LINCOLN — The Town Council’s three Democrats united Tuesday night to pass a resolution calling on the town’s cleaning contractors to pay their janitors “a living wage,” sparking an intra-council debate on whether that’s any of the council’s business.

The resolution, which passed on 3-to-2 vote, resolved that “the Lincoln Town Council urges all cleaning contactors who do business in Lincoln to pay their employees a living wage, to provide decent health benefits, and to allow their workers to have a voice on the job …”

Town Council President Jeremiah T. O’Grady called it a legitimate matter for the council to consider, saying that residents who are paid well and have health insurance will become less of a burden and more active participants in the town’s — and the state’s — economy.

Independent Councilman Keith E. Macksoud, who opposed the resolution, called it an “abuse of what the council should be doing.” Private-sector wages and benefit issues were better settled between employer and employees, he said, not by intrusive elected town officials

He said the resolution was more a Democratic Party publicity stunt because living wages for private-sector janitorial workers was not a matter within the council’s jurisdiction. He said he also feared that the resolution sent an antibusiness message to companies that might be thinking of moving to Lincoln.

“I have no problem with unions,” said Macksoud. As an anesthesiologist, he said he is a member of the United Nurses and Allied Professionals union, “but this goes above and beyond.”

“Where is this going to end,” he said. “Anyone who wants to deliver oil to a house has to be a member of the Teamsters?”

Some members of the audience at the meeting wore buttons with the initials of the Service Employees International Union, which represents unionized janitors in the state. The meeting was videotaped by Democratic Town Committee Chairman Patrick Crowley.

Macksoud said that made the resolution look to him like a Democrat Party production, but O’Grady said Crowley was there in his capacity as a member of Jobs For Justice, a coalition of unions and community organizations.

O’Grady bristled at the suggestion that the resolution was a party maneuver. He said it was in keeping with the approach he said he has brought to improving life in Lincoln.

A vocal supporter of more affordable housing in town, O’Grady has supported resolutions calling for more state subsidies for such projects. But, he said, state aid alone isn’t enough.

Increasing wages will do it too, he said, and encouraging employees and employees to negotiate a “living wage” is better than having the government impose a one-size-fits-all minimum wage.

“The need is so great, and the subsidy pool is so limited,” he said, “if you can increase the purchasing power of those who need to be housed, we are adding to that, encouraging that too, by increasing wages.”

He also took issue with Macksoud’s charge that the town would be perceived as antibusiness, saying there have been numerous occasions when the town has provided tax breaks to local business.

jhill@projo.com