Press – Stephen C. McIntyre

Hoping for the best

Stephen McIntyre. The Galveston County Daily News – January 26, 2017

Most of us trust the powers that be and their hired and elected associates to do the right thing. We pray everything will turn out all right. We hope for the best.

Galveston is developing. But what is your future in Galveston?

A book by John Nichols was later turned into a movie about a somewhat similar situation in a mythical northern New Mexico town.

“Leaving the maps, then, Bloom talked about the history of the north, about land grants and how they had been lost, strayed, or stolen, divvied up. He named thieves and quoted statistics, working hard to relate what he knew of the far past and the near past to the present. He spoke of sociological trends in Chamisa County, in the entire United States. He ran down for them a history of other conservancy districts in the state which had effectively destroyed subsistence farmers by forcing them into cash economies where they could not compete. He did everything possible to probe and expose the hypocritical rhetoric surrounding the Indian Creek Dam — the state engineer’s pronouncement, for example, that it was ‘the only way to save a dying culture.’ He tried to demonstrate how the conservancy district and the dam was just one more component of the economic and sociological machinery which for a long time had been driving local small farmers off their land and out of Chamisa County.

“(H)e outlined what the real costs of the dam could balloon into, and broke those costs down to an amount per acre, per year, per person, regardless of that person’s wealth. He explained how the proposed Ladd Devine Miracle Valley project would drive their land values sky high, and what that would do to their taxes. He told them that when middleclass or wealthy people from other states bought expensive vacation homes up in the canyon or around the golf course on the subdivided west side, they would want a school for their children, sewage systems, a cleaner water supply, and for that all the people of Milagro would have to pay. And once the ski valley was completed there would be pressure to raise taxes for a better road up to it. And Bloom did his best to question the myth that this development would bring wealth to every inhabitant, and jobs and security for all. For 40 years, in Chamisa County, there had been a tourist boom: and yet most of the profits went into a few pockets at the top. Skilled construction workers and technicians were always brought in from outside. For the poor and the rural people little had changed, except that in taking service jobs for low wages they no longer had the time to work their land, and so had often wound up selling it, only to discover themselves poorer than before ….”

Check out pages 148-49 of “The Milagro Beanfield War” or the movie at the library and consider whether hoping for the best is all that you should do.

Press

When fact is scarier than TV fiction

Stephen McIntyre. The Galveston County Daily News – January 12, 2017

There are a lot of shows that you and your family can watch on TV or the internet. Recently, I watched a show on the National Geographic Channel that seems no scarier than other prime time shows, but it is hard to know whether it is fact or some sort of twisted fiction. I have been watching episodes of “Years of Living Dangerously.” I guess it would help to have some guidance from the experts when trying to decide whether to watch it with children.

Maybe every science teacher in Galveston County could watch this series and, based upon their education, experience and good common sense, recommend to the public those episodes they believe would help their students understand their world and future in it.

Better yet, maybe the experts at NASA and our local universities can meet with the heads of the science department in our local school districts and together evaluate these shows and advise teachers and parents whether or not children should watch.

If none of this is possible, then each one of us can go to
YouTube or to the National Geographic Channel website to see the show ourself.

And no, it is not the greatest show on earth. It has been called the great Chinese hoax that, according to some folks, has tricked the National Geographic Channel along with almost every scientist in the world and the leaders of every country. Yep — you guessed it — manmade climate change.

All of us watching and counting the millions and millions of dollars being spent replenishing our beaches, developing an Ike Dike to protect this area and recovering from disaster after disaster elsewhere in America and the world have got to wonder what is going on and why.

Of course, all of us living in Galveston County will have our own private concerns about our future years of living dangerously if the climate is in fact changing and at a faster rate than previously calculated.

Go buy some popcorn, watch the show and decide for yourself — fact or fiction.

