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Supervisors advance ordinance to require prevailing wages for city security guards after extensive worker testimony
Summary
The Budget & Finance Committee forwarded an ordinance to require prevailing wages for city-contracted security guards to the full Board after Supervisor Kim and union speakers argued the change would lift pay and standards for many low‑paid, often nonunion workers who guard city facilities and events.
Supervisor Kim urged the Budget & Finance Committee to adopt an ordinance requiring prevailing wages in city contracts for security guard services and for security work at events on city property, saying the change would raise pay and protect workers who currently earn below market rates. She told the committee that city-contracted security workers often earn “about $13.34” per hour and argued that a prevailing-wage floor would provide “a greater degree of economic security.”
The ordinance, which also includes a technical clarification to the police code on worker retention, was the subject of substantial public comment. Security officers and union organizers described unstable contracting cycles and low pay at many vendors. Samuel Cole, who identified himself as a security officer with ten years at MultiService Center South, said, “We we're making 14 to $16 an hour,” and urged the supervisors not to let contracts undermine union standards. Michael Malley (industry vice president for security, Northern California United Service Workers West) and other union speakers said the change would prevent low‑bidding contractors from undercutting living wages during large events.
Regina Digondrizzi, director of the Office of Small Business, explained the item’s relationship to previous funding for legacy business programs and clarified that this ordinance would not create a new appropriation; it focuses on wage standards in city contracts. In response to committee questions, city staff and the sponsor said the ordinance would apply to contractors and subcontractors and to certain events on city property.
The committee took the item forward to the full Board with a positive recommendation. The ordinance will next be scheduled for Board hearings and final action, where supervisors will have the opportunity to review implementing language, any specified wage schedules or prevailing‑wage determinations, and enforcement provisions.
