Greensboro council directs clerk to certify minimum wage petitions

The Greensboro City Council voted 7-2 tonight to direct the city clerk to begin the process of certifying petitions for a citizen initiative to raise the city's minimum wage to $9.36 per hour. Councilman Mike Barber, District 4, and Councilwoman Trudy Wade, District 5, cast the two dissenting votes.

Among several thorny legal issues presented was whether the number of signatures gathered by the Greensboro Minimum Wage Committee should be counted against the turnout for the 2007 election or the 2005 election; a number equal to 25 percent of the turnout for the last election is required for the petition to be considered sufficient.

"I think there is a PR problem if it stops here," said Patrick Tutwiler, one of the initiative's supporters. "It looks to me like an issue of substance is being held up on a technicality. That's what I see on CNN is the Senate holding up an important matter on a technicality."

District 2 Councilwoman Goldie Wells, a signatory of the petition, took up the proponents' argument.

"It seems to me that what's being asked tonight is for us to accept those signatures," she said. "Someone should have let them know... I think we can decide what the preceding election is. This is just switch up the rules."

Mayor Yvonne Johnson, also reportedly a signatory, concurred.

"I agree with you one-hundred percent," she said. "They were given a process, which they honored."

Full story available tomorrow