During the June 11th City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Larry Agran proposed a pay increase for the City’s lowest-wage workers.
While discussing the City’s annual budget, Agran said that it’s “time to restore a living wage to our own workforce and ensure a living wage for employees of all major contractors that do business with the City of Irvine.”
Many of the City’s workers who perform critical services — including childcare workers, maintenance workers, and seasonal park & recreation workers — currently earn about $16.50 an hour. Under Agran’s proposal, those workers would earn a “living wage” of $20 per hour.
Agran estimated the cost to the City for the pay raise to be between $200,000 and $300,000. That money would come from the City’s reserve fund, which currently stands at nearly $70 million — which is a very healthy 24% above the City’s annual operating budget.
Agran — who established the City’s reserve fund when he was previously Mayor — wants the fund to be drawn down to 21% or 22%, allowing for those dollars to be “invested in our workers and city services.” While discussing the reserve fund, Agran said: “Excess money sitting in reserve like that is dead money. Yes, it’s getting some interest, but it’s not investing in our people’s needs right now.”
Other investments Agran proposed include:
- Raising the amount of funding the City allocates toward public safety in Irvine schools
- Working with the Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) to add buses to help relieve traffic congestion, cut air pollution, and get kids to and from school safely
- Hiring more school nurses to bring our school districts closer to the nationally recommended standard of one nurse per school
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