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Not everyone agrees that Councilman Carl DeMaio’s proposal this afternoon would be a good idea.
The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council opposed the potential ballot initiative, said political director Evan McLaughlin, who blasted DeMaio’s calls for transparency.
The proposal would hurt local workers, McLaughlin said, since it would repeal the city’s living wage ordinance and ban agreements that prevent strikes on public works projects, among other issues. It also contains language that gives the mayor or city manager the discretion and sole authority to begin direct outsourcing of selected services, including trash or landfill management, without allowing city employees to participate in the bidding process, he said.
“It takes tools out the city’s tool belt as far as policies that promote the local workforce,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin also took issue with DeMaio’s, a former federal contractor, talk of transparency.
“Putting a buzzword like reform or transparency on a sweeping obliteration of this all taxpayer and worker safeguards is dishonest,” McLaughlin said.