BREA : City Taking Over Day Labor Program

The city has terminated its one-year contract with the nonprofit organization that runs the Brea Job Center, a program to match laborers with potential employers.

Instead, the city itself will manage the center, which had been operated by Gary Center of La Habra, said Community Services Director Ret Wixted. . Brea established the job center last April in response to residents’ complaints about day laborers gathering on Walnut Street, Imperial Highway and in the City Hall Park.

The job center, housed in a trailer on the north side of Imperial Highway west of Brea Boulevard, was hailed as an innovative approach to matching day laborers with potential employers.

But after the first manager resigned for health reasons, the center has had a series of interim managers. Outreach to both potential employees and employers has also been a continual concern.

“Without a good placement rate, (the day laborers) will stop coming,” Wixted said.

Although she called the lack of a permanent manager a “cause for concern,” Wixted said it was not a contributing factor in the decision to terminate the city’s one-year contract with the Gary Center.

“The timing is right for Brea to take over,” she said, adding that the decision was a mutual agreement suggested by the Gary Center’s executive director.

Brea hopes to reduce costs by about $5,000 a year from the current $40,000 annual budget, as well as expand services offered through the center and elsewhere. Wixted said whoever is hired as manager will be bilingual.

Wixted does not expect any significant changes in the daily operation of the job center once the change takes place.