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SEIU Local 620 members address Santa Barbara City Council, march around De la Guerra Plaza DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOSClad in purple T-shirts, members of SEIU Local 620 march around De la Guerra Plaza, chanting slogans.
Kathleen Goo sometimes has to make a difficult choice: Pay her basic utility bills or buy groceries.
Ms. Goo, a soft-spoken commission secretary for Santa Barbara’s Community Development Department, joined a bevy of city employees and SEIU Local 620 representatives to plead for better wages before the Santa Barbara City Council meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Still, Ms. Goo said she considers herself to be “one of the few lucky ones” because she is able to live in affordable downtown housing.
“Yet I can barely afford to live in the city I serve,” Ms. Goo said. “I formally request that you please be as generous as possible to provide assistance and allocate more funds to adequately pay city staff’s salary they need and (that) they deserve. For we always come through for the city we love, so please come through for us in return.”
A city employee is among the dozen-plus workers addressing City Councilmember Kristen Sneddon, Mayor Randy Rowse and the rest of the Santa Barbara City Council. Councilmember Sneddon later said giving city staff a living wage should be a priority during budget talks.The message of understaffed and underpaid reverberated throughout the council chambers as the city employees called for a cost of living increase and rent stabilization efforts to keep city workers in Santa Barbara.
Donning bright purple shirts, more than one dozen employees spoke during the at-times emotional public comment period. About 100 people packed the council chambers, an overflow room and the halls.
“Our primary goal is a fight for a fair contract. We need a cost of living adjustment that addresses the unprecedented year-over-year inflation,” Laura Robinson, a field representative for SEIU Local 620, told the News-Press Tuesday. “We also would like our members and city staff to be able to live in the community they serve. Rent increases are unsustainable and any cost of living adjustments offered by the city need to reflect that.”
“By refusing to address the reality that this is not a status quo year, by refusing to acknowledge that your staff is sounding the alarm that we are in a moment of crisis, you are pushing away your staff who genuinely care about what happens here,” Dana Hoffenberg, a Water Resources employee, said. “You are causing decreases to the levels of service we provide the community by overworking and underpaying staff. But you can fix it.”
Mayor Randy Rowse, who presided over the council meeting, was not immediately available for comment.
Councilmember Kristen Sneddon — remarking during a presentation from the city administrator’s budget report later during the city council meeting — said giving city staff a living wage should become a priority during budget talks.
“As we heard today, our staff members are telling us they’re overburdened, they’re performing functions that used to be handled by two or three individuals now being done by one with little support, and it’s clear this is not sustainable,” Councilmember Sneddon said. “Our staff is overworked, and I would say underpaid. Though we value them so highly, we’re losing them.”
Prior to the city council meeting, members of the SEIU Local 620 held a rally in support of city workers in De La Guerra Plaza. Employees also marched around the plaza and on State Street, chanting slogans. And they listened to speakers.
SEIU Local 620 represents public employees on the Central Coast. Specifically, the group represents three units: the General Unit, the Treatment and Patrol Unit, and the Hourly Unit.
It does not represent firefighters, police, supervisors or managers.
Mark Kramer, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 525, spoke in support of the SEIU Local 620’s request, saying: “The people here are an asset and not a line item on a budget.”
A rent stabilization impact study was on the agenda for Tuesday’s city council meeting.
email: kschallhorn@newspress.com
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