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Outsider pushing charter issue for part-timers in Youngstown
On the side
Gov. John Kasich made a rare non-campaign visit to the Mahoning Valley when he came to Columbiana last week to sign a bill requiring quicker notice of lead contamination in drinking water.
Before the event, Kasich’s staff said questions about Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, would end a press conference that followed the bill-signing ceremony. It was ridiculous to make such a rule when Kasich has been critical of Trump and he discussed his concerns about Trump earlier that day on Fox News.
When it appeared the press conference was about to end, I said the magic word “Trump” and Kasich responded. The Q&A concluded. I later learned that my question triggered the end of the press conference though Kasich looked as though he was walking away.
A “City of Youngstown Part-Time Workers Bill of Rights” that could be on the November ballot, has a most unusual background.
If it gets on the ballot, city voters will decide if Youngstown employers would be required to increase the rights of part-time workers.
Part-timers would be given the same benefits as full-time workers in “the same job classification,” but in proportion to the amount of hours they work.
Also, part-time workers would get the same starting hourly wage as full-timers that require “equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that are performed under similar working conditions.”
Employers would have to provide scheduled shifts to part-timers two weeks in advance, and not place them “on-call” unless they request it.
Oversight and monitoring workplace standards would be the responsibility of a five-member commission appointed by city council. Those appointed would serve without being paid.
Two would represent business owners, two would represent part-time workers and one would represent the general public.
On its face, the proposal seems like it would be very difficult to enforce, particularly by a commission made up of people not getting compensated.
It will likely also get people with part-time jobs to vote.
But what makes it unusual is the effort is being backed and financed by Bob Goodrich, a Grand Rapids, Mich., businessman, who strategically picked Youngstown for his charter-amendment proposal.
Goodrich, who owns a company that operates 30 movie theaters, tried to get this approved in his hometown, but he said Michigan law doesn’t permit issues like this to be on local ballots. To get on the state ballot would take too much time and effort to gather the needed signatures and finance the campaign.
He also wanted to do it in Kansas City, Mo., and ran into the same problem there.
So he looked to Ohio and Florida as both are swing states in the presidential election, and chose Youngstown as the signature requirement to get on the ballot isn’t too challenging.
There wasn’t a groundswell of support in the city urging Goodrich to come to Youngstown.
He acknowledges no one from the city asked him to do it.
Goodrich believes in his cause, but even more so he wants to get women, particularly unmarried lower- and middle-class, to vote in elections and said this will help bring them to the polls.
“I hope to use it as a vehicle to get people to vote and to get this passed,” Goodrich said. “It’s to encourage unlikely voters to vote.”
Goodrich wants to impact the presidential election, but it’s hard to imagine that he will by having this on the Youngstown ballot and in front of voters in November in Cleveland, where he’s attempting to get the needed signatures in that city.
While he is a Democrat and a 2014 failed congressional candidate, Goodrich said he isn’t doing this to help Hillary Clinton, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
City officials aren’t pleased with Goodrich’s effort.
“I’m confused as to why someone from Michigan is here on this particular issue,” said Mayor John A. McNally. “I am concerned it will put a significant amount of regulations and obstacles on small business owners.”
As for Goodrich’s motives, McNally said he didn’t think it’s a “good way to energize voter turnout. It’s disingenuous to try to drive turnout by dangling a carrot. We should encourage people to vote every election.”
Youngstown Law Director Martin Hume said he isn’t sure if charter-review amendments through a citizens initiative needs valid signatures from at least 3 percent of those who voted in the last general election or the 10-percent threshold the city has used for years based on what the state requires.
Three percent requires 378 valid signatures, and 10 percent equals 1,259.
Either way, Goodrich’s petitions have 3,935 signatures.
The signatures were obtained by a firm hired by Goodrich using mostly people from out of the state paid to collect them.
That typically leads to a lot of invalid signatures.
However, there is way too much wiggle room to believe the issue won’t get on the November ballot unless there is something fundamentally wrong with the petitions.