http://youtu.be/mpGEVhCcN4c
Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima’s State of the City Address highlighted upcoming city improvements and reflected on the biggest issue the city dealt with this past year.
One of the most heavily debated topics of the past year was the city’s minimum wage increase. Mayor Miyagishima said that the debate taught the city a lot.
“The recent minimum wage liberations are a reflection of our cities strength,” Miyagishima said. “Especially our willingness to think about the community as a whole, and how we can build an economy that works for everyone. In that respect, we are in the forefront of a discussion that is certain to occupy our nation as a whole in the coming years.”
The Mayor complemented the compromises made during the minimum wage debate and local businesswomen Marci Dickerson said those compromises were key.
“If you held your ground, and there was a lot of people that did and we certainly respect those,” Dickerson said. “But a compromise needed to be reached in order to get something that we could live with, and that was the phrase we used throughout it. That may not be what we want, but that is something we can live with and so that’s where we went from there. But, yes, in all things usually if two sides are so opposed to each other the only way to do it is to meet somewhere near the middle.”
The Mayor thanked Dickerson in his speech along with Sarah Nolan, executive director of CAFé who led the petition to increase the minimum wage. Nolan said she was glad that workers were able to make a difference in the city.
“One of the first things when we started minimum wage was can we sit at the negotiating table with powerful business interests and powerful business groups,” Nolan said. “And I think we demonstrated that workers can and should build power so that they can sit at those tables and negotiate, and negotiate with our city government. I think, again, it makes all of us stronger for it.
Mayor Miyagishima also said that things can be learned and changed looking at citizen initiative process in the future.
“The charter clearly states that the council will either adopt the proposed ordinance without any change in substance, or send it to the voters,” Miyagishima said. “Whatever the narrow legality of officially adopting the ordinance and then changing it in a short time later, this action was not consistent with the spirit of the charter. In the future, we either need to change the charter itself in respect to the initiative, or do what it says.
Councilor Nathan Small wrote the amendment to change the minimum wage ordinance proposed in the initiative. He says it is something the entire community needed to be involved in.
“I fully agreed, and I cast a vote to let the voters decide on minimum wage,” Small said. “Because I felt then as I feel now it would have been the most straightforward and most authentic way to move forward. That didn’t happen, and so, I made what was a very tough decision. But it was a decision made with different partners in our community to find agreement.”
In the address the Mayor also highlighted the city’s fiscal responsibility, new business and attractions coming to the city, such as Franco Whole Foods and a new hotel at New Mexico State University, and the accessibility of the city office’s to the citizens
