Wage Petition Battle Nears End: Pinocchio, Skinheads and the Battle of the Troops

By Jorge Casuso

Late every afternoon in the supermarket parking lots of Santa Monica a fierce and sometimes violent political war is being waged.

Dispatched at 4 p.m. from the local union hall and armed with large posters, flyers, maps, revocation forms, a "rap" sheet and a list of do's and don'ts, self-styled "Truth Teams" descend on signature gatherers who are paid top dollar per name to qualify a living wage ballot initiative.

The "Truth Teams," comprised of community activists and low-wage workers (some of whom are paid $12 an hour), are the "ground troops" for Santa Monicans Allied for Responsible Tourism (SMART), the group behind an unprecedented living wage proposal that targets hotels and restaurants in the city's lucrative Coastal Zone with more than 50 employees. If approved by the City Council, the proposal would make Santa Monica the nation's first municipality to require businesses with no city contracts or subsidies to pay their workers a living wage, in this case $10.69 an hour.

The "Truth Team's" mission: divert Santa Monica residents from signing a petition to put on the November ballot the nation's only business-backed living wage initiative that would cover none of the workers targeted by SMART's proposal. The initiative, which would add Santa Monica to a growing list of some three dozen municipalities (including Los Angeles and Los Angeles County) that require businesses with municipal contracts or subsidies to pay workers a living wage, also would be the first to erase any action the council might take on the issue - now or in the future. SMART's message, stamped on a flyer with a bright red stop sign: "The Living Wage Petition is Phony."

So far, both sides are claiming victory in the first battle of what is perhaps the most expensive and fiercely waged war since rent control became the law in this oceanfront liberal bastion two decades ago. And it's only May.

Sponsors of the ballot initiative -- who have reportedly jacked up the gatherers' pay to $4 a signature in recent days -- have more than 10,000 names on their petition. That's more than the approximately 8,000 required (15 percent of the city's nearly 54,000 registered voters) to qualify.

"I will try to get as many signatures as humanly possible," said Mark Mosher, a San Francisco political consultant whose firm was hired to run the signature gathering campaign after helping reelect Mayor Willie Brown. Mosher, who has been in the consulting business for 10 years, said that SMART's counter offensive is "definitely the heaviest funded blocking campaign I've ever seen. We've gone basically toe to toe."

But Mosher may need to get a few thousand more signatures to play it safe. SMART's strategy has made a big dent in the numbers. As of Friday, the City Clerk had received requests to rescind 851 signatures. Some of the requests come from voters who filled out postcards handed out by the "Truth Teams," others filled out similar forms included in mailers or clipped the coupon from a $6,000 newspaper ad (the ad ran an extra time for free due to several mistakes in the copy).

"I've known occassionally for people to send in a few (revocations)," said City Clerk Maria Stewart, who has worked as a city clerk and assistant city clerk for 10 years. "But I've never seen an effort like this."

"This is completely unprecedented," said Stephanie Monroe, a lead organizer for SMART, which is closely allied with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. "No one has ever been successful in getting people to unsign their names. These people are saying, 'We've been tricked.' That's an incredible statement."

Monroe said the revocation campaign took off after dozens followed the instructions set in tiny print on a brochure sent to registered voters. "We didn't even consider seriously revoking signatures until we got a barrage of calls," Monroe said. "The same day the mailer hit, I got 30 phone calls."

The message has become bold and more prominent in a recent mailer. "I didn't know the 'living wage' prtition I signed was a phony," the red, white and blue brochure read. "It's really sponsored by the corporations that own the beach hotels and has loopholes so they won't have to pay their employees a real living wage."

The parking lot confrontations, newspaper ads and mailers are the key strategies in an expensive living wage war that has seen plenty of bizarre twists and dirty skirmishes.

In the 1½ months since the hotels and restaurants targeted by SMART's proposal began circulating their petition, allegations of violent, dirty -- and perhaps illegal -- campaign tactics have been fired off to authorities by both sides, with some of the incidents chronicled by workers and volunteers who carry cameras to gather photographic evidence. So far, the evidence includes a picture of a SMART volunteer -- who allegedly signed the petition with a false name and nonexistent address -- and a snapshot SMART leaders say shows a signature gatherer's naked rear end as he moons a "Truth Team" member.

Earlier this month, sponsors of the ballot initiative fired off a letter to Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti saying that signature gatherers had witnessed "a wide range of offensive activities, including what they characterize as harassment, forgery and battery." The activities - which the letter says may "rise to the level of crimes" - include shouting at close range, signing false names and physically obstructing, verbally abusing, pushing and stalking signature gatherers. Attached to the letter were signed affidavits from several of the workers.

"So far, they've broken a lot of laws," Mosher said. "They're throwing the kitchen sink and everything else at me."

SMART also fired off a letter of its own complaining of misconduct, this one to City Attorney Marsha Moutrie. And the group sent out a press release under the heading, "Skinheads Harass Santa Monica Community Activists." The release describes how a homeless activist on a "Truth Team" "found herself surrounded by raucous young men with their heads shaved to the skin," one of whom shouted "Sieg Heil." This week, the group plans to send the City Attorney more than 40 incident reports documenting everything from misrepresentation to battery.

The petition battle could be the curtain raiser for what is bound to be the most expensive political war in the city's history. Sponsors of the ballot initiative, who go by the name Santa Monicans for a Living Wage, have raised $100,000. The initial $25,000 came from Shutters and Casa Del Mar, two luxury beachfront hotels that already pay workers at least $10.30 an hour, Mosher said.

"They don't care about the money," said Mosher. "For them it's due process. They're furious Pollin was chosen," he said, referring to Dr. Robert Pollin, a Massachusetts economics professor and leading advocate of the living wage, who was hired by the city to conduct a study of the issue 60 other experts declined to bid on.

Opponents, who contend the proposed initiative -- which calls for $8.32 plus benefits -- would only cover some downtown parking contractors and airport employees, have raised $80,000. The money mostly has come from liberal philanthropists and foundations, as well as from smaller contributions, including $1,000 from Assembly member Sheila Kuehl, Monroe said.

The warchests have bankrolled dueling propaganda campaigns with each side charging the other with lying. Full-page ads that go for $6,000 have been taken out by both camps in the Los Angeles Times' local insert, and both sides have sent out mailers to most of Santa Monica's 93,000 residents. In addition, more than 400 campaign signs have gone up -- and many as quickly torn down -- supporting the business-backed initiative.

The latest volley was fired last week by proponents of the ballot initiative. The mailer, sent to the city's registered voters, shows a picture of Pinocchio with his nose growing as SMART makes the case against the ballot measure. "May we suggest a new spokesman for the opponents of the Santa Monica Living Wage?" the flyer reads, and it points out that the ballot initiative is similar to Los Angeles' law and that luxury hotels already pay close to SMART's proposed wage.

Opponents of the initiative have contacted Disney attorneys to alert the company of the use of their cartoon character in the campaign, and a local paper turned down the ad.

The petition battle is expected to end this month, when Moseher says he plans to turn in thousands more sinatures than are necessary to qualify. But for the next two weeks, the ground battle should become less visible.

"Truth Teams," which scout the parking lots to locate the targeted signature gatherers, are having less luck spotting their nemesis. "Now they're going door to door," said Amber Meshack, an organizer for SMART. "Our people have seen them, and we hear from neighbors, but it's almost impossible to track them down."

"We're trying to gather signatures in such a way that they can't find us," Mosher said. "What I'm here to do is qualify the initiative. I can gather faster than they can rescind. I can ask them (those who signed) to rescind their rescission. At this point my job is to do the best to get it qualified."