Press

Living on little

Marissa Barnett. The Galveston County Daily News – December 11, 2016

Bill time for Jessica Brown is a juggling act. Every month, the 31-year-old mother of two must make $800 spread enough to cover her utilities, phone, gas, food and expenses for her kids.

It’s nearly impossible as it is, she said. Were it not for the help of her parents, who chip in on her rent, she doesn’t know how she could get by.

“It just doesn’t cut it,” Brown said.

Brown has for the last few years worked at a fast-food chain in Galveston as a “team leader.” She’s responsible for opening the restaurant, prepping the food, doing inventory, counting the money and assigning tasks to her co-workers who have been there for less time.

When she leaves work after a seven- or eight-hour shift, she sometimes rushes to her side job cleaning houses.

When she started at the restaurant in 2013, she made $7.25 an hour. She’s received two raises since then and now earns $8.25 an hour. It’s still not enough, she said.

“My bills are never on time,” she said, adding that her parents pay her bills in full and she pays them back to avoid having utilities shut off. “I can’t save. Even a single person couldn’t survive on it.”

By the numbers

More than 2.4 million Texas workers earn less than $10.10 per hour, according to a 2015 study by the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities.

An estimated 400,000 workers in Texas are paid at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Labor studies suggest a person would struggle to get by on anything less than $14 an hour in the Houston-Galveston area, where property and rental prices are higher, a 2016 analysis by the center found.

That figure budgets for a monthly rent of about $750, about $240 for food, $480 for health insurance, $380 for transportation and $335 for federal taxes.

“That’s just to make ends meet,” said Garrett Groves, Economic Opportunity Program Director at the center. “That doesn’t leave any wiggle room for anything.”

Living on less than that is nearly impossible without some form of assistance, advocates said. But most people are not eligible for federal assistance if they earn above the federal poverty line, which is about $12,000 annually for an individual, which breaks down to just less than $6 an hour.

Movement to raise the wages

At least 29 states, including Arkansas, Ohio and Arizona, have raised their minimum wage to above the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour. Some cities, such as Seattle, have raised theirs as high as $15 an hour.

Locally and across the country, low-wage earners and advocates are calling for an increase to the federal minimum wage or a change in state policies to allow cities to set their own wage standards.

Raising wages could help boost the local economy because workers would likely spend the added pay in the area, said Steve McIntyre of Gulf Coast Interfaith who helps organize an annual conference on wages.

Some local employers, however, said doubling the minimum wage — as a national movement called Fight for $15 is advocating for — would increase the cost of living across the board.

“If someone told me I had to pay $15 per hour tomorrow, we would sit down and look at the whole picture,” said Robert Flores, who owns 14 McDonald’s restaurants around the county and employs more than 700 people.

“Of course it’s possible,” he said. “Minimum wage was at one time $1.75, but cheeseburgers were 19 cents. That’s exactly what would happen. Ultimately, you’re going to be in the same socio-economic status, the same situation. It’s going to impact the cost of everything around you.”

Flores said he pays above minimum wage starting out, in part because it’s what the market requires. Many of his employees move into higher-paying managerial or other positions after learning some skills, he said.

Who’s earning low wages?

Of workers earning less than $10.10 an hour, 60 percent were between ages 25 and 54 years old, while just 3 percent were teenagers between ages 16 and 18, a 2015 analysis by the Center for Public Policy Priorities found.

Nearly 45 percent had some formal or college education and half of the workers had children, the center said. Many of those wage earners were working in retail, hotel and motel services and the food industry — a big portion of Galveston’s tourism-based economy.

“We see people at the churches every day who work 40 hours per week but are unable to pay for food, shelter and their basic needs,” the Rev. Freda Marie Brown of St. Vincent’s House said.

Some of those low-wage earners reached by The Daily News declined to be cited in the newspaper because of fear of retribution from their employers.

Brown, who had worked in a medical office in Houston, moved to Galveston to be closer to her parents after the office closed. She’s applied to medical offices on the island, but hasn’t found a position.

