
The Sonoma County Democratic Party Central Committee voted in favor of the following changes to the County of Sonoma Living Wage Ordinance. See footnotes for precedent and reasoning.
- Include a paid sick leave provision that provides 12 paid sick days and personal leave days (and 10 unpaid) to all covered employees.
- Include a provision which requires county contractors to offer more hours to part-time employees who so request prior to hiring new part-timers.
- Revise the Employee Retention section (Section 2-286), such that all qualified workers employed by the previous contractor must be retained by a new contractor for sixty days. If the new contractor does not have enough positions to retain all workers employed by the previous contractor (who request continued employment) then the contractor shall hire back laid-off employees by seniority.[1]
- Include a ‘responsible bidder’ provision.[2]
- Approve a COLA for 2022 for all covered employees, as required in Section 2-337.[3]
- Amend Section 2-380 (contractor certification and eligibility) to require that the county develop model language for notices to be posted (in English and Spanish) at contractor worksites and distributed by contractors to covered employees. [4]
- Expand coverage of employees to include county contractors, concessionaires, franchisees, and lessees at the county airport and the county fair.[5]
After the board completes the revision of the Living Wage Ordinance, the North Bay Labor Council and North Bay Jobs with Justice will propose a separate ordinance for labor peace. Such an ordinance will protect the proprietary interests of the County by ensuring there will be no strikes or work stoppages if employees of a county contractor seek to affiliate with a union, and that these employees are provided a fair process for determining union representation.
[1] This is consistent with state janitorial retention law passed in 2002 (AB 350 Displaced Property Service Employee Opportunity Act). Sonoma County complied with AB 350 in 2016 in the case of a new janitorial contract with ABM Onsite Services.
[2] San Francisco and Santa Cruz, the cities of Los Angeles and San Jose, and all three Sonoma County municipal ordinances (Sebastopol 2003, Sonoma, 2004, and Petaluma 2006) include responsible bidder.
[3] All of the municipal ordinances in the county have an automatic annual COLA each year subject to review by the City Council. The COLA has been applied every year in each city without exception since each ordinance was implemented.
[4] This change is consistent with the noticing language in our three local ordinances and almost all ordinances elsewhere in California.
[5] A 2021 report by economist Jeannette Wicks-Lim at the University of Massachusetts Amherst about the costs for paid sick leave, the COLA, and expanding the ordinance to coverage of workers at the county airport and county fair is at this link: https://www.northbayjobswithjustice.org/raise-the-wage
June 12, 2025 Press Release
Sonoma County Democrats Condemn Homeland Security’s Assault and Detainment of Senator Alex Padilla “We Stand with Our Democracy. We Stand with Senator Padilla.” Sonoma County, CA — The Sonoma County Democratic Party unequivocally condemns the [...]
Resolution Urging Reconsideration of the Proposed Budget’s Draconian Asset Limitation Provision to Qualify for Medi-Cal Coverage
WHEREAS, Governor Newsom’s 2025-26 May Revision Budget proposal1 includes a provision to reimpose a draconian asset limitation of just $2,000 per individual or $3,000 per couple for seniors and disabled adults to qualify for Medi-Cal [...]
Resolution to Oppose Extreme Overreach by Federal Authorities in Response to Peaceful Demonstrations Against ICE
Whereas, the Sonoma County Democratic Party stands in solidarity with the people of Los Angeles exercising their right to non-violently protest, and with Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Newsom in their call for withdrawal of [...]
Sonoma County Democrats Denounce ICE Raids, Political Retaliation, and Trump’s Escalating Federal Overreach
“We Stand with the people of Los Angeles" Sonoma County, CA — The Sonoma County Democratic Party condemns the violent escalation of federal immigration enforcement across Los Angeles, the obstruction of Representative Maxine Waters in [...]
Sonoma County Solidarity Coalition
The Sonoma County Democratic Party has coordinated an exciting new action group: the Sonoma County Solidarity Coalition. The SCSC is a coalition of local Democratic Clubs, Indivisible groups, union representatives, social justice activists, environmentalists, pro-democracy [...]
NO KINGS DAY – EVERYWHERE BUT DC
June 14 - NO KINGS is a National Day of Action and Mass Mobilization: As Trump hosts his self-serving military parade in DC, we’re rising up everywhere else -- at 650 protests and counting, all [...]