Press Democrat op-ed, April 3, 2001
Smart Growth and Economic Equity
By Marty Bennett and Jim Dupont
Sonoma County has wrestled in recent years with both the promise and perils of increased growth and its effect on the area's quality of life. The Rural Heritage Initiative and transportation debates have focused on the environmental impact of growth. But rarely is the issue of economic inequality addressed.
Silence on this issue was broken three months ago when the outgoing Petaluma City Council voted to give financial assistance to developers seeking to build a four-star Sheraton Hotel with conference facilities at the Petaluma Marina. Discussions between the hotel developers, labor unions and city council members took place over the course of a year and convinced all parties that a win-win arrangement was possible.
The resulting agreement is an example of how local government can use public subsidies to promote 'smart growth' and economic equity.
The planned four-story, 183-room hotel will conform to the city's general plan, will utilize existing infrastructure, and will contribute to the revitalization of a commercial zone in the marina district. The project, planned by local hotelier Kirk Lok, will meet the community's needs for both reasonably priced hotel rooms and meeting space.
From the beginning, the hotel developers stated that public subsidies were needed to make a full-service hotel a reality. Given past financial debacles such as the Petaluma Auto Mall, the City Council was reluctant to provide subsidies with no strings attached. The council eventually agreed to give the developers a $750,000 redevelopment loan and $2 million in tax breaks, after receiving the assurances necessary to recoup the investment and minimize risk to the taxpayers.
Perhaps as important to the City Council was the concern about growing income inequality in the region. Most council members agreed that taxpayer money should not add to the problem by creating poverty-level jobs. As a consequence, the council insisted, and the developers have agreed, to build the hotel primarily with local union labor.
In addition, future hotel workers will decide on unionization free from management interference through a 'card check/ neutrality' agreement, which provides a quick and non-confrontational process for workers to decide on the issue of unionization. As in other cities such as Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco where workers at new hotels were covered by card check/neutrality agreements, it is probable that workers at the Petaluma Sheraton will choose to join the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE).
During the 1990s income polarization increased dramatically throughout the state, particularly in regions like the Silicon and Telecom valleys, where high-tech investment has driven economic development. Tech jobs have not made up for the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs, and job growth in the low-wage service sector has outpaced all other categories. In Sonoma County according to the California Budget Project, 57% of all workers in
1999 made less than $12.50 an hour, and one in four families do not make enough to cover basic living expenses.
Most disturbing, Employment Development Department occupational wage data indicates that 45% of the new jobs in the county created between 1995-2002 will pay less than $10 an hour. Many who hold these jobs, particularly in the service sector, will join the ranks of the working poor - unable to afford housing in the county and relying on public social services like emergency-room health care.
It is this problem that the former Petaluma City Council addressed in mandating 'high road' labor standards for the project. U. S. Department of Labor data demonstrate that unionized workers receive 20% higher wages than nonunion and are more likely to receive health and pension benefits.
Living wage union jobs will enable workers to live near their place of employment and to become self-sufficient taxpayers who will contribute to the local economy.
The California Federation of Teachers and HERE will work closely with the new hotel owner and management to develop school-to-work programs in the Petaluma School District and hospitality training for workers at Santa Rosa Junior College. This collaboration between business and labor should provide career mobility for hotel employees and yield a stable, trained and productive workforce.
The Petaluma Sheraton Hotel is an encouraging step in the fight to curb economic inequality in Sonoma County. This project is the first time in recent history that government, business and labor came together to deal with the questions of economic growth and economic inequality. It should not be the last.
Marty Bennett is President of the SRJC/California Federation of Teachers Local 1946 and a member of the North Bay Labor Council Executive Board.
Jim Dupont is President of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 2850 that represents hospitality workers in the East and North Bay.
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