How informed should you be before you vote?

Our first election scandal of 2024

If I were to ask you which Long Beach hotel workers would “qualify” for the minimum wage increases that you’re being asked to vote on in March, would you be able to tell me?

That was at the heart of a legal challenge filed last week by the Long Beach Reform Coalition seeking to change the ballot language summarizing Measure RW, which could raise some hotel workers’ minimum wages to roughly $30 per hour by 2028. The Reform Coalition, which often clashes with City Hall, tried to get the courts to make the city better spell out which workers would benefit.

The short answer is it’s not a certainty all hotel workers will get these raises if voters approve Measure RW, but the way the ballot language was written would require voters to know who “qualifies” and who doesn’t. 

And it’s ok if you don’t. But is it ok that it’s not more clearly stated? 

For starters, it will only apply to large hotels (100 rooms or more), and large hotels that have union contracts can be exempt from the pay scales proposed in the measure.

Most large hotels in Long Beach have union contracts and the Reform Coalition’s contention was the ballot language did not go far enough to explain that the impact of a “yes” vote, which could end up being small.

And this, of course, doesn’t even get into the politics of the issue, which I wrote about in September.

While the legal challenge was filed within the window to appeal this type of thing, it was filed on the last day of the window, and the judge ultimately sided with the county’s argument that fixing the language would be too time-consuming and costly and potentially disrupt the schedule of getting nearly six million ballots printed and shipped to voters by next month.

That leaves us with an interesting situation where a ballot question that might not be written as clearly as it could have been is still going to be sent to Long Beach voters to decide in March.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how some candidates in this year’s election made claims in their candidate statements that were, shall we say, closer to being untrue than factual. And ballot measure questions have similar rules regarding the truthfulness that’s required by state law, as well as a word count.

Los Angeles County, which runs Long Beach’s elections since the city decided to eschew those duties instead of purchasing new equipment and retraining its staff, has a limit of 75 words, and it appears that the City Attorney’s office used every last one in drafting the controversial description.

In total, it says: 

Shall the measure increasing the minimum wage for qualifying hotel workers from $17.55 per hour to $23.00 per hour on July 1, 2024, gradually increasing annually to $29.50 per hour by July 1, 2028, applying cost of living increases starting July 1, 2029, clarifying “wages” and “service charges” paid to qualifying hotel workers and authorizing the Council to make future amendments to the City’s hotel worker minimum compensation standards, starting June 1, 2029, be adopted?

The city’s lawyers argued that the description is fine by established standards that only require the ballot question to present a “simplified summary” for voters rather than a detailed account of the ramifications of their potential vote. 

Let’s take a look at Long Beach’s recent ballot-measure history to see why this could be important.

The Measure A sales tax increase promised to invest in public safety and to fix roads and public facilities, but the latter part has largely been cast to the wayside with the police and fire departments getting the lion’s share of Measure A tax revenue while roads continue to fall into disrepair. 

The “simplified summary” included all the things it would fund, but not the percentage share that each would get. Misleading? Perhaps, but now Measure A is permanent and would require a vote of the people to overturn it. 

And then there was Measure M, which asked voters to codify in the city’s charter the fees it assessed on its own Utilities Department so it could transfer as much as $25 million annually to the general fund. 

The “simplified summary” listed the things the fees could fund but didn’t mention that water, gas and sewer rates could be kept artificially high to account for the fees. It also didn’t mention ongoing litigation in other cities where fees like these were being challenged or had been deemed illegal.

In 2022, Measure M was overturned by an appeals court. 

As a reporter, maybe I’m more accustomed to being asked to rewrite things for clarity. And while my rewrites are not as high-leverage as an $82 million election (estimated cost of the last countywide vote), getting the necessary information into our stories for readers to make informed decisions is always our goal.

And I’m not qualifying that.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS WEEK:

What to know this week: 

The city is expanding its first-time homebuyer assistance program that offers grants of up to $25,000 for eligible residents. Previous to the expansion you had to live in certain communities but the expansion lets any Long Beach resident who meets certain income limitations and home ownership history markers potentially eligible for the program. The city estimates that it has enough funds on hand to issue about 80 of these grants, so if you’re in the market for a home or know someone who is, you should check out this program page to see if you meet the criteria. 

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS NEXT WEEK:

The City Council show returns with a condensed version of episode one of the 2024 season because the State of the City address is scheduled for Tuesday night at the Terrace Theatre. The annual speech delivered by the mayor typically includes some sort of big announcement of upcoming projects or businesses that the city has convinced to locate in Long Beach. It also serves as a platform for the mayor to lay out certain policy directions that the council might take in the new year. It’s a lot to digest, but we’ll do our best to break it down for you and highlight the important parts. I’ll be somewhere in the audience, so don’t be scared to say hello if you recognize me.