By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

September 12, 2014 -- With no debate and after hearing from no public speakers, the City Council voted Tuesday to instruct City staff to “monitor” the movement toward a possible minimum wage increase in the city of Los Angeles and its possible effect on Santa Monica, which could lead to raising the rate here.

The absence of public speakers and lack of council debate could be perceived as an unusual lack of interest in a left-of-center topic in a city world-famous for embracing such things. It could also be due the fact this agenda item was not heard until after 1 a.m. Councilmember Kevin McKeown had another theory.

“I would think the fact that nobody came to speak to this tells us how utterly unsurprising this [topic] is for the progressive city of Santa Monica,” he said.

The item was placed on the agenda by Mayor Pam O’Connor and Councilmember Gleam Davis.

“However you want to characterize it, we are either embraced or imprisoned by the city of Los Angeles, and so obviously any change in the minimum wage to our neighbor in the north, east and south would create an opportunity perhaps for us to raise our minimum wage as well; simply because there wouldn’t be any disadvantage to businesses in the city of Santa Monica,” Davis said.

She added, “This is not making a decision … it is simply asking staff to continue to monitor the situation in the city of Los Angeles, and if in fact something does happen in Los Angeles, to analyze what effect that might have on our Santa Monica economy, and put a discussion regarding that on our agenda at that time.”

O’Connor did not attend the meeting, but she told the Los Angeles Times this week she had discussed the minimum wage in a private meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, where other topics were also on the agenda.

“One in four children in our region is living in poverty, and that is not good for children,” said O’Connor, according to The Times. “It is not good for any of us. I hope that we adopt something -- but we need a broader community and regional discussion about it first.”

Garcetti proposed last week that the minimum wage in his city gradually go up to $13.25 per hour by 2017. The lowest-paid workers currently earn $9 per hour, as they do in Santa Monica and everywhere else in California.

The state’s minimum wage will increase to $10 per hour in 2016 under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last fall. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, with the last increase coming in July 2009.

Some people think Garcetti’s proposal isn’t good enough. They want more money for the city’s lowest-paid workers.

The Los Angeles City Clerk’s Office issued a press release this week saying a group of activists are allowed to begin collecting signatures to force a measure on a future ballot calling for an immediate minimum wage hike to $15 for most businesses. The proposal says the rate would further increase each year based on the consumer price index.

Santa Monica is no stranger to minimum wage debates. A proposal was placed on the November 2002 to raise the rate to $12.25 per hour for certain businesses. The measure was rejected in a close contest in which 51 percent of the voters opposed it.