ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown City Council on Wednesday night voted during a special meeting to submit a proposed bill to the Lehigh County Election Board to be placed as a referendum question on the November general election ballot.
The proposed bill would amend the public health code by requiring certain businesses operating in the city to allocate sick time to employees.
Council Vice President Cynthia Mota explained the proposal came from a citizens’ initiative which collected over 2,000 signatures.
“The citizen initiative process parallels that of introducing a legislative bill,” Mota said. “However, if council does not adopt the proposed legislation, it is forwarded to Lehigh County for placement on the next municipal election ballot, allowing voters to decide via the referendum process.”
Council opted not to consider the bill as legislation to be passed by council but rather be decided by voters.
City resident Diana Espinal was one of the petitioners who collected signatures.
“While I was working in a warehouse in in the Lehigh Valley, I faced a situation where I was ill with a throat infection, a fever and very high blood pressure,” Espinal said. “At the time, I was working in a warehouse where missing a shift resulted in accumulation of points that would lead to my termination.”
“Working-class families like mine have been faced with deciding between our health and our families and being able to keep up with our bills for years,” she said. “This initiative will give all workers across the city, regardless of income or race, the ability to take care of their families and themselves without fear of losing their paycheck or their job.”
Vicky Kistler, director of community and economic development, spoke for the administration in opposition to the proposed bill.
“As you are aware, this ordinance was brought to you as a charter citizen initiative and referendum,” Kistler said. “It was not proposed by the city or county, and as such, there is no research, investigation, studies or data collected by the city or a city-affiliated public health organization that shows the ordinance would protect the public health or assist in disease prevention and control.”
Kistler said the health bureau would be required to monitor all businesses for compliance and enforcement.
“The city does not currently have staffing or administrative processes in place to comply with this ordinance,” she further explained. “Implementation of the ordinance would require significant investment in additional staffing which may result in doubling or tripling the city’s business license fees and or property tax increase.”
“Many of the people who live in Allentown do not work in Allentown, and many people who work in Allentown live elsewhere,” Kistler said.
“If compelled to implement the ordinance, we believe it would put the city at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring communities expanding new small business opportunities in the city,” she added.
Councilmembers thanked the citizens for taking such action, as permitted by the city charter.
Councilmember Jeremy Binder raised a concern that because the ordinance was brought forth from residents, council cannot amend or change anything.
“I would just encourage voters to take time to read through the legislation because I think it’s impactful and could potentially harm some Allentown residents,” Binder said.
Councilmember Cristian Pungo said the vision that council sees for the city is for more of the people who live in Allentown to also work in the city.
“I just know there’s so many people that leave the city (to work), and I would hate for people to have false safety thinking that they’re getting paid sick time if they’re working in Breinigsville or another county,” Pungo said.
Councilmember Candida Affa said she was a small business owner for 38 years.
“My fear is there will be people leaving, and we want people to come into our city, and this might be a deterrent,” Affa said. “That’s one of my concerns because it does put a lot more pressure on you as a (business) owner, because people could take advantage of it.”
Diana Robinson, co-executive director, Make the Road Pennsylvania, told council that similar legislation passed in the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburg with only positive impacts.
“We had to be very clear in terms of how the policy would work,” Robinson said. “For employers who have 15 employees or more, those employees would accrue one hour for every 30 hours of work, with a maximum of 72 hours for the entire calendar year. And then for employers who have less than 15 employees, it would be for every 30 hours worked, one hour accrued for a total of 48 hours total for the entire calendar year.”