COSTA MESA : Job-Seeking Law Challenge Still Alive

An Orange County court commissioner Tuesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to have a provision of Costa Mesa’s controversial dayworkers job-solicitation ordinance declared unconstitutional.

However, Superior Court Commissioner Ronald L. Bauer agreed with the city’s attorneys that the Costa Mesa Police Department should not be included as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the city to stop enforcement of part of the ordinance that bans people from being in certain areas of the city with the “intent” to solicit work.

Under the ordinance, police can arrest suspects based on circumstantial evidence even if they are unable to catch the alleged violators in the act.

ACLU attorneys argue that the provision is vague and violates freedoms of speech and assembly guaranteed under the First Amendment. Another provision of the ordinance aimed at both workers and employers bans curbside soliciting of employment throughout the city but has not been challenged.

Attorneys for the city on Tuesday sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that no constitutional questions were raised and that the city has a right to enforce its traffic laws.

Bauer, however, ruled that the ACLU had presented sufficient facts to warrant a hearing on whether the provision is constitutional.

To date, police have issued more than 40 citations under the city’s year-old dayworkers ordinance, with most of the arrests falling under the general ban on soliciting employment rather than the intent provision.

Violations carry a maximum fine of $100 for a first offense and $500 for a second.

City officials and many residents assert that the ordinance is needed because dayworkers who gather on city streets obstruct traffic and harass passers-by.