The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to the Seattle City Council expressing the group's wish that the Council give the proposed ordinance regarding paid sick leave more analysis and resist the pressure to get any measure passed quickly.

August 5, 2011

Richard Conlin, Council Chairman
Nick Licata, Councilmember
Seattle City Council 
PO Box 34025


Seattle, WA 98124-4025

Re: Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

Dear Councilmen,
On behalf of our members, the WS Chamber of Commerce is writing to formally request that the Paid Sick Leave legislation being proposed be more vigorously analyzed prior to placing this before a council vote.
A majority of our membership in a survey taken two weeks ago oppose this legislation. Our Board of Directors, in studying the proposed legislation, feels strongly that the Council has not studied the ramifications of this legislation thoroughly enough and should not enact it in the time frame outlined.

The following are issues we believe the Council should consider in more detail:

Outreach

Following meetings with the stakeholder panel, it is clear that impacts to various industries have not been thoroughly addressed.

Such sweeping legislation deserves a more thorough process to allow input from business as is provided with legislation similar in impact. In fairness, we recommend a much more thorough outreach be conducted to better assess the impacts to our businesses.

Concession to smaller business

Again, comments from the representatives for business on the stakeholder panel are in agreement that the 3-Tiered approach is inadequate. We recommend introducing a new "tier" recognizing the smaller and micro-business

Economic Impact Study

Beyond regulatory impacts – which will demand more administration, and investment in monitoring and enforcement, an analysis must be done on the substantial impact this ordinance will have on contractually binding collective bargaining agreements and the cost to businesses and unions trying to implement this level of legislation mid-contract.

Another key point for small business is the two year waiver for start up companies.

The common rule of thumb is that a start-up must make it beyond five years in order to be considered viable. The two year waiver will force these new businesses to implement this ordinance right when they are still in a most vulnerable stage of their development. This could very well negatively impact the overall job creation and small business development of our city.

Enforcement

After the second meeting of the stakeholder panel it was clear that the Office of Civil Rights does not perceive itself to be an enforcement body, but merely a body to oversee procedural aspects. This leaves a big hole in the logistics of how this ordinance is going to be enforced. The method of enforcement has not been thought out.


There is strong consensus with our Board of Directors that the impacts of this ordinance on the economy of our City have not been duly analyzed. We are still trying to recover from a devastating recession and this legislation puts another economic barrier to that recovery. This is an ordinance that puts Seattle businesses at a disadvantage in relation to other businesses of our region.

This is a time for leadership to focus on the need to create and retain jobs and increase the economic vitality of our city. Given the above concerns there seems to be no pressing urgency for the City Council to rush this ordinance through without a) allowing those most affected to fully understand it and weigh in on its affects and b) providing sufficient time for the Council to better understand the impact of this legislation.

Sincerely,

Dave Montoure
Chairman

Patricia Mullen

CEO