MOORPARK : Day Laborers Likely to Address Council

A group of day laborers is expected to address the Moorpark City Council tonight when the council discusses whether the men should be allowed to congregate in a convenience-store parking lot to seek work.

A representative of a Ventura County Latino advocacy group said he hopes that at least 10 laborers will attend the meeting. About 30 laborers congregate each morning in the parking lot of the Tipsy Fox convenience store on High Street. The owner of the store has said the presence of the men hurts his business and has asked the City Council to move them from his property.

The council will take up the issue tonight.

Assistant City Manager Mary Lindley said she has prepared a report outlining ways that other communities have dealt with the issue of day laborers soliciting work in public places. Solutions elsewhere have ranged from Agoura Hills banning the practice to Los Angeles County setting up two official hiring sites.

Mayor Paul Lawrason has said he hopes that the city can find an alternative hiring site for the workers.

Greg Simons, an outreach worker for El Concilio in Oxnard, said he is encouraging the laborers to attend the council meeting.

“I want them there because they’re the only representation they have,” Simons said.

“I can help them,” he said. But “they’re the ones who stand on the corner every day.”

Simons said he is encouraging the workers to at least introduce themselves to the council and tell them that they are residents of the city. Some of the workers congregating at the Tipsy Fox recently are from other cities, according to the store’s owner and city officials.