“She said if there is not significant progress soon she will start collecting signatures to put a minimum wage measure on the ballot.”
As a politician, this woman is a fool. Threatening a direct vote on the matter is no threat at all, but merely an invitation for any council members on the fence to duck out of the issue by saying “You know what Kshama, that’s a GREAT idea! Let’s just hold off on this issue while you gather signatures and see if you can get this on the ballot, and if you can, then we’ll know for sure what the voters REALLY want!”
Precisely. Activists are in the minority pretty much by definition even if they tend to have the biggest microphones. It leads to the mistaken assumption that all that noise means something. A few years ago gun control activists tried this "can't miss" approach in putting their programs to a vote in Washington State in Initiative 676. It got stomped 5-2 even in liberal Seattle.
She should make her petition demand $50 an hour. Who wouldn't sign up for that?