Less than two weeks ago, the city clerk determined that Comunidades en Accion y de Fe or Café had submitted enough valid petition signatures to put an ordinance to raise the minimum wage in Las Cruces from 7.50 to 10.10 /hour by 2017 before the city council. The council had previously approved a measure to increase the minimum wage to 8.50 by 2016.
On Monday, the city council voted unanimously to approve the city clerks certification and that the submitted petitions were sufficient to allow the ordinance to be voted on by the council.
Though Café only had to collect and submit 2257 valid petition signatures, they collected more than 6,000. Director Sarah Nolan says the amount accounts for as much as 10% of the Las Cruces electorate and shows the level of support for the minimum wage increase.
But only petition signatures from registered voters in the electorate could be counted.
City clerk Esther Martinez only counted and evaluated 5, 063 of the 6,000 signatures submitted and of those only 2263 came from registered voters and were certified as valid.
She says between about 45-50% of the petitions counted were actually valid.
With the petition approval - The council will have a reading of the ordinance August 18th before being heard for a vote on final adoption in a meeting on September 8.
If the council votes yes on the ordinance it would become law.
If it is voted down, the ordinance would then be put on the ballot for the November election and Las Cruces voters would decide whether the minimum wage should be increased to $10.10 by 2017.
