Employers troubled by Job Center decision

Andrew Edwards

Contractors continued to roll their pickup trucks into the Costa Mesa

Job Center last week with an eye for workers to help with short term

jobs. With the closure of the center looming, professionals had a

range of opinions on the likely impact on their business.

“It will be bad; it won’t be good,” landscaper Mark Talmo

predicted Friday.

A less dire prediction was offered by Jim Hodges, co-owner of

Brothers Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning on Superior Avenue.

“I wouldn’t say a major effect, but there are times when we need

laborers,” Hodges said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

Hiring day laborers would not be Hodges’ first choice. He would

rather train a recent high school graduate for a long-term job, but

no one seems to be interested.

“I don’t hear those people knocking on my door,” Hodges said.

The City Council voted, 3-2, on March 15 to close the Job Center

on Placentia Avenue. The center was opened in 1988 to prevent day

laborers from hanging out around Costa Mesa in search of jobs.

It is illegal to solicit work on the city’s streets. However, one

of the men awaiting work said he would try to find employers around

the city if the center shuts down.

Speaking in Spanish, 39-year-old Costa Mesa laborer Erriberto

Zalpa said he will likely search for jobs in the city’s streets,

parks and storefronts if the center closes.

The prospect of day laborers hanging out on the Westside bothers

business owner Cecil Murrieta. Murrieta said he and his wife own the

El Toro Bravo Tortilleria and the adjacent Discoteca Azteca on 19th

Street.

“What you’re doing is throwing more problems on the businesspeople

because these people [laborers] are just going to be wandering here,”

Murrieta said.

The Job Center is scheduled to close July 1, and will only be

available to Costa Mesa residents as of April 15. Mayor Allan

Mansoor, who voted in favor of closure, said contractors would be

better served by recruiting temporary workers from a placement

agency, such as Labor Ready, which has a branch on Harbor Boulevard.

Unlike the Job Center, Mansoor said, Labor Ready’s fees account

for workers’ compensation costs.

“It makes more sense than money under the table,” he said.

Since the March 15 vote, Mansoor said he’s had more calls from

reporters than businesspeople regarding the center, though he said

some professionals have backed the idea.

“Some have supported it -- it depends on who you ask,” he said.

However, Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce president Ed Fawcett

believes most people in the city’s business scene disagree with the

closure.

“I don’t think that’s the majority of the people in the

community,” Fawcett said.

“The Job Center serves a very good purpose, both for the

individual looking for day and permanent jobs, and business generally

benefits also,” Fawcett said. “The community benefits in that these

individuals were taken off the streets and put in one central

location.”

It’s difficult to separate the Job Center issue from the broader

problem of illegal immigration. Many laborers using the Job Center

are Latinos who speak limited or no English.

One contractor who uses the center, Bill Carpenter of Duratex

Systems in Huntington Beach, acknowledged having conflicting thoughts

on the center.

“I’ve got some good workers out of [the center], and I’ve got some

permanent workers out of it,” Carpenter said, noting he has hired

about six people who he has picked up from the center for long-term

jobs.

Though laborers at the center must present some form of

identification, Carpenter said he suspects some laborers looking for

work are not legal residents.

“To me, that’s against the law, and it hurts the workforce in

California,” he said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at [email protected].