The Guilfordian

Issue date: 2/16/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Daniel Miller

"I pray tonight as a citizen, I pray as a pastor, I pray as one concerned about others, that you will do the right thing and vote to uphold the people," said Reverend Cardes Brown, a member of the Greensboro Minimum Wage Committee, to the Greensboro City Council at its Feb. 5 meeting.

Despite the efforts of Greensboro's 68-member Minimum Wage Committee and their petition, on Feb. 5, City Council refused to allow the people of Greensboro to vote on setting the minimum wage to $9.36 an hour. This amount parallels the purchasing power of the minimum wage in 1968.

The committee, which formed in Dec. 2006, continues to persist regardless of complications with the local government. City Council first accepted the petition on Dec. 18 with a 7-2 vote, pending the legitimacy of the original 6,400 signatures. Finding only 3,600 valid, the Board of Elections gave the committee 10 days to collect the necessary 4,972. The committee gathered 1,500 more signatures in that time.

The number of signatures required is based on 25 percent of the amount of voters in the last city council election. Upon presentation of the petition, the City Clerk reported they needed 8,338 based on the 2007 election. The committee wrote a letter and persuaded City Council to allow them to use the original number based on the 2005 election instead of the most recent 2007 election.

At the Jan. 15 meeting, council member Mary Rakestraw made the motion to rescind the original 7-2 acceptance of the petition she helped pass at the Dec. 18 meeting.

"My problem with it was the folks who went to Bennett did not inform the people signing their petition that City Council has no authority on this," Rakestraw said in a phone interview. "This has to be done through Raleigh."

According to Robert's Rules of Order, the procedure City Council uses for meetings, they can vote to rescind the previous rescind with a two-thirds majority.

"State law is silent on the issue (of municipalities determining their own minimum wage). It's not illegal, they just haven't spoken about it," said N.C. General Assembly Representative Alma Adams to the committee at the Feb. 5 City Council meeting. "Their interpretation of that is if it's not written it's a violation."

Though Greensboro cannot yet vote on the issue, people need to know the advantages and disadvantages of raising the minimum wage.

Continued...

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