“I’ve tried and tried,” Brown said. “I’m not looking now — I guess you could say I’m discouraged.”

Switching jobs is also nerve-racking because Brown doesn’t know how she could manage an in-between period without a paycheck, she said. Other jobs would pay more, Brown said. But she’s not ready to make a big switch while trying to raise a family, she said.

Brown had her rst son when she was 18 after graduating high school. Becoming a mother delayed her plans to go to school. Now, it’s financial concerns about how to pay for school and continue paying bills that stops her, she said.

Growing cost of living

Lower wages are driving some families out of Galveston, Cindy Roberts-Gray, director of ird Coast Research and Development, told advocates gathered at a living wage conference earlier this year. Labor calculators have put a living wage for Galveston Island at about $17 per hour.

Low-income families with children find it most difficult to get by because of the expenses that come with raising kids, she said. As a result, Galveston’s population has gradually declined, particularly for people in their child-rearing years, she said.

For Brown, her parents’ help is the only thing that allows her to stay in the area. Her parents own a house and she pays $300 a month to live there, she said.

“Anywhere else on the island would be out of the question,” she said.

A cycle of poverty

Another problem is the cycle of poverty that earning low wages creates, Groves said. Most jobs paying near minimum wage don’t provide any health or other benefits.

Living paycheck-to-paycheck can make it nearly impossible to save for retirement, a home or build an emergency fund, Groves said.

“These are all compounding factors,” he said. “Anything can stress your economic situation to the point of breaking and make it harder to climb out of poverty.”

What’s being done?

Advocates and city leaders have for years been quietly discussing how to raise the wages of the county’s lowest paid.

Galveston Councilman Craig Brown, who spoke at the conference, said the council soon plans to take up an ordinance that would force vendors to establish a higher wage in order to work with the city. The city could also decide to add wage standards among criteria assessed when the city considers bids, he said.

Last summer, the Galveston Park Board of Trustees voted to pay the organization’s lowest-paid hourly employees more.

The park board adjusted its salary schedule for its two lowest category employees, called N4 and N5 employees in the park board’s documents. The categories include beach cleaning operators, maintenance workers, visitor center supervisors, gate attendants at Seawolf Park and call-center operators.

Under the new pay ranges, the employees who were in the lowest pay grade now make at least $10.55 an hour, a 17.55 percent increase from the previous $9 minimum wage.

But local governments’ hands are tied in how much they can do to raise wages and at the state level there’s little appetite to raise the minimum wage, experts said.

In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed a law barring cities from setting wage standards. Until then, municipalities had had some authority to set the bottom rate for wages.

There were about seven bills led during the 2015 session addressing minimum wage, including legislation giving cities wage-setting authority or setting a state wage higher than the federal standard, Groves said. But leadership declined to give most of those bills a public hearing, he said.

“It’s not given serious consideration,” he said.

For Jessica Brown, raising the minimum wage comes down to fairness, she said. She and her co-workers work demanding full-time positions, but struggle to meet their basic needs, she said.

“We put a smile on our face and do the job, even when we’re under a lot of stress and pressure,” she said. “I’m blessed with help from my parents, but I don’t know how some of my co-workers do it. People are just working to take care of their family like everyone else.”

Press

Get informed about voting rights

Steve McIntyre. The Galveston County Daily News – December 10, 2016

The November 2016 election was the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act at work to protect the right to vote of black, Latino, Native American, Asian and other voters of color.

On the evening of Nov. 7 at Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church in Galveston just hours before Election Day, Senior Counsel Leah Aden from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York City presented a live nonpartisan training session entitled — “Prepared To Vote Election Protection Training Texas” that covered the recent federal court order striking down portions of the Texas Voter ID law as well as other efforts to preserve the voting rights of historically underserved Texas communities. Aden is on the team of lawyers who successfully defeated the State of Texas and obtained a favorable federal court order similar to the recent federal court orders striking down portions of the Voter ID law in Wisconsin and North Carolina.

