Crowds fill chambers

Alicia Robinson

City Council chambers were packed Tuesday as clusters of people

waited outside in anticipation of discussion about the Job Center.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley made a motion to keep the Job Center

open, to remove the Costa Mesa residents-only restriction that would

go into effect April 15, and to create a task force to look into

other sources of funding and ways to improve the center’s operations.

The council had not voted on Foley’s motion at press time.

“I felt like this was handled in a way that was not in the best

interest of the whole community,” Foley said.

She requested a rehearing of last month’s decision because she

thought that the public was inadequately notified and that not enough

information was available then about alternatives for workers.

A number of Job Center supporters and day laborers came from

around Orange County to implore the council not to close the center

because without it they’ll have to solicit work on the streets.

“It appears that the city is punishing people for wanting to work,

and that’s kind of shocking,” Chuck Anderson said before the council

had discussed the issue. Anderson is a day laborer who lives in

Anaheim and looks for work at a Home Depot there.

Costa Mesa’s Job Center, which connects day laborers and

employers, was created in 1988 to solve a problem with job seekers

loitering in Lion’s Park and elsewhere around the city. It cost the

city close to $103,000 in the 2004-05 fiscal year, and it sees about

110 workers a day, of whom about 34 workers find jobs.

Opponents complain it attracts illegal immigrants and drags down

the overall economy of the Westside, which the city is trying to

revitalize, while supporters argue it keeps job seekers off the

streets and helps the elderly and small businesses find inexpensive

labor.

The City Council’s decision on March 15 to close the Job Center as

of July 1 sparked vigorous public debate and has drawn regional as

well as national media attention. On Tuesday, workers and community

members with something to say about the Job Center packed the council

chambers, and the media also turned out in full force.

Foley also has said she’s concerned about public safety once the

center closes, and she questioned whether the city will be able to

enforce its anti-loitering laws if there isn’t a place to direct

workers found seeking jobs on the streets.

The city police department will have to shift officers to deal

with expected loitering problems once the center closes, Costa Mesa

Police Chief John Hensley has said.

Foley and others in the community urged the council to look into

forming a task force to discuss moving the center to a more suitable

location and finding new ways to operate and fund it.

One group passed out a handout in English and in Spanish with a

request to keep the Job Center open for six months after the June 30

cutoff date so alternatives, such as a nonprofit organization to help

workers find jobs, could be explored.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

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

[email protected].