Closing of Job Center elicits mixed reaction

Alicia Robinson

Nearly three dozen men hoping for jobs turned eager, inquisitive eyes

toward an approaching stranger Wednesday morning at the Costa Mesa

Job Center.

But it wasn’t a contractor looking for workers, so they went back

to waiting and watching the passing cars. When the Job Center closes

at the end of June, they’ll have to wait somewhere else. The question

is where.

“They’re going to probably be hanging around here, the sidewalks,

and it’s going to turn into a mess,” said Paul Daly, a 43-year-old

worker from Anaheim, who was seeking a job Wednesday. “They’re not

going to know what to do.”

The City Council on Tuesday voted to close the Job Center -- which

was opened in 1988 to stem the flow of complaints about day laborers

hanging around Lions Park and elsewhere in the city, waiting for

jobs.

But the majority of the council said the Job Center, which serves

a largely Latino workforce, no longer fits in with the Westside,

where the groundwork has already been laid for a major revitalization

effort.

Some residents worried that the problem of loitering workers will

return to Lions Park or other public places, and Costa Mesa Police

Chief John Hensley said his department will likely have to shift

resources to address problems with workers soliciting jobs.

Those at the Job Center see its closing as the end of a system

that’s working, and they’re not sure what they’ll do next.

“It’s a big problem for us, because many people need a job,” said

Delfino Rohas, who is 65 and has lived in Costa Mesa for 12 years.

Rohas has been using the center to find work for more than 10

years, and some of his jobs have been long-term, lasting as long as a

year or two, he said.

Jovita Guthrie, one of two part-time city employees who runs the

Job Center, said workers were frustrated by the council’s decision.

“They’re very upset because nobody heard them,” she said.

“I think the City Council should come and visit the Job Center so

they can see it firsthand.”

The center asks workers to show identification and be

photographed, and if they don’t live in Costa Mesa, they’re charged a

registration fee. Proof of legal U.S. residency is not required. Each

worker gets a number and takes a seat on the patio in front of the

center’s small office, and when an employer drives up, they all hold

up their numbers, hoping to get work for a few hours or for the day

or longer.

About 60% of the jobs people find at the center are in

construction, and sometimes senior citizens hire day laborers to

take them to the doctor or help them around the house, Guthrie said.

The contractors who use workers from the Job Center would rather

find them at such a centralized place than in a park or on the

street, said Jim Jordan, owner of Jordan & Associates, a Costa Mesa

contractor that does small remodeling jobs.

For small to mid-sized companies, it’s cheaper to hire extra

workers when they’re needed than to maintain a large staff. Jordan

mainly cares about finding hard workers, he said.

“These people come over here, and they want the same thing that we

want for our families,” Jordan said. “Whether they’re here legally or

not is a separate issue.”

But for some who wanted the Job Center closed, the issues are

inextricably tied together.

“I think the Job Center is a symptom of the problem that we have

in this state.... The real problem that we have is a massive,

uncontrolled immigration coming across the border that we have no

control over,” resident Dave Salcido said at Tuesday’s council

meeting.

The council didn’t discuss that issue much, though Councilwoman

Linda Dixon, who voted against closing the Job Center, wanted to send

a letter to federal officials about Costa Mesa’s concerns regarding

illegal immigration. As for job seekers, council members said they’ll

look into directing them to private sector services such as Labor

Ready, a firm that places temporary workers.

While workers from private firms generally cost more than workers

from the Job Center, contractors use them because some employment

firms have their own insurance and handle workers’ compensation, said

Mike Evans, owner of Evans Plumbing in Costa Mesa, which occasionally

uses Job Center workers.

Contractors who are reluctant to use Job Center workers “just

don’t want to have that liability on their behalf,” Evans said.

Contractors may have no problems finding labor after the Job

Center is closed. But others who use it say they don’t know where

they’ll get workers.

Janie Arnold, a 71-year-old Costa Mesa resident, has hired workers

from the Job Center during the past seven years to do her gardening,

lay flagstones and paint her house.

Her painter was so good, she referred him to neighbors and her

son.

Workers from the center have been reliable, and she’d be worried

about picking someone up off the street, she said.

“How do I find somebody that I could feel comfortable driving home

in my car and having in my house?” Arnold said “It makes me sad that

we have to partition them from our way of life when they’re trying to

earn an honest living.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.