The Galveston training session was organized by Gulf Coast Interfaith leader Cornelia Harris-Banks and was part of the efort of Election Protection, a national nonpartisan coalition formed to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. The coalition is made up of over 100 local, state and national partners and works year round to advance and defend the right to vote.

The local training was conducted in partnership with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, Gulf Coast Interfaith, Galveston Northside Task Force, Galveston Coalition for Justice, NAACP Galveston Council No. 6180 and LULAC Galveston Council’s No. 151 and No. 22270. In the last several years all of these groups except LCCRUL have been involved in reviewing, criticizing and filing objections with the United States Department of Justice to enforce the Voting Rights Act in Galveston County. Previous local action to enforce the Voting Rights Act can be found at the Gulf Coast Interfaith website under Democracy at the Resources and News buttons.

Copies of the Nov. 7th training session materials are available from Harris-Banks and extensive excerpts of the training session from the live TV broadcast of the training session on The “Not Your Ordinary Joe” Show hosted by GCI leader Joe Compian can be viewed at http://gulfcoastinterfaith.org/resources/democracy.

The basic material from this election eve training will remain relevant for many years but may be partially modified and expanded by U.S. District Judge Nelva Ramos in her upcoming final order addressing the serious violations of the Voting Rights Act by the State of Texas.

Press

Park board raises wages for lowest-paid employees

John Wayne Ferguson. The Galveston County Daily News – June 16, 2016

The Galveston Park Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to begin paying the organization’s lowestpaid hourly employees more.

In a 5-2 vote, the park board adjusted its salary schedule for its two lowest category employees, called N4 and N5 employees in the park board’s documents. The categories include beach cleaning operators, maintenance workers, visitor center supervisors, gate attendants at Seawolf Park and call-center operators.

Under the new pay ranges, the employees who were in the lowest pay grade will now make at least $10.55 per hour, a 17.55 percent increase from the previous $9 minimum wage.

The next highest pay grade will make at least $11.60 an hour, a 13.2 percent increase.

The change means raises for eight current employees and will also apply to future hires in those positions, officials said.

There was no change to the amount the board pays seasonal employees such as summer lifeguards, who earn between $8.25 and $11.25 per hour.

Park Board Executive Director Kelly de Schaun said the raise would cost the board an extra $17,440 in its annual budget.

“We need to start putting the emphasis on these employees that they deserve,” Trustee Craig Brown said. Brown is also a city councilman.

At the same meeting, the board voted to increase the pay range for five salaried employees, because of new federal laws requiring employers to pay overtime to people who earn less than $47,476 a year. The raises for those employees cost another $14,618.

The decision was lauded by local activists — organized together as the Galveston Living Wage Group — who have lobbied the park board and other public entities to increase how much they pay their lowest earning workers.

“There’s a basic wage that people need to survive on and the federal minimum wage is just not enough,” said Steve McIntyre, of Gulf Coast Interfaith.

The park board was paying its employees more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The wage group says the living wage in Galveston is almost $15 an hour. Living wage is the amount a person needs to earn to meet basic needs.

Despite the park board’s raises, lowlevel employees at the park board are still paid less than other public agencies. The city of Galveston’s lowest paid fulltime employees start at $10.71 per hour, according to city spokeswoman Kala McCain.

Trustees Joyce CalverMcLean, Miguel Aleman, Craig Brown, Clyde Steddum and Kerry Tillmon voted for the raises. Trustees John Zendt and Thayer Evans voted against them.

Zendt, the chairman of the park board’s finance committee and president and CEO of Moody Gardens, said he was against the pay raises because the board had set a goal of passing a balanced budget this year.

“To say you’re going to give increases and I’m trying to balance the budget, the timing’s not right on it,” Zendt said Wednesday. “They deserve more pay, but I’m trying to get a balanced budget.”

Trustee Buzz Elton was absent and the board has one vacant seat because of the resignation of former chairman Steve Kalbaugh.

