When Maria Bernal's baby stopped breathing after midnight, she called 911. The child turned blue as she waited 90 minutes for ambulances to arrive; the ambulances were stuck in the sand.

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Speaking on behalf of COPS / Metro Alliance, Fr. Walter D'Heedene of Sacred Heart Catholic Church reported to the San Antonio Express News that the organization plans to build on their living wage wins of 2015 by raising all public sector jobs in the city to a living wage of $15 /hour. He also mentioned that the organization plans to address predatory lending and criminal justice reforms, including those related to employment in 2016.

Agenda 2016: Community Leaders' Top Priorities for 2016, San Antonio Express News

When Maria Bernal's baby stopped breathing after midnight, she called 911. The child turned blue as she waited 90 minutes for ambulances to arrive; the ambulances were stuck in the sand.

Over 250 families live in Highland Oaks, an unincorporated corner of Bexar County, cut off from essential services because they have no streets -- only sand. Schools stopped sending buses to Highland Oaks because they, too, would get stuck.

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On Thursday September 10th, at the urging of COPS / Metro Alliance, San Antonio city council members unanimously voted for a living wage increase from $11.47 to $13.00 per hour, benefiting 1,300 of their lowest paid workers. By doing so, the municipality joined Bexar County in their living wage increase. Just ten days prior, Bexar county commissioners voted to increase their lowest wage to $13 / hour.

While this concludes a drama-filled and yearlong saga -- which also resulted in raised wages for workers at Alamo Colleges -- COPS / Metro leaders are not planning to rest long. Their long-term wage strategy includes a push to increase municipal wages to $14 / hour in fiscal year 2017 and $15 / hour the year after. They are furthermore setting their sights on wages paid by public schools and hospital districts.

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According to the editorial board of the San Antonio Express-News:

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According to San Antonio Express News business columnist Michael Taylor, he "might be wrong" in his concerns over living wage hikes -- he publicly acknowledged that economist experts familiar with historical data disagree with him on a couple concerns. Taylor went further to distinguish the local efforts of COPS / Metro from national living wage campaigns in that the organization is focusing on public sector wages. He notes that government sector wage raises "cannot lead to greater unemployment" as those workers cannot generally be outsourced.

He also noted that, "most important, public employers have a greater obligation to address the moral issue of 'a living wage' than do private employers. Unlike private companies, public entities (such as governments) explicitly purport to represent the 'public good' in everything they do. The public good should reasonably include paying workers so they can live above the federal poverty level."

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In a dramatic reversal of her position on living wages, Mayor Ivy Taylor threw her support behind COPS / Metro's proposal to raise the minimum the City pays its employees from $11.47 / hour to $13 /hour. Taylor threw in her support days after City Manager Sheryl Sculley included the measure in the proposed budget for the City of San Antonio.

This raise will directly impact 1,300 - 1,500 City employees who, in the words of Councilmember Ray Lopez, might no longer "have to have a second or third job." An additional 1,500 workers would indirectly benefit through wage compression, in which those currently earning close to $13 / hour will also see their wages rise.

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COPS / Metro leaders and allies are celebrating a huge victory — the city manager and a majority of city council members are now agreeing to COPS / Metro's proposal to raise wages for the lowest paid city workers to $13 / hour for fiscal year 2016. This exceeds the City's current living wage standard of $11.47 / hour.

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On the heels of COPS / Metro's recent disruption of business-as-usual at a public budget hearing, District 4 Councilmember Rey Saldana took up the cry for a higher minimum wage for City employees.

"Councilman Rey Saldaña said that while he supports giving relief to taxpayers, he also would support leaving the rate the same if the funding helps increase wages for the city's lowest-paid civilian employees. Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance have been advocating for the increase, which has been backed by some council members."

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The tone at most of San Antonio's big City Council budget goal-setting sessions may have historically been positive, but that tone notably shifted when 70 COPS / Metro leaders showed up.

COPS / Metro leader Robert Cruz, pointedly asked the city's budget director what the city intends to do with the $24 million in revenue it received in excess of forecasts when the 2015 budget was adopted last year. He asserted that he wanted some of that money go to workforce training program Project Quest and local literacy programs.

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