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Campbell council will continue discussions about minimum wage increase on Dec. 6

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Campbell council will continue discussions about minimum wage increase on Dec. 6

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The Campbell City Council wants a bit more information about a regional plan that aims to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019 in multiple Santa Clara County cities.

At its Nov. 1 meeting, the city council decided after a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Jeffrey Cristina dissenting, to continue discussion about raising the minimum wage within the city. The council wanted additional information about fiscal impacts on local businesses and employees before signing on to a plan crafted by the Cities Association of Santa Clara County.

"It's asking member cities to adopt a minimum wage increase as a regional effort to avoid having different rules in each city, which could cause economic issues for employers and employees," Al Bito, the city's deputy city manager, told the council.

The association has proposed a regional effort to increase minimum wage to reach $15 per hour by 2019, which would come three years ahead of a plan signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Jerry Brown that will gradually raise the wage to $15 an hour by 2022. Beginning in January, the state's minimum wage will increase from $10 per hour to $11, according to city staff.

Cupertino, Los Altos and Palo Alto have already signed on to the association's plan.

Local business owners from the city's downtown strip told the council that an accelerated increase of the minimum wage would hurt their businesses.

"I support an increase in minimum wage that has been approved by the state of California," said Randy Musterer, owner of Sushi Confidential. "I do not support the accelerated increase as proposed by the city council. Labor is our No. 1 expense at Sushi Confidential. We have over 100 employees."

Musterer added if the accelerated minimum wage increase was implemented, then costs would be passed on to customers.

A San Jose resident spoke about why raising the wage to align with the association's proposal would help employees residing throughout the Santa Clara Valley.

"It's a very appropriate thing to do when the cost of living in the area is much higher than the rest of the state," Andrew Boone said. "This is a place where $15 an hour doesn't cut it anymore."

During council discussion, Cristina argued that the wage increase would harm young workers.

"Minimum wage isn't to be lived on," Cristina said. "As long as we keep pricing these positions for children out, they're never going to get skills. And what we're going to be doing is destroying our future workforce so people in 20 and 30 years aren't going to have any skills to get jobs."

Mayor Jason Baker took issue with Cristina's characterization of minimum wage jobs and suggested the council look at the issue again on Dec. 6.

"Respectfully, you have maybe too narrow of an idea of what a minimum wage job is," Baker said to Cristina. "If we continue this to Dec. 6, I think some of those folks will come out and talk to you and show you it's not just kids."

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Campbell city council discusses regional effort to raise minimum wage

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The Campbell City Council wants a bit more information about a regional plan that aims to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2019 in multiple Santa Clara County cities. At its Nov. 1 meeting, the city council decided after a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Jeffrey Cristina dissenting, to continue discussion about raising the minimum wage within the city.

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Campbell will raise minimum wage to reach $15 by 2019

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Campbell will raise minimum wage to reach $15 by 2019

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CAMPBELL - Campbell is still considering if it will join Santa Clara County cities in raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2019.

The city council voted 3-2 at a lengthy Dec. 6 meeting to raise the city's minimum hourly wage a few years before the state's minimum wage reaches $15. However, at a meeting on Dec. 12 the council denied the second reading of its approved ordinance that would raise the minimum wage with a 3-2 vote, voiding the decision made six days prior.

Council members Jeffrey Cristina, Paul Resnikoff and Michael Kotowski rejected the ordinance and asked for more information if tipped workers could be exempt from gaining a higher minimum wage at the accelerated rate proposed by the city.

If approved, on July 1, 2017 the hourly minimum wage in Campbell would rise to $12. On July 1, 2018, the hourly rate would rise to $13, then to $15 on July 1, 2019.

The council's consideration is part of a regional effort that has been in the works for a few years. Campbell joins cities such as Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose that have chosen to hit the $15 wage mark by 2019. The state will raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2022.

Nine cities within the county have decided to take no action at this time or are still considering a minimum wage increase. Those cities include Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Santa Clara and Saratoga, according to the Dec. 6 city staff report.

Campbell's potential wage increase does have some exceptions to help businesses adjust to the change. Businesses with 25 or fewer employees would be exempt from the wage increase and will follow the state's schedule of $15 per hour by 2022. Meanwhile, trainees would be exempt from being paid the city's mandated minimum wage for their first 120 days of employment.

Nonprofits would have a different schedule to reach the $15 per hour mark. As suggested by Vice Mayor Liz Gibbons, nonprofit organizations will reach the $15 threshold in 2020 instead.

Business owners from the city's downtown strip told the council that the new schedule for them to pass increased costs on to customers.

"I understand that eventually getting to $15 an hour is already happening, but getting faster is going to hurt the small businesses faster," Chris Yamashita, owner of Brown Chicken Brown Cow, told the council.

