07.04.19

PW OPINION PW NEWS PW LIFE PW ARTS
BRIEFS
ONE MORE STEP
CITY REACHES PENULTIMATE STAGE
OF MINIMUM RAISE INCREASE
BY ANDRÉ COLEMAN
Pasadena’s minimum wage increased to $14.25 on Sunday,
but local officials and business owners remain deeply divided
on the impact of the city’s minimum wage.
Some business owners claim the increases have had
significant negative impacts on employment opportunities for
people at the lower end of the pay scale.
According to Pasadena Chamber of Commerce CEO Paul Little, fewer business
owners are hiring teenagers during the summer due to the wage increase. Increasing
the minimum wage was opposed by members of the chamber, who favored smaller
pay hikes. Under that proposal, minimum wage would have increased to $12.50 by
2020, and then stopped there.
“Those who hire minimum-wage workers have cut back on hiring, reduced their
workforce and demanded a higher level of skill and experience from people who are
hired,” Little told the Pasadena Weekly. “We are also likely to see more places close as
profitability becomes more and more difficult.”
But Jon Pollard, Pasadena’s code compliance manager, who visits hundreds of
Pasadena businesses every year, said so far he has not seen much negative impact.
“I don’t think the city would say there have been any negative impacts based on the
minimum wage increase,” Pollard said. “This is just me speaking, but I think it would
be very hard to parse the reason for a business closing. Restaurants have a famously
high closure rate in the first year.”
In February, the Pasadena City Council reviewed the impacts of the minimum
wage increases on reducing poverty, unemployment, job creation, and the overall
business climate and voted to increase it to $14.25 this year and $15 in 2020.
Beginning July 1, 2022 the local hourly wage will be adjusted annually by an
amount equal to the expected increase in the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County
consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.
But even at $15 an hour, it’s almost impossible for single minimum wage earners to
live in Pasadena.
The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Pasadena has risen more than
51.7 percent in the past six years, with rents on some one-bedroom apartments
totaling well over $2,000 a month. n
RACING HOME
BREEDERS’ CUP OFFICIALS VOTE
TO KEEP RACE AT SANTA ANITA
DESPITE FATALITIES
BY ANDRÉ COLEMAN
Paul Little
Despite injuries that have forced Santa Anita Park officials to
Craig Fravel
euthanize 30 horses since December, Breeders’ Cup board
members said they would not move the race to Churchill Downs in Kentucky.
The announcement came after the Breeders’ Cup’s 14-member board unanimously
voted to keep its Nov. 1-2 championship races at the Arcadia racetrack.
“Foremost among the core values of the Breeders’ Cup are the safety and integrity
of the competition and we hold ourselves, our host sites and our competitors to the
highest standards of both,” Craig Fravel, president and CEO of the Breeders’ Cup, said
in a prepared statement. “It is clear that meaningful and effective reforms and best
practices have been implemented in recent months at Santa Anita through the collective
efforts of The Stronach Group (owners of the track), the Thoroughbred Owners
of California, the California Thoroughbred Trainers, and the California Horse Racing
Board.”
Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) praised the decision,
primarily because more horses have died at Churchill Downs than at Santa Anita.
“Who could possibly have thought that it was a good idea to move the Breeders’
Cup from a track that is trying to stop the carnage to one with an even more shameful
record of fatalities?” said PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “The Breeders’
Cup board made the right decision. Now, it should disallow trainers with multiple
medication violations from all races.”
According to a report in USA Today, Churchill Downs does not publicly disclose its
racing fatalities, but a spokesman for the track confirmed figures obtained through a
public records request of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
Those records show that 43 horses were euthanized due to racing injuries since
2016, a 2.42 per 1,000-start average that was 50 percent higher than the national average
during the same three-year span.
The deaths have rocked officials at Santa Anita. The park closed in March after
the 21st horse died and put new safety protocols in place, including banning race day
medication, increasing transparency of veterinary records, further regulating approval
for workouts, and increasing reviews of the track’s surface.
Some experts believe the injuries have been caused by an extra hard track created
in response to this year’s above average rainfall.
Earlier this week California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that gives
the the California Horse Racing Board the power to suspend racing at any time should
it see a safety issue for horses and riders. Newsom also added a veterinarian to the
board. n
JUSTICE IN NUMBERS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
able to ask whether or not someone is a citizen.
Only in America!” Trump posted on Twitter.
An undercount could be devastating for those
areas. Population counts from the 2020 census
will be used to determine how many congressional
seats and Electoral College votes each state gets
for the next decade. The data will also be used to
help distribute nearly $900 billion in federal funding
for such things as schools, roads and other public
services.
Pasadena and several other cities have been
encouraging residents to participate in the census.
