COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20004

 

 

TO:                       Nyasha Smith, Secretary to the Council

               

FROM:              Phil Mendelson, Chairman

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

DATE:                February 27, 2020

 

 

                This is to request that the following measures be placed on the agenda for the March 3, 2020 Legislative Meeting:

 

• Substantive Technical Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2020

                                                                                                                    

• Substantive Technical Emergency Amendment Act of 2020

 

• Substantive Technical Temporary Amendment Act of 2020

 

There are two parts to this legislation.  First, as of January 1, 2020, third-party payroll providers have to certify to the Mayor on a quarterly basis that each tipped employee was paid the required minimum wage pursuant to the Tipped Wage Workers Fairness Amendment Act of 2018 (D.C. Law 22-196).  Third-party payroll providers do not have the expertise or the ability to make this certification.  The emergency legislation cures this situation by clarifying that third-party payroll providers need only to certify that a tipped employee is being paid the minimum wage based on the information that the payroll provider receives from an employer.  This emergency legislation is necessary to immediately address this issue since third-party payroll providers are required now to be in compliance with this law.

 

The second part of this legislation concerns the Arts and Humanities Independence and Funding Restructuring Amendment Act of 2019 (D.C. Law 23-16).  That act provides that the Commission on the Arts and Humanities (Commission) shall nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Council, shall appoint an Executive Director of the Commission.  The act provides that the Executive Director’s four-year term shall begin on October 1 in the year of his or her appointment.  The intent was for the Executive Director’s term to begin on October 1, 2019.   However, a new Executive Director was never nominated or appointed in 2019.  Therefore, under the current law if the Commission were to appoint someone as Executive Director his or her term would not begin until October 1, 2020.  This emergency legislation is needed to reflect that the Executive Director’s term will begin once he or she is confirmed by the Council so there is no delay in filling this position.  Immediate legislative action is necessary because the Commission just nominated a new Executive Director, but the appointment will be unnecessarily delayed until this technical fix to the law is made.