We point your attention to an interesting opinion piece in the Mercury News by Kevin Korenthal regarding the Palo Alto City Council's rejection of the state's "prevailing wage" laws.
In short, Palo Alto allows construction contractors to pay wages that reflect-GASP-the actual market in the rest of Santa Clara County and are not predetermined by collective bargaining agreements with labor unions in the state capitol. This practice has created significant savings for the city-an average of ten percent on the cost of construction.
Palo Alto is able to behave in this manner because it is one of 114 charter cities that have-GASP- the right to locally control their own municipal affairs without state interference.
A sign of things to come? We think so.
This is a very good reason for General law Cities to consider becoming a Charter City!
Posted by: Arne Simonsen | July 09, 2009 at 11:02 AM
Here is a link to the Charter Cities report which details the process by which a General Law City can become a Charter City, which charter cities are waiving the Prevailing Wage: http://abc-ccc.org/documents/CharterCityReportFINAL.pdf
Posted by: KevinD. Korenthal | July 16, 2009 at 01:03 PM