Press

Could you survive on $7.25 an hour?

Steve McIntyre. The Galveston County Daily News – April 6, 2016

Over the last couple of weeks, we have watched the political eforts of the working poor succeed as they have obtained a minimum wage of $15 an hour in New York and California, the 15th and ninth largest econ- omies in the world.

The wage increase was spread over time and has diferent restrictions and exceptions in each state.

Not long ago, San Marcos, adopted its own limited version of a $15-an-hour law and elected officials in other cities and counties in Texas are doing what they can to assist low-wage workers to survive in our economy.

It is difficult for locally elected public officials to address inadequate and stagnant wages in Texas since the legislature in its wisdom in 2003 decided to suddenly eliminate the right created in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 for any county or city in America to raise the wages of its local workers.

In Galveston, there has been recent discussion reported in he Galveston County Daily News about the lack of low wage workers on the island (“Nobody wants to work,” he Daily News, March 10), workers not wanting to work at certain jobs, importing foreign J-1 workers, and training future workers at Ball High School — but very little discussion about wage inequality, stagnant wages, and surviving on less than a living wage.

The Fair Labor Stan- dards Act adopted in 1938 declared the national minimum wage should be in an amount to maintain the minimum standard of living necessary for the health, efficiency, and general wellbeing of workers.

What would you, or your family do, if you were suddenly dependent upon $7.25 an hour? Forget about seeing family and friends… forget about sleeping… how many additional hours a day would you have to work so that your family could simply survive? I guess that may help explain the long waiting list for public housing and vouchers and families at food banks and households doubling up as people turn to diferent tactics to survive as they pray for a wage in an amount to maintain the minimum standard of living necessary for the health, eiciency, and general wellbeing of workers.

Put politics, put religion, put simple humanity aside, put the language of the Fair Labor Standards Act aside… could you do it on $7.25 an hour?

Press

Galveston Living Wage Conference set for Sept. 28

Steve McIntyre. The Galveston County Daily News – September 20, 2015

Three of us met around my kitchen table on the morning of Sept. 8, 2012, to have breakfast and a conversation about low-wage workers in Galveston. We talked for a long time and concluded we should act.

On the last Monday in September 2013, we held our first Galveston Living Wage Conference at Live Oak Missionary Baptist Church. There were presentations from lawyers, local officials, and the US Department of Labor concerning voter registration, labor rights, registration for Obamacare, and obtaining free legal aid.

At our 2014 Living Wage Conference at St. Patrick Catholic Church there were presentations from lawyers, local officials, and the Galveston Country District Attorney concerning Sec. 3 jobs program at Galveston Housing Authority and City of Galveston, J1 immigrant workers, prosecuting wage theft, and the demographics of Galveston’s low wage workers. And GISD Superintendent Larry Nichols announced a wage increase for almost 100 of GISD’s lowest wage workers.

The upcoming 2015 conference on Sept. 28 at St. Patrick Catholic Church is sponsored by Golf Coast Interfaith, Galveston Coalition for Justice, Galveston Northside Taskforce, NAACP Galveston Unit No. 6180, LULAC Council No. 151, Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition, The Children’s Center Inc., Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, Galveston County Commissioner Stephen Holmes, the Rev. C. Andrew Doyle of Episcopal Church of Texas, Baptist Ministers’ Association of Galveston, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph A Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston Catholic Diocese, United Way of Galveston, The Jesse Tree, St. Vincent’s House, Galveston Ministerial Alliance, Galveston Catholic Charities, National Employment Law Project, Students Together for Service, and Galveston County Labor Council-AFL/CIO.

At our 2015 Conference there will be presentations on religious teachings concerning workers’ rights, living wage ordinances, Obamacare, rights of union and nonunion workers, wage enforcement, Galveston demographics, and enforcement of federal Sec. 3 obligations.

You can obtain more information about the conference at http://www.GulfCoastInterfaith.org.

