Today, Tacoma’s City Council held a special meeting where we had the responsibility to either adopt Initiative 2 as written or forward it to the Pierce County Auditor. The City Council voted unanimously to forward the initiative to the Auditor.
As prescribed by the Tacoma City Charter, the City Council has the responsibility to review an initiative’s potential impacts on the people of Tacoma within 30 days. However, this timeframe was not enough to fully understand the implications and effects on our community of Initiative 2. The City Council’s review resulted in choosing not to adopt an initiative we cannot be confident is in the best interest of all the people of Tacoma.
I share the petitioners’ commitment to living wages, access to hours, secure scheduling, and safer workplaces. But as written, this initiative raises significant concerns about unintended consequences for our community.
Regardless of the outcome of the initiative, the concerns and questions raised about labor standards warrant further discussion and consideration. Therefore, I am proposing a task force that will examine labor standards, both those identified in the initiative and those brought up in community feedback, to bring forward policy improvement recommendations to the City Council for consideration.
Community members with questions about this statement can contact Bucoda Warren in the Office of Mayor Victoria Woodards at bucoda.warren@tacoma.gov or (253) 318-0594.
For more information, visit the City of Tacoma’s Initial Response to the Initiative 2 Ballot Petition.