First in a series. 

On the occasion of the final candidates forum this morning in the second floor Board Room of the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the ticklish question was as inevitable as a pay raise.

Moderator Ken Kaufman of the sponsoring Downtown Business Assn., owner of Rush Street and The Tavern in Downtown, asked the six in-person candidates (Jay Garocochea was unable to attend):

With Sacramento lawmakers at a crossroads – whether to impose a minimum wage on every business owner in the state or let voters decide in November – where do you hold on a minimum wage for Culver City?

While the answers were predictable in every case – the six divided straight down the middle aisle – they also were instructive with the April 12 election a scant 20 days away.

Bankruptcy lawyer Marcus Tiggs delivered what some voters would consider a bullseye answer:

“Education,” he said – in a single word. His implication: If educated, you won’t have to worry about working for a minimum wage.

He contended a minimum wage would severely harm small and medium businesses.

Should Culver City have a minimum wage? Emphatically not.

Then came three liberals in a row.

Social worker/social activist/filmmaker Daniel Lee, strongly pro-minimum wage, said Culver City should develop a stairstep minimum wage table. That way, business owners would know when raises are ordered for minimum wage workers.

Fittingly, Councilperson Meghan Sahli-Wells, arguably the most strident advocate of a minimum wage in Culver City politics, took exactly the opposite stance of Mr. Tiggs.

“Parity is the ideal,” she said, inserting two notions that were unique to her and seemingly unrelated to the question:

•  California has the highest child poverty rate in the country.
•  Two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women. This amends a previous response of hers when she said the majority are single mothers. “We want to lift all people,” she said.

Thomas Small, sustainable design advocate and architectural expert, said the issue is “amazingly complex and divisive.” Global sophisticated models should be studied.

Business owners Goran Eriksson and Scott Wyant, the most outspokenly forceful foes of a minimum wage, delivered their identical answers in stentorian tones.

Mr. Eriksson: “Culver City does not need to do anything. Wait and see what the state does.”

Mr. Wyant said there are four reasons he is against it:

• Boondoggle for businesses.
• Unnecessary.
• Expensive.
• Intrusive.

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