There have been many small quiet conversations in Galveston since that first meeting around my kitchen table. Letters have been sent to different employers concerning the wages and benefits of low-wage workers. Information has been provided and conversations held or scheduled with GISD, CITY of Galveston, UTMP, Texas A&M, COM, Galveston College, Galveston Park Board, Galveston Port Authority, Galveston Housing Authority, and others. An employment survey is being circulated to help quantify the treatment of low-wage workers by their employers.

All of these quiet conversations between people of goodwill have been helpful in gaining a better understanding of the working lives of our friends and neighbors in Galveston.

Similar conversations have been happening more and more frequently around our country. Some of those conversations have evolved into debate and action and has changed the lives of workers and their families.

Join us at our third annual Galveston Living Wage Conference at 6:30pm Sept. 28 in the St. Patric Catholic Church auditorium.

Press

Killing Mockingbirds In Galveston

Cornelia Banks, Leon Phillips, Steve McIntyre, Joe Compian, Mary Patrick, Amy Quiroga. The Galveston County Daily News – June 12, 2015. B4

On May 4th, the Galveston Charter Review Committee voted 6-3 to recommend to the city council that it place on the ballot in November a proposal to change the city council election system from 6-1 to 4-2-1. This vote of 6 Anglo males versus 2 African-American males and 1 Anglo female as cast 46 days before Juneteenth. The heartbreaking irony surrounding what was happening in Galveston on the eve of our Juneteenth celebration has forced us to continue speaking out.

We have been talking to our friends around the country about our concerns and have listened to their disbelief. On June 11th, we appeared at the city council meeting to advise council of our deep concern.

As you participated in our local Juneteenth celebration activities, we hope everyone relected on the current effort to diminish the voting rights of minorities in Galveston. An effort that has been rejected four times by the Department of Justice under four different presidents: H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama.

This excerpt from the last DOJ rejection letter on Oct. 3, 2011, demands careful consideration by the Charter Committee and a clear public explanation of the motivation and rationale for those six votes.

A voting change has a discriminatory effect if it will lead to retrogression in the ability of language or racial minorities “with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.” Beer v. United States, 425 U.S. 130, 141 (1976). The voting change at issue must be measured against the benchmark practice to determine whether the ability of minority voters to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice will be “augmented, diminished, or not affected by the change affecting voting.” Ibid.

Under the existing method of voting, minority voters currently have the ability to elect a candidate of choice in three of the six single-member districts. In contrast, this ability would exist only in two of four districts and in neither of the two at- large positions under the proposed system. Indeed, in the course of our investigation, the city acknowledged that the proposed method of election will decrease the number of minority ability-to-elect districts.

Intentionally diminishing the opportunity of minorities to vote and elect someone of their choice under the Voting Rights Act is crossing into dangerous territory. The fact that the Justice Department rejected Galveston’s four prior efforts to change to 4-2-1 strongly suggests the depth of the hurt, anger, and distrust that many feel as Galveston rushes toward this fifth attempt.

For decades many public school students were required to read the beloved American novel “To Kill A Mockingbird.” It was believed to be the only book ever written by Harper Lee. This past year an earlier book by Harper Lee was discovered that tells the story of the characters decades later. The new book will
be published on July 14th.

What would Atticus Finch say to those six members of the Charter Review Committee?

Press

Loss Of Voting Rights Proposed 46 Days Before Juneteenth

Cornelia Banks, Leon Phillips, Steve McIntyre, Joe Compian, Mary Patrick, Amy Quiroga. The Galveston County Daily News – June 4, 2015. B4

Very soon many people in America will be celebrating Juneteenth and the symbolic end of slavery in America 150 years ago in Galveston.

Some of you may be aware the City Council appointed Charter Review Committee voted on May 4th to propose the city charter be changed from a 61 single member district election system to a 421 hybrid atlarge system in Galveston. This is similar to what happened in Pasadena last year and is now in federal court.

