County Limits, but Does Not Ban, Day Laborers : Workers: They will be allowed to solicit jobs, but commercial firms can restrict their activities. Narrower law resulted from a controversy in Ladera Heights.

Setting aside a proposal to criminalize curbside job solicitation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted a much narrower measure that could subject laborers to fines and jail terms for seeking work in some commercial parking lots.

The decision was a major victory for immigrants and their representatives, who had vowed to go to court to block the much broader plan to ban job-hunters near homes, schools, playgrounds and churches.

The new ordinance allows day laborers to continue soliciting work on sidewalks, where the job-seekers usually congregate. And job solicitation will not be barred from any commercial parking area until owners post signs prohibiting the practice and set up areas where laborers may look for work--a step many owners may be unlikely to undertake.

“This is a reasonable compromise,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, a laborer from Mexico who was among the many immigrant rights and day-laborer advocates who descended upon the hearing room Downtown. “We want to work with the community.”

The supervisors’ decision culminates months of debate about an issue that acquired a strong racial undertone.

Curbside labor provides jobs for thousands of immigrants, mostly Latinos, throughout Southern California. It has become perhaps the most visible manifestation of the large-scale immigration that has altered the region’s demographics. Outraged residents who call the job-seekers a menace and an eyesore have often attempted to restrict or ban the practice.

Displeased by the watered-down county alternative were homeowners from the upscale Ladera Heights neighborhood north of Inglewood who had backed the stronger version, which would have made curbside job-seekers subject to up to six months in jail and fines of up to $1,000. The penalties will remain the same in the narrower ordinance.

Residents blame the day laborers who gather at the HomeBase shopping center off Slauson Avenue for littering, trespassing, making lewd comments and eroding their quality of life.

“This is a compromise for the day laborers, not for us,” said a disappointed Annabelle Simmons, one of about 30 neighborhood residents who showed up for the vote.

She and other residents of the racially mixed, mostly African American, community dismissed suggestions by the immigrants and their representatives that the homeowners’ opposition was racially motivated.

“We’re insulted that people would call this a racial issue,” said Ronni Cooper, who heads the neighborhood civic association.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, an African American, represents Ladera Heights and was author of the proposed ban. She withdrew the broad plan Tuesday and substituted the less-restrictive alternative.

“We recognize this is not a total solution to any of the problems, but it’s something everyone feels is a beginning,” Burke said.

The supervisor expressed the hope that laborers would exercise “self-policing” to control errant behavior.

Casting the sole negative vote was Supervisor Gloria Molina, who, a spokesman said, favored a more geographically limited solution. The new law applies to Ladera Heights and other unincorporated areas of the county.

Meantime, it appears little will change near Slauson and Fairfax avenues in Ladera Heights, where about 50 laborers gather each morning to seek jobs from passing motorists, many of them customers at the HomeBase home supply store in the adjacent shopping center. Burke and immigrant advocates are hopeful that an employment site can be set up in the center’s parking lot.

But the owner has no plans to set aside a portion of the 320-space parking lot for day-labor solicitation or portable toilets for workers’ use, said Eric Schneider, a representative of the Bel-Air firm that manages the property. There is already a severe parking shortage, Schneider said.

The owners’ representative expressed other concerns: potential insurance liability, the need to comply with health and safety concerns, and the likelihood of more traffic congestion.