Yamashita added that the city's accelerated wage increase would cost his business more than $40,000.

Councilman Michael Kotowski said Silicon Valley can handle an increase in minimum wage at a rate faster than the rest of the state due to the high cost of living. He added that the state's 2022 schedule would help residents in places like Bakersfield and Stockton and less so in the Santa Clara Valley.

"It wouldn't work here. It's not one size fits all," he said.

Councilmen Jeff Cristina and Paul Resnikoff cast the dissenting votes on Dec. 6, citing the wage increase as a burden for Campbell businesses.

"It's very challenging for me because there's still an extreme burden for businesses," Cristina said. "Still to this day between both meetings we have not had one speaker who has had skin in the game who has said, 'Yes, this is a good idea'."

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Campbell considering joining regional effort to get minimum wage to reach $15 by 2019

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CAMPBELL - Campbell is still considering if it will join Santa Clara County cities in raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2019. The city council voted 3-2 at a lengthy Dec. 6 meeting to raise the city's minimum hourly wage a few years before the state's minimum wage reaches $15.

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Campbell considers its rules for accessory dwelling units

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Campbell considers its rules for accessory dwelling units

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Laws in Campbell over accessory dwelling units-formerly known as granny units-
may become more lax as city officials are moving toward eliminating lot size requirements.

On June 5, the city council unanimously directed staff to review the current ordinance and look at removing the 10,000 square-foot minimum requirement to build an ADU. According to Daniel Fama, a senior planner with the city, Campbell's minimum lot size requirement is much higher Than neighboring cities. San Jose requires a minimum lot size of 5,455 square feet, while cities like Los Gatos and Cupertino have eliminated the lot size requirement entirely.

But Campbell's push to build more housing may become obsolete if California lawmakers pass B 831, which aims to prohibit the minimum lot size requirement and restricts rear and side setback Requirements, among other provisions.

According to Fama, the bill passed in the senate with a unanimous vote and is now in front of the assembly.

Councilman Jeffrey Cristina wanted to get ahead of the state law and have staff draft an ordinance that would mirror SB 831.

"What we're talking about here isn't about affordable housing, but it's about creating more housing," he said. "This is just one small piece of the puzzle."

Councilwoman Elizabeth Gibbons audibly scoffed when Cristina said he hoped SB 831 would pass. Gibbons later explained that she thought the bill didn't leave cities with, "any tools to create a balance."

"We have insufficient housing," she said. "I would go so far to say we have insufficient affordable housing. I'm making a distinction here."

Gibbons' point eventually ensued into debate over whether ADUs were even classified as truly affordable, as much of the discussion around accessory units has been about making it easier for cities to meet the demand for affordable housing.

But according to Campbell's Housing Element, the city doesn't rely on ADUs to help meet its state-required Regional Housing Need Allocation numbers for below market-rate housing.

"They're smaller units (so) they cost less," Mayor Paul Resnikoff reasoned. "You can have affordability without it being a below market unit, just because people need to live somewhere."

While the elimination of the minimum lot size requirement isn't directly tied to making ADUs more affordable, the staff report noted that council could add in affordability incentives-like waiving building permit fees-into a revised ordinance.

But with the prospect that more ADUs could be popping up in Campbell should council eventually approve eliminating the minimum lot size, some of the council members were concerned about the impact of short term Air BnB rentals.

Councilwoman Susan Landry, who currently lives in an ADU, was concerned about non-owner occupancy and the impact it could have on the, "character of Campbell." Over-parked neighborhood streets and dozens of people jammed into bunkbeds in an ADU were among her concerns. To help relieve those concerns, she asked planning staff to review occupancy limits. Councilman Rich Waterman agreed with Landry about instituting limits, but he added that the council should act reasonably.

"To add a restroom on it to make an ADU so my mom, who's 85 years old can move in, is a huge amount of money to put a sewage line in there," Waterman said about his family's current plans. "I can't see that everyone's going to turn around and suddenly throw ADUs in their backyard. I think we might be over-exaggerating the problem."

In the end, council agreed it was okay to eliminate the minimum lot size requirement, but wanted staff to look at ways to put controls in place to keep the relationship between ADU size and lot size reasonable. Gibbons added that staff should look at best practices, and suggested them to take a look at Palo Alto's recently adopted ADU ordinance.

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Campbell looks to nix minimum lot size for accessory dwelling units

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Laws in Campbell over accessory dwelling units-formerly known as granny units- may become more lax as city officials are moving toward eliminating lot size requirements. On June 5, the city council unanimously directed staff to review the current ordinance and look at removing the 10,000 square-foot minimum requirement to build an ADU.