Dana Point Places 74% of Dayworker Job Callers : Labor: The city’s hot line for temporary hiring, unique in Southern California, is hailed as a ‘win-win situation’ for all.

In rapid Spanish, the voice at the other end of the telephone poured out his message.

Christina Garduno, listening to the caller, took notes. She asked him a few questions in Spanish, speaking in a friendly, conversational voice, taking more notes and trading information.

After hanging up, she smiled and said: “He was looking for a construction job, and I was able to place him with an available job in San Clemente.

“I asked him if more (people were living at) his residence needing work, and he said there were two more. I was able to place them with jobs also,” Garduno said.

That interchange on a recent weekday afternoon is an example of the success of Dana Point’s new Telephone Hiring Exchange. Men and women who otherwise might be walking the streets of Dana Point seeking day-laborer jobs now are calling the jobs hot line.

According to statistics released by the city this month, the callers are quickly finding jobs. Of the 123 people who called the exchange from Aug. 28 to Oct. 6, 91 got jobs--a 74% placement rate, city officials said.

“We think this program is a win-win situation for both the workers and the people wanting to hire them,” Dana Point Mayor Eileen Krause said. “And it’s very cost effective because city residents are serving as volunteers on the phone bank.”

Dana Point’s program is unique in Southern California “and a good idea, in terms of funds and resources” for helping dayworkers find jobs, according to Rebecca Jurado, an attorney with the county office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Officials and residents in many county communities have complained about dayworkers who congregate on local streets in search of work. Some cities--including Costa Mesa and Dana Point--have even outlawed street solicitation of jobs, a position Jurado hopes to challenge on constitutional grounds.

However, Jurado noted that only Dana Point has come up with a constructive alternative.

Dana Point started its Telephone Hiring Exchange on Aug. 28, allocating $2,000 in start-up funds--mainly for telephone rentals. When the council received a report on the exchange’s first six weeks in operation, members were so pleased that they voted to spend $9,700 more. Most of the added money will be used for advertising--to tell employers and dayworkers where they can call.

“We think a telephone exchange such as this is a good solution for a city,” said Hector Valles, a retired businessmen who is the volunteer head of the job-placement operation.

Valles, who was on a city task force to study possible solutions to the day laborer problem, said he visited other cities to see what they were doing.

“Laguna Beach has a hiring lot, but I didn’t like that,” Valles said. “It still makes for people having to congregate in one area, and it can be unsafe for them and for motorists. Hiring halls are the same thing. But a telephone system makes the problem invisible.”

And, he added: “It’s safe for everyone. . . . The people who hire these workers also like this situation much better.”

Dana Point’s exchange operates Sundays through Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. Two volunteers each night come to a small, two-desk, two-telephone office. One worker takes calls from potential employers, who usually are English-speaking men and women.

The other volunteer, usually someone who is bilingual, takes calls from men and women seeking dayworker jobs. Most of those calls are in Spanish.

“About 90% of the men and women who call in for jobs are Latino, and about 10% are Anglo,” Valles said. “About 85% are men, and 15% are women.”

Dana Point’s program does not ask the job-seekers whether they are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. “We leave the documentation up to the employers,” Valles said.

For that, Jurado gave special praise to Dana Point’s program: “Some cities target dayworkers, and it is just a form of racism. They are after people with brown skin.”

Still, the ACLU questions the constitutionality of Dana Point’s ordinance outlawing street solicitation by dayworkers. She said the ACLU holds that such ordinances violate the right of free speech and the right of assembly.

The Dana Point ban passed last summer in response to complaints from residents in Capistrano Beach, where city officials said up to 100 job seekers a day were lining up on Doheny Park Road, causing unsafe traffic conditions.

Since the start of the job exchange, Valles said the problem of workers’ congregating on Doheny Park Road has all but disappeared. “There are still some people who go there, maybe six or eight a day,” he said. “But they are mainly transients who haven’t gotten the word yet about the phone exchange.”

Valles and other volunteers periodically go to Doheny Park Road to give cards to people seeking jobs there. The cards, in both Spanish and English, explain that people can apply for day jobs by calling the telephone exchange.

“We’ve passed out these cards and put signs in stores,” Valles said. “We’ve gotten a big response, and we’ll get an even bigger response when we start advertising” in local publications.

Word of the job hot line has circulated far beyond Dana Point.

“We get calls from all over,” Valles said. “By word of mouth, the workers are telling others about our phone bank.”

According to figures compiled by John W. Donlevy Jr., assistant to the city manager in Dana Point, 53% of the dayworkers seeking jobs so far are Dana Point residents; 18% are from San Clemente; 18% from San Juan Capistrano; 9% from North Orange County, including Santa Ana, and 2% from other areas.

While the program is primarily geared to help Dana Point residents, Valles said the city makes no effort to screen out non-residents. “Our program is helping all of South Orange County,” he said.

Valles noted that many of the potential employers who call in are also not Dana Point residents.

The volunteers who work the telephones for the program include Garduno, a bilingual Dana Point resident who is a retired operator of several restaurants.

“I wanted to help the community,” Garduno said of her volunteer work. “And I like doing this. When people call, they are less fearful when they hear me respond in Spanish.”

Another volunteer, Barbara McCarthy, is a Dana Point resident who is a retired vice principal of San Clemente High School. McCarthy is not fluent in Spanish, so she staffs the telephone that brings in calls from potential employers.

“I became interested in this because I live in Capistrano Beach, and that’s the area that had the biggest problem with the dayworkers,” she said. ‘

‘I became involved with the (city’s) task force on this problem. . . . We got together, and this is what we came up with. It’s a good program, and it’s being done with a minimum of expense.”

Valles added: “We’re providing an alternative to the harassment of the dayworkers. We don’t harass them. All we do is give them cards with our phone numbers, and we help them find jobs.”

Hot Lines for Dayworkers

If you live in the Dana Point area and need a dayworker job, you can call this number for information: (714) 248-3555.

Phones are answered by recording machines 24 hours a day and by volunteers from 5 to 7 p.m., Sundays through Fridays.

If you are an employer and need day laborers or household help, you can call: (714) 248-3558.

If you would like to work as a volunteer in the Dana Point Telephone Hiring Exchange, you can call: (714) 248-9890. Spanish-speaking volunteers are especially needed, according to city officials.