Supervisor Defends Vote to Restrict Day Laborers : Government: Burke says traffic and sanitation were the issues, not civil rights. Molina calls her action ‘shameful.’

It’s said that all politics are local.

And the maxim was proved again this week, as Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a lifelong liberal and civil rights advocate, provided the swing vote to approve a controversial ordinance to limit day laborers.

Rejecting the pleas of civil rights groups, Burke said that when push comes to shove, you have to do what is right for your constituents. “Obviously, when 300 people in your community turn out, you have to listen,” Burke said in an interview Wednesday.

Burke joined conservative Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana to approve the measure characterized by opponents as anti-immigrant.

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who opposed the measure, called the vote “shameful” because the ordinance would be used “especially against people of color.” Supervisor Ed Edelman was absent.

But Burke said traffic and sanitation were the issues at stake in the day laborer vote, not race.

“It’s been played as a race issue. It’s not a race issue, it’s not a civil rights issue,” she said.

“I kept asking myself, if it was 50 black or 50 white (workers), would it have been the same issue?” Burke said. “I can assure you, it would be no different.”

The issue concerns day laborers who solicit work at the curb, often near hardware and paint stores in the county. The ordinance, which goes into effect in all unincorporated areas of the county in July, makes curbside job-seeking a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Proponents of the new ordinance say such curbside soliciting creates traffic and sanitation problems and encourages illegal immigration.

Burke first brought the ordinance to the board in March after receiving complaints from constituents in the Ladera Heights area of her central Los Angeles district. At the time, a watered-down version of the ordinance was adopted as all sides attempted to work on a compromise. But negotiations to establish an approved work pick-up site failed, and Burke’s original motion was reintroduced by Antonovich.

Burke said the Ladera Heights community, in seeking to limit the activities of day laborers, is not racist and is not seeking to discriminate against any segment of population. The integrated, middle-class neighborhood is predominantly black but also has sizable white, Latino and Jewish populations that Burke said were all in favor of the ordinance.

And, she noted, the community is overwhelmingly Democratic and steadfastly liberal. “I’d put Ladera Heights’ reputation (as liberal) against any neighborhood in Los Angeles,” she said.

Burke said that the liberal and conservative labels tend to fade when issues are localized. “People tend to vote their district and community,” regardless of ideology, Burke said.

That kind of voting can create some odd alliances on the board, as evidenced by Tuesday’s vote on the day laborers.

Though the Board of Supervisors is said to be dominated by a liberal majority, which includes Burke, in fact all five members cross partisan lines routinely.

Burke said some issues, such as health, are determined largely by liberal/conservative ideology. But others, such as support of law enforcement, which traditionally was a conservative cause, now draw the unanimous support of liberals and conservatives alike.

Burke also pointed out that this is not the first time she has been at odds with groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the day laborer restrictions. Burke said she disagrees with the ACLU on issues such as constitutional protections for pornography.