Wages to dominate meeting
Residency, Red Rock Park issues also on council agenda

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — There should be plenty of talk about the minimum wage when the City Council reconvenes Tuesday evening.

First up is a proposal by the Gallup Committee for a Minimum Wage Increase to raise the rate from $5.15 an hour where it was set by the federal government nearly a decade ago to $6.75 this year, to $7.50 by 2008, and by any proportional change in the consumer price index beginning in 2009 and every year thereafter.

If the council approves the plan Tuesday, it goes into effect in 60 days. But judging from the council's past comments, it's not likely to do that. So if the council rejects the proposal as it's likely to it moves on to the second minimum wage item of the evening: an amended version of the committee's plan.

By rejecting the committee's plan, the council forces it onto a public referendum. It also gives the council a chance to place an alternative plan on the ballot, the amended version it will consider Tuesday.

The Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce has proposed an alternative of its own to the committee's plan. The draft amendment City Manager Eric Honeyfield has prepared for the council's consideration looks like something in between. It proposes raising the minimum wage to $6.50 by July, to $7 by 2008, and to $7.50 by the following July. Unlike the committee's version, it does not call for an annual adjustment, exempt employers with fewer than 15 employees, require active city enforcement or businesses to keep extra records. Also unlike the committee's version, it would expire if the state or federal government were to pass its own minimum wage increase.

If the council approves the amendment, or some version of it, it will appear on the ballot along with the committee's version during the city's March 6 municipal elections.

The council will also consider adding another item to the ballot Tuesday: a sort of "residency test" that would tighten the state's statutes on who can and cannot run in city elections.

As those statutes stand, Honeyfield said, it's hard to hold mayoral candidates to the rule that they live within city limits. His test would require additional proof; however, City Attorney George Kozeliski is advising the council not to put the proposal on the ballot. If passed, he believes the test could constitute an "artificial" barrier to running for office and open the city up to litigation.

Also on the council's agenda is an amendment to the new Red Rock Park fees and policies it approved in mid-December. The amendment does not change any of the new fees, but adds a sentence that would give the city manager or his designee the power to change them at his discretion, "as market conditions prevail."

The council approved the new fees and policies to let the city run the park in the absence of a private management firm Gallup Facilities Management's contract expired at the end of the year until the state takes over.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. inside the City Council Chambers.