Dayworkers debate to continue in September

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- The Job Center debate has been quelled -- for now.

During public comment about the proposed changes to the city’s

dayworkers solicitation ordinance, city officials made it clear to the

audience that comments were open if, and only if, they pertained to the

language in the ordinance and not the Job Center. However, City Manager

Allan Roeder said an open discussion would be appropriate Sept. 17, when

the issue is on the agenda.

City Council members approved a first reading of the changes to the

ordinance by a 4-0 vote. Mayor Libby Cowan was on vacation.

After a court case in Los Angeles County in which a dayworkers

ordinance was challenged, the Costa Mesa city attorney’s office

reexamined the language of the city’s own existing ordinance. A Los

Angeles court judge ruled that parts of Los Angeles’ ordinance were too

vague and encroached upon people’s freedom of speech.

Assistant City Atty. Tom Woods said he is confident the revised Day

Workers’ Ordinance would stand up to a 1st Amendment challenge.

Although the council’s actions strengthened the ordinance in the event

of a challenge, Councilman Chris Steel said the Job Center on Placentia

Avenue is the real problem behind dayworkers in the city.

Steel contends the ordinance can’t begin to come into play until the

Job Center is closed. Once it’s shut down, officers could enforce the

ordinance and try to eradicate the loitering, he said.

“The real problem is the council needs to get the vision and the

courage and the common sense to eliminate the Job Center, period,” Steel

said.

While those who agreed with Steel were not allowed to speak on the

issue, Steel continued to ask questions about the value of the center in

the community. He was reminded the center and the ordinance amendment

were separate issues.

Roeder said the council could refer to the Job Center so long as it

was in relation to the ordinance.

Steel reluctantly agreed to reserve his comments for Sept. 17.

Some audience members, on the other hand, expressed their opinions

about the Job Center during public comment at the beginning of the

meeting.

Resident Allan Mansoor charged that the center was responsible for

bringing illegal immigrants to the neighborhood and increasing the number

of dayworkers looking for jobs on the street.

“If you build it, they will come, but if you close it, they will go,”

Mansoor said.

Martin Mallard, a Westside resident often noted for his contentious

views on immigrants, agreed.

“The Job Center is growing because it is drawing people to our cities

who can’t afford to live here,” Mallard said. “We need to bring in the

kind of people who hire those who clean our offices, instead of those who

do.”

Despite the public’s concern with the Job Center, Councilwoman Karen

Robinson was worried about the enforcement of the ordinance. A lawyer

herself, she wanted to ensure enforcing police officers knew the

difference between actions that were illegal under the broader, previous

wording and the new, narrowed language.

“I want to make sure our officers know the difference so they don’t

get this city in a lot of [legal] trouble,” Robinson said.

Wood said the language narrows the kind of solicitation that is

prohibited to cover only the kind that causes traffic or safety problems.

But enforcement would not change because only the flagrant violations of

the old ordinance were enforced before anyway, Wood said.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

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