bill of Rights on 2025 agenda
The Olympia City Council decided Tuesday it would postpone any further discussion of a $20.29 minimum wage and adoption of a Workers’ Bill of Rights until its retreat in January 2025.
Mayor Dontae Payne said the council needs more time to figure out the best way to engage the public on the issue, after the Finance Committee originally set a 90-day exploratory period on the plan and the city received an unprecedented amount of feedback from the public, both for and against the Bill of Rights.
Payne said now that people have an understanding of the Workers’ Bill of Rights, the council has to figure out what is actually doable from the city’s perspective. He said that doesn’t necessarily mean anything will end up being adopted.
“There is no commitment at this point to do anything,” he said. “I really want to be clear that what we are committing ourselves to doing is beginning a process of what it could look like to bring something forward to the Council for consideration of adoption.”
Council member Lisa Parshley, chair of the council’s Finance Committee, shared a statement at the beginning of the meeting apologizing for any fear or anxiety the committee’s conversation on the Workers’ Bill of Rights caused. She said she was compelled to bring the work to the council from the committee because of the work of Olympia Strong and hearing from struggling community members.
She agreed the process was rushed and the conversation requires more time than originally thought, partly because of the concerns they heard from small business owners.
Council member Dani Madrone said she’s been frustrated by the whole situation so far, and she struggles to make a connection between minimum wage and the Olympia Strong plan.
“I don’t think we’re ready to decide what moves forward, when it moves forward, how long it’s going to take and how much capacity we’re willing to put into it because we have a whole work plan for 2025 that we need to talk about all the other priorities of the city and what we’re no longer going to do because this is now a priority,” she said.
Madrone said she’s aware the city is facing some budget constraints and has been making cuts. She said one of the areas the city plans to cut is the Office of Performance and Innovation. Staff in that department helped create the One Community Plan and other processes Madrone said the council will use as models for the minimum wage discussion.
Council member Jim Cooper said Olympia Strong has always been about minimum wage for him.
“A third or 43% of our community can’t pay their bills. We should be talking about that every day like we’re talking about 54% renters almost every day,” he said.
Cooper said there are other ways to help those who are struggling in the community. He said he recently got into a debate about universal basic income, guaranteed income and direct cash assistance, all of which he supports.
“In fact, if a coalition of people comes to the city council and brings that, I have a feeling that this conversation would go away, and we would talk about guaranteed income for workers while also talking about some of the rights that are inherent in the wage conversation,” he said.
Cooper said he is frustrated as well about the process, but because he expected to have a process figured out by Tuesday’s meeting.
“My frustration is actually about the desire for the work that the committee is asking for to happen sooner,” he said. “This conversation started in our committee live on Sept. 16, and the only thing that came out of it was an engagement plan for 90 days around minimum wage and separating a conversation about all of the Workers’ Bill of Rights.”
Mayor Pro Tem Yến Huỳnh said if anything, she hopes people who listened to the Tuesday’s study session heard how much the council cares about its responsibility to make big, important decisions, and how they impact every community member.
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 1:28 PM.
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