Those cities have formed what are being called
Complete Count Committees (CCCs) which seek out
immigrant communities and encourage residents to
participate in the census.
Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek, who chairs the
local CCC, told the Pasadena Weekly that he was
pleased and excited about the ruling.
“We’ve already had a couple of meetings ,”
Tornek said. “We are very concerned, because
we know we were undercounted last time. It is
much more daunting because of the climate of
fear surrounding the census. We were desperately
worried about this question. We have our hands
full already and that was going to make it more
challenging. I am excited. We allocated city funds,
and have funds coming through the county. We have
started lining up people and resources to get an
accurate count.”
Locally, the census is used to adjust and
sometimes redraw local City Council and
Pasadena Unified School District boundaries to
ensure that the city is complying with federal
voting rights laws.
“We hope the federal government avoids taking
any action that could dissuade residents from
participating in the census count and adversely
affect federal funding for vital services and
programs they rely on,” said City Manager Steve
Mermell. “City staff and community volunteers
are undertaking efforts to support the work of the
Census Bureau and achieve as accurate a count as
possible for Pasadena.”
In 1993, census data led to local political district
lines being redrawn to create a district which
increased voting opportunities for primarily Latino
residents living in an enclave which later became
District 5. This was an area of the city which the
1990 census revealed was 27 percent Latino.
“Here in our city, we have been working to
ensure that all of our residents, the youngest to the
oldest, are counted in the census, and the inclusion
of the citizenship question would have presented
a significant barrier to full participation,” said
Vannia De La Cuba, field representative for District
5 Councilman Victor Gordo. “Today’s SCOTUS
decision was an important victory for all of us. An
undercount would hurt all communities because
the census data are crucial to ensuring equitable
distribution of federal funds for a wide range of vital
programs, including many programs that provide
THE COUNT
As of Monday, 4,142 days after the war in Afghanistan ended …
2,248
American military
service members
(2 more
than last week)
were reported
killed in Afghanistan
since
the war began in
2001, according to
The Associated Press.
246
people were killed in
Iraq in June and
163 others were
wounded. Also,
Reuters reported
70 bodies were
recovered from
mass graves.
services for our community here in Pasadena.”
The case was sent back to a New York court
for further explanation from the administration,
but officials with the Census Bureau claimed they
needed to start printing the census forms by July 1.
Federal judges there and in Maryland and
California have already ruled against the
administration’s proposal.
“This is an incredibly hopeful decision,” said
Rector Mike Kinman of All Saints Church, which
has vehemently opposed Trump’s immigration
policy and vowed to open its doors as a sanctuary
for those who fear deportation during immigration
raids.
“A question has been effectively denied from
the census that would result in taxation without
representation for countless people of color, many
of whom are part of our community. At least this
morning, fear lost and justice won at the highest
court in the land.”
Kinman also pointed out that the decision in an
example of how the nation is supposed to work.
“The Judicial Branch recognized that the
Executive Branch was trying to manipulate the
Constitution for its own political ends and very
clearly called it out and denied it that chance.”
Six of the bureau’s former directors, who have
served under both Democratic and Republican
administrations, have warned that adding the
citizenship question would jeopardize the accuracy
of the population count.
The Trump administration has maintained that
the question was added to collect more detailed
citizenship data to enforce part of the Voting Rights
Act. The district court judges concluded that was
not the real reason for the administration’s lastminute
push for adding the question.
In May, the daughter of deceased Republican
operative Thomas Hofeller revealed that in 2015
Hofeller conducted a private study and concluded
that a citizenship question would decrease the
political power of Latinos and “be advantageous
to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites” in the
redistricting process.
Hofeller also surmised that employing
citizenship data derived from the census would
“provoke a high degree of resistance from
Democrats and the major minority groups in the
nation.”
Hofeller later urged the Trump administration
to adopt the question and worked with the
administration to help craft its public legal
argument that the Census Bureau needed
citizenship data to better enforce the Voting Rights
Act of 1965.
Federal judges in California, New York and
Maryland are aware of those documents along with
the Supreme Court, according to the New Yorker.
“If judicial review is to be more than an empty
ritual, it must demand something better than the
explanation offered for the action taken in this
case,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. n
2
US soldiers were killed
in a small arms
firefight last
Tuesday with
Taliban enemy
combatants
in Afghanistan,
according to
the Department of
Defense.
1
nation says the US will not be allowed
to use its bases to attack
Iran. Reuters reported that
Iraqi First Deputy Speaker
Hassan Kaabi said that
the legislature intended to
work out a bill which will
lead to withdrawal of all foreign
troops from the country.
— Compiled by
André Coleman
8 PASADENA WEEKLY | 07.04.19