Laborers Fail to Win Ruling to Nullify Law : Courts: A judge refuses to grant an injunction against an Agoura Hills ordinance prohibiting day workers from flagging down motorists.

A judge Monday refused to nullify an Agoura Hills ordinance that prohibits day laborers from waving down motorists or otherwise stopping traffic to seek jobs on public streets.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard G. Kolostian refused to grant a preliminary injunction sought by the American Civil Liberties Union and five other groups. The organizations challenged the ordinance in a lawsuit filed Sept. 18.

Attorneys for both sides said the ruling indicates that the judge did not see the law as unconstitutional or believe that the laborers would eventually win at trial. But attorneys for the ACLU and the other groups said they will continue to press the lawsuit and may appeal Kolostian’s ruling.

The ordinance was adopted by the City Council in March in response to complaints from residents and business operators who said dozens of laborers seeking work congregated daily in a parking lot and on curbs at Agoura and Kanan roads. They complained that the laborers were a public nuisance--creating traffic hazards, jumping uninvited into trucks, heckling women and relieving themselves in public while waiting for jobs.

In June, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies began citing laborers and employers who stopped in no-parking areas to pick them up. Violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 or a six-month jail term.

ACLU attorney Robin S. Toma said at least 25 laborers--all Latino--were cited by deputies before the lawsuit was filed. The suit was filed on behalf of 13 of those laborers. In addition to the ACLU, the suit was filed by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the National Immigration Law Center, the Central American Refugee Center, Public Counsel, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

During a two-hour hearing Monday, Toma argued that the ordinance discriminated against Latinos and infringed on free speech by making it illegal for laborers to wave or signal to drivers.

But Rochelle Browne, an attorney representing the city, argued that the law was constitutional and not aimed specifically at day laborers. She said after the hearing that the law does not mention day laborers but simply prohibits anyone from soliciting motorists traveling on public roads. It also bars motorists from stopping in traffic to negotiate with or pick up workers.

“As far as we are concerned, it’s a valid ordinance and it has been valid all along,” Browne said. “There is no reason not to enforce it.”

City officials and sheriff’s deputies, who police Agoura Hills, said enforcement of the law over the summer largely eliminated the problem that fostered its creation--the gathering of large groups of laborers at Kanan and Agoura, where they would flag down employers.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Pierson said that the laborers have declined in numbers since several citations were issued in June, and that the few remaining in the city have spread out, resulting in hardly any complaints from residents or business owners.

“I don’t think we have been issuing citations on this for a while,” Pierson said. “I haven’t received any complaints in over a month.”

City Manager David Carmany added that the decline of the number of day laborers seeking employment in the city may also be attributable to a similar decline in local construction and jobs.

Pierson said the ordinance is used only when warnings and traffic laws fail to prevent the problems that drew citizen complaints.

Toma asserted that deputies were not correctly following the law and were citing workers who solicited jobs from employers who had left traffic lanes and were legally parked. Law enforcement and city officials have denied that.

Toma also said the law was discriminatory because it prevented people from using public sidewalks to seek work but not for other purposes.

“It is a law that discriminates on what you can say,” Toma said. “If you are holding up a sign saying you want work, that is illegal. If you are holding up a sign saying honk for a political cause, that’s OK.”