SUBJECT
Title
Adopt Ordinance No. 3133-18 to amend several chapters of Title 5 (Business Licenses and Regulations) and Title 9 (Public Peace, Safety or Welfare) of the Sunnyvale Municipal Code to authorize the Denial, Suspension or revocation of a permit or license based upon violations of wage and hour laws
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
On April 10, 2018, the Council by a motion (6-0, Councilmember Larsson absent) introduced a Wage Theft Ordinance. After receiving comments from a member of the public during the hearing regarding a perceived ambiguity in the ordinance language, the Office of the City Attorney reviewed the language in more detail and determined that a clerical error existed within the Ordinance. As a result, the new version of the Ordinance presented for Council adoption has a few minor edits that does not change the substantive meaning or intent of the original version and which are consistent with the requirements under Sunnyvale Charter section 700, which is modeled after Government Code section 36934. The reasons for the revisions are readily discernible by examining the record (staff report and staff presentation to Council). To briefly summarize the edits, the definition of "final court order or administrative action" has been modified to change the word "or" to "and" and redundant verbiage has been eliminated at the end of each sentence. The result is a clearer expression that a final action is one in which there is no pending appeal and the time period for an appeal has passed. Furthermore, the edits do not materially alter the rights of permittees and licensees under the Ordinance.
While the language of the ordinance closely tracked wage theft ordinances adopted by other jurisdictions, staff believes the new language is an improvement and provides more clarity. No changes are necessary to the Wage Theft Policy that was also adopted by Council on April 10, 2018, since different phrasing was used in the Policy.
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