After two years of tinkering, Mayor Rocky Anderson will make Salt Lake City the state's first city to give preferences to contractors who pay employees a living wage.
Under new mayoral rules to be signed next week, the city will also give preference to companies that have written policies stating they will not discriminate against employees or applicants based on sexual orientation.
The rules define a living wage as $9.06 hourly (the federal poverty guideline for a family of four) with health benefits, or $10.56 per hour without health care.
Anderson, who is scheduled to sign the changes to the city's procurement policies at noon next Monday, delivered final drafts to living-wage advocates a week early. The Deseret Morning News received a copy from those advocates, who say the changes are a good first step toward helping the working poor. They hope other cities will follow the lead.
"The mayor's office is now acknowledging what a huge problem working poverty is in Utah," said George Neckel, director of Utah Jobs with Justice. "By far the major cause of poverty in Utah is low wages."
The rules, which won't take effect until March 2005, include a points system that will credit businesses based on five factors. When bids are within a certain price range of each other, the company with the most additional points will win the city contract. Those points include:2 points for paying a living wage.
0.5 points for having a written non-discrimination policy that includes lesbians, gays, the transgendered, bisexuals and heterosexuals.
0.5 points for having conducted an apprenticeship in the past 12 months through the state apprenticeship program.
0.5 points for having pre-employment and "for-cause" drug testing.
0.5 points for being a local business — located and operating in Salt Lake City — that has 30 employees or fewer and annual gross revenues of less than $1 million.
Bill Tibbetts, anti-hunger action committee coordinator with Crossroads Urban Center, said he and other anti-poverty advocates lobbied the mayor's office only about the living-wage rule.
Anderson added the extra requirements himself, Tibbetts said, noting that the advocates aren't necessarily opposed to the other requirements.
To qualify for the point-based system, a company's bid must be within 4 percent of the lowest submitted bid for projects less than $250,000. It must be within 1 percent of the lowest bid for contracts between $250,000 and $1 million and within $20,000 of the lowest bid for contracts greater than $1 million.
The new rules don't prevent the city from considering its current bidding factors, which take into account a company's financial history, among other concerns, when awarding contracts.
Anderson, who did not return a phone call for comment, had previously pondered creating an ordinance enacting a living-wage rule. As an ordinance, however, the changes would need City Council approval, which some at City Hall predicted might be a struggle.
Anderson used his administrative authority to alter the city's procurement rules.
The council and mayor have sparred in the past over how far Anderson could reach with his mayoral powers.
Council members and the mayor reached a written compromise in 2001 acknowledging that three controversial executive orders Anderson signed didn't trump existing city ordinances. The accord also asserted the mayor's right to manage administration employees.
Councilman Dave Buhler, who was often at odds with the mayor then, said he would withhold judgment on the new procurement rules until he sees them.
"If it has far-reaching policy implications, it probably should be an ordinance," he said.
Along with the procurement changes, Anderson prepared a written defense of the changes, noting that other cities don't pay significantly higher costs due to living-wage rules, that contractors show improved productivity because of them and that cities don't experience adverse business impacts.
"This is actually going to be a benefit to the city based on their research," Neckel said. "These factors can actually improve the quality of contracts for the city."
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com