ORANGE : Laborer Hiring Hall Will Be Discussed

The City Council today will consider plans to open a hiring hall for day laborers who now look for work each morning along East Chapman Avenue and surrounding streets.

If approved, the center will open March 26 in a trailer at McPherson Road and Chapman Avenue. Start-up expenses for the project would total $95,000, in addition to hiring a resource-center supervisor and a senior administrative clerk to run the hall.

Once the center is open, the city can begin enforcing two day-laborer ordinances passed last September. The laws prohibit day laborers from soliciting work on city streets and in parking lots, with maximum penalties of a $500 fine and a six-month jail sentence.

The measures are intended to clear the streets of the laborers, mostly young Latino men seeking temporary work. Matching workers with employers will be the primary goal of the center, but city officials say they also plan to use the hall to refer workers to other community services such as English classes.

Karen Nobrega, senior assistant to the city manager, said the city expects to match 60 to 80 workers a day with employers.

The center is scheduled to operate from 6 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturdays. In order to discourage workers from lining up outside the office before opening, workers will participate in a lottery drawing to determine the order in which jobs are handed out.

Employers can either call the center to list a job opening or can come to the center in person. Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach have also opened hiring centers for day laborers, and Dana Point has a telephone job bank for these workers.