Minimum wage angst continues

Supporters of raising San Diego’s minimum wage requested an investigation Monday into reports of rampant deceptive practices among people gathering signatures for a potential referendum on the pay increase.

The request came one day before opponents of raising the minimum wage are expected to submit to the City Clerk the referendum signatures they’ve been gathering during the last month.

In addition, wage hike supporters say they plan to submit to the clerk Tuesday many “recission” forms from voters who claim they unintentionally signed the petitions based on false descriptions by signature gatherers. The goal is having their names removed from the petitions.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage said Monday that the accusations of deceptive practices are weak and called the request for a probe a “desperate attempt” to stop the referendum.

Supporters of the wage hike sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Kamala Harris and San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis urging them to launch a probe into what they describe as “misrepresentations” that violate state election code.

They say signature gatherers are duping people into signing by exaggerating the size of the increase and making other unwarranted assertions.

“Registered voters are being fooled by these unscrupulous and blatantly dishonest signature gatherers,” Councilwoman Myrtle Cole said. “I’m calling upon the attorney general to do something now.”

Opponents have fired at least one signature gatherer for deceptive practices, but say there is no validity to claims of widespread unethical behavior.

They also accuse supporters of the wage hike of harassing signature gatherers, stealing petitions and trying to verbally and physically intimidate people into not signing.

The 34,000 signatures needed to trigger a June 2016 referendum must be submitted to the City Clerk by Wednesday, 30 days after the City Council voted to override Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s veto of the wage hike.

If enough signatures are gathered and verified, the wage hike would be placed on hold until that vote. If opponents don’t gather enough signatures, the pay increase will take effect in January.

It would raise San Diego’s minimum pay rate beyond the state’s, which climbed from $8 to $9 an hour in July and will jump to $10 an hour in January 2016. The city legislation would increase the local minimum wage to $9.75 in January, $10.50 in January 2016 and $11.50 in January 2017.

Opponents of the wage hike say they have enough signatures for a referendum, but supporters say they have “large batches” of recission forms to turn in. They couldn’t provide an estimate Monday, but they set up a dozen “drop sites” across the city to gather the forms over the weekend.