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By Bob Quick The New Mexican |
December 20, 2005
The Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce will not take its lawsuit opposing Santa
Fe’s minimum wage to the state Supreme Court.
“The chamber decided not to petition the New Mexico Supreme Court,” Simon
Brackley, interim president of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, said
Monday. “My sense is the other plaintiffs feel the same way.”
The chamber has been the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, and its decision
apparently brings to an end litigation that was initiated in March 2003,
when business groups filed suit against the minimum-wage ordinance that
had been passed by the City Council in late February of that year. The
ordinance has been in effect since June 24, 2004.
One of the other plaintiffs, Robbie Day, owner of the San Francisco
Street Bar and Grill and Santa Fe Bar and Grill, said, “We talked about
(the lawsuit), and nobody is in any position to do anything further
unless somebody comes up and helps finance it. I don’t see anybody in our
group who would be able to afford an appeal to the Supreme Court. … We’re
kind of beat up financially .”
The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit were New Mexicans for Free
Enterprise; Santa Fe Hotel Joint Ventures, the former holding company for
the Hilton of Santa Fe; Rick Post, the former owner of Pranzo; and Zuma
Corp., the parent company of Zia Diner.
Brackley said the “( lack of) chances for
success combined with the stress that the plaintiffs have gone through
have reduced their taste for further legal action.”
Last week, the City Council decided to allow the minimum wage to rise to
$9.50 Jan. 1, as stipulated by the ordinance. City Councilor David
Pfeffer and businesses wanted to keep the wage at $8.50 until a complete
study of the wage’s impact on the economy becomes available in May 2006.
The only other legal action threatening the minimum-wage ordinance is a
lawsuit filed Dec. 5 by Heritage Home Healthcare in federal court in Albuquerque.
Paul Sonn, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Social Justice at New
York University, which assisted the city in its court battle to implement
the minimum-wage ordinance, said the city has not yet been served legal
papers in that suit, making it uncertain whether that legal action will
go ahead or not.
Sonn also said Heritage’s federal suit repeats claims that already have
been rejected in state court.
Sonn called the chamber’s decision to drop the lawsuit “great news. The
chamber deserves credit for recognizing that the living wage is legally
sound.
We are looking forward to working with them to help build a strong
economy for all Santa Fe
residents.”
Carol Oppenheimer of the Santa Fe Living Wage Network ,
a nonprofit group that champions the wage, said the chamber’s decision
not to proceed with litigation “relieves the stress for us, too.”
She recalled that at last week’s City Council meeting to consider
postponing the wage increase to $9.50, 76 residents spoke in favor of
increasing the wage while only five spoke against it.
“That shows that support has shifted strongly in favor of the living
wage,” she said. “Now it’s time to move on together.”
Now that the wage is in place, “we need to make sure businesses are
complying with the $9.50 wage and educate workers what their remedies are
if employers are not following the law,” she said. “There are some who
are not following the law. We’re very concerned about getting that worked
out.”
City Councilor David Coss, a proponent of the wage and a candidate for
mayor, said it was “wonderful news’’ that the litigation opposing the
minimum wage was over.
“I’m very pleased the chamber has dropped the lawsuit, and I think with
that step we need to redouble our efforts to make our economic-development
strategy work for families and business owners,” he said. Coss also said
he’s in favor of implementing a suggestion by City Councilor Carol
Robertson Lopez calling for the city to be more business friendly.
Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican .com.
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