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Board urged to honor promised supplemental for nonprofit workers; committee forwards measure without recommendation
Summary
Nonprofit workers, unions and agency leaders flooded committee testimony urging approval of a $3.4 million supplemental to raise cost-of-doing-business payments; supervisors debated process but moved the item to the full Board without recommendation.
A broad group of nonprofit staff, union representatives and agency directors urged the Budget and Finance Committee on Feb. 25 to forward a $3.4 million supplemental appropriation intended to increase the city27s cost-of-doing-business (CODB) payments to nonprofit contractors.
Sponsor remarks said the supplemental would create parity for nonprofit contractors who have not seen consistent increases and cited a controller-reported unappropriated general fund surplus. Sponsor Supervisor (identified in the record as the item sponsor) argued the modest 0.75 percentage increase would help frontline employees stay in the city27s safety-net workforce. Budget and Legislative Analyst Mr. Rose presented fiscal tables showing that together with previously appropriated funds the package would provide about a 2.25 percent increase for nonprofit contractors for fiscal 2014-15, totaling roughly $10.15 million.
More than a dozen public commenters described turnover, low wages and the intense need among client populations; several union leaders and nonprofit employees said the city had promised the supplemental last summer and should follow through now. "Nonprofit workers are broke. San Francisco is not," one union representative said. Another speaker from OPEIU Local 3 said about "80% of our members ... are formally homeless themselves or have experienced homelessness," underscoring the sector27s staffing pressures.
Supervisors debated the merits and the process of making a mid-year supplemental outside the mayor27s regular budget cycle: some cited strong support for the measure and equity concerns, while others warned of precedent for end-of-cycle supplementals. The committee ultimately voted to forward the ordinance to the full Board without recommendation so all 11 supervisors could vote.
Next steps: The item will appear on the Board27s agenda for a full vote; staff and advocates continue to press for a longer-term funding structure to address pay parity in the nonprofit sector.
