Tyron Hampton on the Issues

Councilmember Tyron Hampton (Photo – Jason Hardin).

Just before the cutting of the cake ceremony during Pasadena’s 129th Birthday celebration, we had a chance to talk to Councilmember Tyron Hampton.

By news Desk

We asked Councilmember Hampton where he stands on issues that are on the minds of many Pasadenans, from the wage increase topic, to banning of Styrofoam in the city of Pasadena, and the 710 Freeway tunnel.

We’d like to know where you stand on the environmental issues. We have the ban on plastic grocery bags in Pasadena, and we’re also working on banning the Styrofoam Food Packaging, where do you stand on these issues?

I think that there’s an equal balance for each and every specific need. For example, a small business or a small restaurant, I don’t know if putting on such a mandate or constraints on a small business makes so much sense especially when there may be a possible change with, you know, employment, I would say. There may be a possible change with our state’s minimum wage. And if that goes up, then everything else goes up, I think for a small business it might be kind of hard to continue employing people. I think a lot of people think that or forget that small businesses are the drivers of the economy. But a business like McDonald’s or a major corporation, yeah. I think that we should most definitely hold them accountable.

So you are in favor of having two tier…

I’m in favor of having a two tier approach. I think a business that has more than six or seven restaurants in the city of Pasadena, why not? If you are a small restaurant that just opened up in the city of Pasadena, I think that that could be a bit of a hindrance.

Councilmember Tyron Hampton with wife Tara and daughter Peyton at the Pasadena Birthday Bash, 2015 (Photo – Maelane Chan).

Are you in favor of increasing the minimum wage to $15

As of right now, no.

So what do you suggest?

I think the minimum wage does, eventually, need to come up to something that’s a liveable wage, but like I said, small businesses just want to hire people and in my community people are looking for jobs. And if every job went up to $15 per hour, there would be businesses that just would not hire or most businesses, the first thing that they do is they want to cut the bottom line. They start thinking about who do I need to cut or whose hours do I need to cut. And so, in my community, we’re looking to keep people employed and I don’t think a $15 minimum wage is the best way to keep people employed in the community.

Where do you stand on the 710 issue?

You know, I would work and support a campaign against the 710 freeway…you know, the voters voted on the 710 a long, long time ago. So, there would have to be a campaign to reverse that.