Daily Business Report-Aug. 1, 2017
Councilman Chris Ward represents District 3 on the San Diego City Council. (SD METRO)
San Diego Approves Equal Pay Law
to Address Persistent Gender Gap
An ordinance by San Diego Councilman Chris Ward establishing equal pay standards for city contractors was approved Monday on a unanimous 9-0 vote of the San Diego City Council.
“For San Diego to fulfill its responsibility as a place where anyone has a fair chance to work hard and succeed, we have to use our legal and economic power to ensure that nobody is at a disadvantage because of their gender or ethnicity,” said Ward. “Today San Diego became the largest city in the country to pass an equal pay ordinance, building on San Diego’s long-standing commitment to equal opportunity, and establishing the framework that allows us to partner with businesses receiving tax dollars to make sure this a fair place to work.”
The ordinance will build on and strengthen the State Fair Pay Act by requiring that city contractors certify that they will provide equal pay to employees regardless of their gender or ethnicity. It establishes structures for more effective, proactive local enforcement, and better empowers employees to discuss pay without fear of retaliation.
In Fiscal Year 2017 alone, the city is budgeted to have a contract expenditure value of over $613.5 million. Additionally, the magnitude and demand of the city’s $4 billion Capital Improvements Program has made the city of San Diego the single largest employer of consultants and contractors in the region and positions the city to drive employment standards.
“A little more than a dozen years ago, we passed the Living Wage Ordinance in San Diego, so that people working for companies that do business with the city could take home decent pay and benefits. It was about fairness,” said state Sen. Toni Atkins. “The Equal Pay Ordinance is a continuation of that idea: If you’re doing business with the city, you’re going to be a partner in an effort to make sure that women in San Diego are treated fairly. I applaud Councilmember Ward for picking up the torch on behalf of working families.”
Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a woman who works full time in California makes a median salary of $42,486, compared to a median salary of $50,539 for a man, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data conducted by the National Partnership for Women and Families. The problem is even worse for women of color: African American and Latina women working full-time in California make an average of just 64 cents and 44 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by white men, representing the worst Latina gender wage gap in the nation.
San Diego falls behind even this standard. Recent analysis by the Center on Policy Initiatives found that locally, women make 72 cents on the dollar compared to men, falling to 50 cents for Black women and just 37 cents for Latinas.
The Equal Pay Ordinance will apply to all contracts awarded, entered into, or extended on or after January 1, 2018. It would require a contractor to provide equal pay to its workers regardless of gender identity or ethnicity and certify equal pay as part of entering into a city contract, allow City access to records, when requested, to confirm equal pay, and post equal pay notifications in the workplace.
Ward represents council District 3, which includes the communities of Balboa Park, Bankers Hill/Park West, Downtown, Golden Hill, Hillcrest, Little Italy, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, North Park, Old Town, South Park and University Heights.
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Construction Begins on new Library
Serving Mission Hills and Hillcrest
C.W. Driver Companies has begun construction of the $17.9 million new Mission Hills-Hillcrest Harley & Bessie Knox Public Library.
The 14,000-square-foot, one-story structure will be nearly four times the size of the current library, and will be constructed on the site of the old International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) building located at 925 West Washington St. The project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2018.
“We are looking forward to working with the city of San Diego toward the completion of another comprehensive library project in the San Diego region,” said Richard Freeark, senior vice president of C.W. Driver Companies’ San Diego region. “The new-and-improved space will add substantial value to the community, and will provide enhanced community meeting rooms, gathering spaces and more for local residents, teens and children.”
Originally opened in 1961, the library is being reconstructed to better serve the growing population of the surrounding neighborhoods. The new library will feature a study space, computer lab, community meeting room, Friend’s of the Library room and children and teen spaces.
With architectural direction by Manuel Oncina Architects and Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects, the project will be LEED Gold certified and will rest on top of a 30,000-square-foot, two-story below grade parking structure with 85 parking spaces, 76 more than the previous facility. Off-site improvements such as a drought-tolerant landscape and the formation of a cul-de-sac are similarly included in this project.
