Laserfiche WebLink
[1 <br />Adopted by City Council: November 5, 2001 <br />AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND AND REORDAIN CHAPTER 22 (PUBLIC PROCUREMENT), <br />ARTICLE II (COMPETITIVE PROCUREMENT) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF <br />CHARLOTTESVILLE, 1990, AS AMENDED, BY ADDING THERETO A NEW SECTION 22-82 <br />(LIVING WAGE REQUIREMENT). <br />WHEREAS, the Council of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia finds and determines that: <br />1. The City of Charlottesville has many residents who, although gainfully employed, earn hourly <br />wages insufficient to adequately provide for themselves and their families the basic necessities of life, <br />such as food and shelter. These people rely disproportionately upon social support services and public <br />assistance available in our community. <br />2. It is the policy of government at the national, state and local levels to encourage recipients of <br />public assistance to make a transition to financial self-sufficiency through gainful employment. For <br />individuals to accomplish this, they must have access to jobs providing reasonable wages. <br />3. The City of Charlottesville, as a provider of public financial assistance and social support <br />services, has a compelling interest in ensuring, through means available to it, that contractors receiving <br />public funds do not contribute to the problems faced by City residents who must subsist on low hourly <br />wages. <br />4.In procuring contracts for non-professional services the City may consider whether a contractor <br />• offers an combination of quality and price which is optimal to the City's needs. It is in the performance <br />of non-professional services contracts that contractors are most likely to pay employees low hourly <br />wages. <br />• <br />5. The payment of a living wage, which the City deems to be a wage of at least eight dollars <br />($8.00) per hour, yields better workmanship, reduced absenteeism, lower turnover, higher productivity <br />and increased employee morale. Contractors who pay their employees such a living wage are more likely <br />to provide timely, higher quality, reasonably -priced services to the City. <br />6. The City strives to be a world-class city and demands the highest quality of performance from <br />the people who perform services for the City in any capacity, whether those persons be employees or <br />individuals who provide services under a contract with the City. <br />7. The City has in place a budget planning process, through which the City Manager and City <br />Council will annually review and evaluate the living wage specified in this ordinance, so that this dollar <br />figure may be increased as necessary to maintain parity with the lowest starting salary for City of <br />Charlottesville employees; NOW, THEREFORE, <br />BE IT ORDAINED by the Council of the City of Charlottesville that Chapter 22 of the Code of <br />the City of Charlottesville, 1990, as amended, is hereby amended and re -ordained as follows: <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />