COUNTY EYES NEW LABOR ORDINANCE

Policy would require subcontractors to list licensing information

San Diego County subcontractors may soon have to disclose more information about their credentials, under an upcoming ordinance the Board of Supervisors called for Wednesday.

In a unanimous vote, the board asked its staff to return in six months with an ordinance requiring subcontractors working on projects permitted by the county to disclose their license numbers and contact information on a county online portal. State law already requires that subcontractors be licensed, so the new ordinance would not change that condition but would direct contractors to provide that information to the county.

The planned ordinance would ensure that all subcontractors are qualified and licensed for the work they do and protect workers on those projects, board Chairman

Nathan Fletcher said, adding that the requirement would “root out labor violations, unlicensed and unqualified labor contractors and irresponsible actors.”

Fletcher said the board has been working with District Attorney Summer Stephan to develop a workforce justice initiative to prevent exploitation, wage theft and other abuses of workers.

“I believe these same principles of transparency and a commitment to protecting workers should apply to building permits issued by the county of San Diego,” he said. “Just requiring simple transparency, we can create a culture of safety, of legal compliance, and we can ensure that existing labor standards are upheld.”

The effort drew praise from labor organizers and some other trade representatives, who said the change would safeguard workers and legally compliant contractors. But it raised concerns from others who said it would add a redundant layer of bureaucracy to the permitting process.

“While we understand the pro

“I have been deeply concerned with the state of the city’s Industrial Wastewater Control Program, including the fact that big businesses were not paying enough and everyday ratepayers were making up the difference because the city had not bothered to update its fees,” Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, chairman of the council’s audit committee, said last week.

The committee approved seven recommendations from City Auditor Andy Hanau that will be forwarded to the full City Council for approval.

The recommendations say the program must modernize its efforts to find industrial polluters, include information about the program in the city’s business permitting process and set targets for monitoring and effectiveness.

Shauna Lorance, director of the city’s Public Utilities Department, agreed to

implement each of the recommendations either by July 2022 or March 2023.

Moreno said she was optimistic the recommended changes would help.

“The key to success in improving how this program is run is to implement the new target levels, but also be vigilant in monitoring them and being transparent in reporting out how we are doing,” she said.

The audit notes that the inspection program has a much stronger track record with businesses subject to

federal rules like the Clean Water Act than with businesses subject only to local regulations.

Whether an industrial polluter is subject to federal rules is based primarily on what chemicals they discharge and the volume of pollution they produce.

The audit was particularly critical of the program for not prioritizing finding potential industrial polluters and for not utilizing business location data published by San Diego County to find them.

“We found the Industrial Wastewater Control Program is unaware of hundreds of businesses that may potentially need to be regulated,” the audit says. “This may diminish IWCP’s effectiveness and creates an unfair advantage for unregulated businesses.”