Mosqueda, Gonzalez introduce tweaked version of I-124, with improvements

After several hearings in which the Council members took input from both hotel employees and employers, this week Council members Mosqueda and Gonzalez are officially introducing a modified version of Initiative 124 to run through the Council’s legislative process. Their version attempts both to circumvent the issues that led to legal challenges to I-124, as well as to fix some of the most problematic aspects of the voter initiative.

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Council to look at salvaging what it can from I-124

As of today, Initiative 124, which was approved by Seattle voters in November 2016, is nearly dead after the State Court of Appeals invalidated it for impermissibly containing multiple, unrelated subjects. But Council members Teresa Mosqueda and Debora Juarez, along with some of their colleagues, are about to take a look at passing at least parts of it into law the old-fashioned way — and fixing some of its most glaring flaws in the process.

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City agrees not to enforce part of I-124 while lawsuit progresses

Last month ERIC, an industry association, sued the City of Seattle over a portion of Initiative 124 that requires companies to either provide gold-level healthcare to hotel workers or compensate them accordingly. Yesterday, the City of Seattle and ERIC filed with the court an agreement that the city would not attempt to enforce that provision of I-124 until January in exchange for an extension of time to file its legal brief in defense of the ordinance.

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