A number of C.W. Driver Companies team members will play a role in the project, including Andy Feth, project director; Todd Rider, project manager; John Nelson, senior superintendent; Daniel Tillett, senior project engineer; and Karen Lord, project coordinator.
“Libraries are so much more than books, they’re gathering spaces where families gather, students learn and communities grow,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “This new library will serve neighborhoods that have seen significant growth at a time when education and affordable access to the Internet is more important than ever before.”
C.W. Driver Companies’ other civic projects for the San Diego region include the Alpine Branch Library, Ramona Branch Library and Fallbrook Branch Library.
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UC San Diego to Build 34-Story Downtown
Residential High-Rise and Urban Facility
The University of California San Diego and Holland Partner Group will break ground on a state-of-the-art development that will bring the university to downtown San Diego as well as a 34-story residential tower.
The aim of the UC San Diego urban facility is to connect the university’s wide range of programs to the downtown innovation economy and to the diverse neighborhoods throughout San Diego’s urban core.
The residential tower will have 426 units, 85 of which will be rent-restricted affordable apartments for very low-income residents. The project will also include ground floor retail, an outdoor amphitheater and public open space, which will host a variety of community-engaging events, and the restoration of the Remmen House, a historic property that will serve as a restaurant.
The four-story UC San Diego urban facility will encompass 66,000 square feet. It is slated to open in 2021 and will be operated by UC San Diego Extension. Programming will include academic outreach and education for middle and high school students from surrounding communities; business incubation and entrepreneurship resources for entrepreneurs throughout the urban core; arts events and exhibits to showcase the university’s and the larger community’s cultural offerings.; and research and volunteer opportunities for UC San Diego faculty and students to encourage civic engagement.
The university selected the site because of its proximity to the UC San Diego Blue Line, which will run from San Ysidro to University City and connect its main campus in La Jolla with the greater San Diego region. Holland Partner Group, based in Vancouver, Washington, is the developer of the project.
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Cubic Awarded $25 Million Contract
Extension for Fare Payment System
Cubic Transportation Systems, a business unit of Cubic Corporation, has received a contract extension of up to five years from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for operations and maintenance services supporting the regional Clipper card fare payment system in the San Francisco Bay Area. The extended contract period is from November 2019 to November 2024, and is valued at $25 million per year.
MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Cubic has been providing services to MTC under a current 10-year services agreement that began when Cubic, in partnership with MTC, launched the Clipper card system to the Bay Area in 2009.
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General Atomics’ Railgun
Headed to Utah for Testing
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems announced that its new medium range railgun system has completed final assembly and factory acceptance test in preparation for transport to Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to begin testing.
Railgun systems feature electromagnetic launchers that use electricity instead of chemical propellants to fire projectiles at high speeds. The high muzzle velocity can be twice that of conventional guns.
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SDSU Fundraising Tops $100 Million
For the second consecutive fiscal year, San Diego State University raised more than $100 million in philanthropic giving to support students, faculty and the continued excellence of an SDSU education.
The university raised $105.66 million in fiscal 2016-17 to conclude The Campaign for SDSU with a total of $815.17 million, exceeding the campaign’s fundraising goal of $750 million.
More than 74,000 alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends contributed to the 10-year campaign, 53,192 of whom were first-time donors.
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Port of San Diego Receives
APWA Accreditation
The Port of San Diego has become the first port in the United States to be awarded National Accreditation through the American Public Works Association (APWA). The Port joins 17 agencies in the state and 124 in the nation to receive the designation. The Accreditation program recognizes public works agencies that go beyond the requirements of the management practices established nationally in the public works industry, as contained in the APWA Public Works Management Practices Manual.
Ron Calkins, President of the APWA, will officially present the Port of San Diego with its accreditation at the Sept. 12, 2017 Board of Port Commissioners meeting.