You may recall the Department of Justice under Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama rejected three previous attempts to do the same thing proposed on May 4th in the 63 Charter Review Committee vote (6 Anglo males v. 2 AfricanAmerican males and 1 Anglo female.) The last rejection from the Department of Justice on October 3, 2011 stated: “A voting change has a discriminatory effect if it will lead to retrogression in the ability of language or racial minorities ‘with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.’” (Beer v. United States, 425 U.S. 130, 141 (1976) The voting change at issue must be measured against the benchmark practice to determine whether the ability of minority voters to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice will be “augmented, diminished, or not affected by the change affecting voting.”

Under the existing method of voting, minority voters currently have the ability to elect a candidate of choice in three of the six single member districts. In contrast, this ability would exist only in two of four districts and in neither of the two atlarge positions under the proposed system. Indeed, in the course of our investigation, the city acknowledged that the proposed method of election will decrease the number of minority abilitytoelect districts.

It is our understanding that under Sec. 2 of the Voting Rights Act there is a nationwide prohibition against not only electionrelated practices and procedures that are intended to be racially discriminatory, but also those that are shown to have a racially discriminatory result. The United States and private parties may file a lawsuit against a redistricting plan alleging that it violates Sec. 2.

Before our Juneteenth celebration begins you might read and consider a letter sent by local organizations to City Attorney Palumbo on August 22, 2013.

You can find it online at http://gulfcoastinterfaith.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/CO_objection_to_changing_COG_to_421_election_system_42213.23573343.pdf

In the coming days as you participate in our local Juneteenth celebration activities, we hope everyone will reflect on whether the efforts of the Charter Review Committee and the City Council is any different from the three previous failed attempts to diminish the voting rights of the minority community in Galveston.

We hope thoughtful leaders of good faith and wisdom will reflect on what’s going on.

Press

Let’s Talk Some More About A Living Wage

Let’s talk some more about a living wage. Steve McIntyre. The Daily News. Wednesday, December 17, 2014. B6

Three of us met around my kitchen table on the morning of Sept. 8, 2012 to have a conversation about the wages and working conditions of low-wage workers in Galveston.

We talked for a long time and concluded we should try to do something. We agreed to meet again the following month… and then again.

Last year on the last Monday in September we held our first Galveston Living Wage Conference at Live Oak Baptist Church. There were presentation at this first conference from lawyers, local officials and the US Department of Labor concerning-voter registration, labor rights, registration for Obamacare and obtaining free legal aid.

A couple months ago we held our second Galveston Living Wage Conference on the last Monday in September at St. Patrick Catholic Church. There were presentations at this conference from lawyers, local officials and the Galveston County District Attorney concerning Sec. 3 jobs program at Galveston Housing Authority and city of Galveston, J1 immigrant workers, prosecuting wage theft, and the demographics of Galveston’s low wage workers.

The recent conference was sponsored by NAACP Galveston Unit 6180, LULAC Council 151, Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition, Galveston Coalition for Justice, Galveston Northside Taskforce, The Children’s Center Inc., Gulf Coast Interfaith, United Way of Galveston, The Jesse Tree, and St. Vincent’s House.

You can obtain more information about both conference at Gulf Coast Interfaith’s website.

There have been many small quiet conversations since that first meeting around my kitchen table. Letters have been sent to different employers concerning the wages and benefits of low-wage workers.

Information has been provided and conversations have been held or scheduled with GISD, city of Galveston, UTMB, Texas A&M, COM, Galveston College, Galveston Port Authority, Galveston Housing Authority and others. These quiet conversations with people of goodwill have been helpful in gaining a better understanding of the daily lives and work of our friends and neighbors in Galveston.

Similar conversations have been happening more and more frequently around our country where some cities talk about setting a higher local minimum wage, mandating higher wages in city contracts, and encouraging local chains and large employers to do the right thing. Our third annual Galveston Living Wage Conference will be held on the last Monday in September, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. Mark your calendar.