Kevin Kelley, Cleveland City Council president

On July 13, two committees of Cleveland City Council recommended rejecting a proposed ordinance that would raise the minimum wage just in the city of Cleveland to $15 an hour.

Prior to this recommendation, council heard testimony from a diverse lineup of interested parties, including the Service Employees International, Local 1199 and other labor interests, clergy, economists, business owners and their employees.

The testimony led me and most of my colleagues to conclude that a Cleveland-only minimum wage increase would be devastating to the Cleveland economy, likely forcing small businesses to either close, lay off workers or leave the city.

The proposed Cleveland-only minimum wage ordinance was initiated through a petition campaign by Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union based in Columbus. The union wants a $15 minimum wage in Cleveland by January and has collected the required number of signatures from Cleveland residents to force City Council to draft legislation that would make $15 an hour a local law.

In compliance with our city charter, council has introduced the legislation, held public hearings, reported our recommendation, and will take a final vote on whether to amend, adopt or reject the proposal.

If the SEIU campaign prevails, Cleveland alone would see an 85 percent increase over the current statewide minimum wage of $8.10 in a matter of months. Cleveland would have the highest minimum wage in the state of Ohio and in the entire nation.

As president of council in this city, I cannot support this, not because I'm against raising the minimum wage - in fact I strongly support an increase - but it can't be just in the city of Cleveland.

Some businesses in our city have already publicly stated that if council approves the legislation, they will lay off workers, reduce benefits, or move to a nearby suburb.

The union needs to broaden its campaign to the entire state of Ohio or, ideally, the nation. As President Obama said in his state-of-the-union message, "America needs a raise."

Indeed, the working men and women of America do need a raise, but it can't be obtained by risking the financial stability of one city - a city still recovering from the last big recession.

All 17 members of council and our mayor are proud Democrats and friends of labor. We care deeply about poverty and wage inequality. Most of us have spent our professional lives trying to address these issues. We see families struggling every day. But it is unclear whether a Cleveland-only minimum wage increase would help or hurt the very people it purports to help.

Again, if small businesses are forced to move outside our city limits, their workers would not benefit from a Cleveland-only $15-an-hour wage. Further, it should be noted that there are tens of thousands of Cleveland residents who live in Cleveland but work outside of Cleveland. They would not benefit from the Cleveland-only $15 minimum wage. If small businesses decide to accept the $15, many have testified that they will have to reduce their workforce and/or cut benefits.

So how many working Cleveland residents would benefit? And how will a $15 minimum affect the city's efforts to recover from the recession?

At this point, those questions cannot be answered because there is no hard data showing the effects of a single city raising its minimum wage so drastically in such a short time.

"We are in uncharted waters here," urban economics Professor Albert Sumell from Youngstown State University recently testified during a council committee hearing on the proposed legislation.

Proponents of the $15 proposal argue that putting more money in the hands of low-wage workers stimulates the economy because they spend it rather than save it. That might be true. But the question is: How many Cleveland residents will actually get that raise and how many Cleveland jobs will be lost as a result?

This issue has come down to speculation and guess work, which is not a way to legislate financial policy. The complexity of such a sudden and drastic wage hike in just one city within an interconnected regional, national and international economy demands close scrutiny by Cleveland's lawmakers.

As council president, I am not convinced that this proposal is a panacea for correcting wage inequities without having dire consequences to our city's economy. For those who are truly concerned with wage inequality and see the minimum wage as a vehicle to address poverty, the only reasonable approaches are statewide or national increases in the minimum wage. I would be happy to have those discussions. But Cleveland-only would put our city and our fragile recovery at a competitive disadvantage.

Kevin Kelley is president of Cleveland City Council.