S.F. Council Rejects Boost in Raises for Nonprofit Contractors

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors narrowly rejected a proposal Tuesday to use $3.4 million of a predicted $21.6 million budget surplus to fund bigger pay hikes for workers at nonprofit agencies that do work for the city, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The measure, which failed by a 6-5 vote, would have increased city-funded raises for nonprofit workers in the 2014-15 fiscal year from 1.5 percent to 2.25 percent, matching the hike for municipal employees and those of for-profit contractors.

The board passed a resolution last summer calling for higher nonprofit pay, but it was nonbinding, and Mayor Ed Lee’s budget set the raises at 1.5 percent. Opponents of the new measure said changes in city spending plans should be considered during budget hearings in June, not in the middle of the fiscal year. Bypassing the process to give more to one group now “doesn’t allow us to weigh their needs against those of others,” Supervisor Julie Christensen said.