LADERA HEIGHTS : Law Slows, Doesn’t Stop Day Laborers

Each time a car stopped near the entrance of the HomeBase store in Ladera Heights, the men anxious for work scrambled to talk to the driver.

The jostling and chatter lasted only several seconds before one, perhaps two men climbed into a car and drove away with someone needing cheap labor for a home improvement project or some other work. The remaining men retreated to the shade of nearby palm trees and took a seat, or stood and waved at the next potential employer.

“Sometimes we’ll just help people put things into their vehicles,” Rogelio Camarena, 20, said in Spanish as he stood by the store’s Fairfax Avenue entrance. “They give us some change or whatever they have available.”

The problem is that such curbside job solicitation in unincorporated areas was outlawed by a county ordinance that took effect July 1. It is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Enforcement of the ordinance, which supporters believed would help rid neighborhoods of day laborers and stem illegal immigration, is being watched closely by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union. Complaints by Ladera Heights homeowners led to the law.

For now, authorities, neighbors and the day laborers themselves give varying views of whether the ordinance has done any good, especially since no day laborers or employers had been arrested as of last week. Some of those involved aren’t convinced that behavior often criticized by neighbors and authorities--such as public urination or rowdiness--has decreased in the past several weeks, and several say a severe crackdown still is needed.

“They’re even more obvious,” said Donald C. Hellwig, who has owned a home in the area for 24 years. “I drive by there every morning. It really hasn’t changed. It’s just too much.”

But Faz Elahi, a local homeowner since 1972, said that lately the day laborers seem to be less disruptive to the neighborhood.

“I haven’t heard any more complaints,” said Elahi, 57. “The people are here, so what are you going to do with them? The fact is they are human beings and we have to take care of them.”

And then there are local residents such as Nancy Hayward, who stopped shopping in the area awhile ago because of the aggressiveness of the laborers.

“They’re just all over you like a cheap suit,” said Hayward, 48, who has owned a home in the area for about seven years. “I feel like the people who congregate are so desperate it doesn’t really matter to them that they’re breaking the law.”

Lt. Gary Schoeller, commanding officer of the Marina del Rey sheriff’s station, which patrols Ladera Heights, said efforts to discourage people from hiring the workers have been somewhat effective. But the day laborers continue to gather hoping for jobs, so an unofficial grace period may run out before long, he said.

Although Schoeller declined to provide details regarding any upcoming crackdowns on the day laborers, he acknowledged that more must be done about the groups of men who gather along Fairfax and Slauson avenues.

“The deputies have been over there every day. This is a county ordinance and it is illegal,” he said.

Schoeller said authorities will continue to distribute written warnings about the county ordinance to laborers and others.

The day laborers in Ladera Heights are most evident from 7 a.m. to about noon, he said. “If they don’t have a job by noon they generally give up. This is disorderly. It scares people. It brings concern to the community. It has to be resolved,” Schoeller said.

Still, Camarena and several of the other 15 or so men gathered at the Fairfax Avenue entrance to the HomeBase store on Labor Day morning said they were only trying to earn a living.

Primo Danilo Pineda, 27, said he goes to the site seven days a week from about 7 a.m to at least 4 p.m., depending on whether he lands a job. The workers are aware of the new law and most of those who were causing problems have tried to clean up their acts, he said.

“We know that we must be polite to women and not urinate in public areas,” Pineda said in Spanish. “We want to stay here and seek work so we all know to make sure no one gets out of line.”

Pineda and others said they make roughly $25 a day, but that some days they go without landing jobs.

Luis Hernandez, 26, was among those who said he hopes to gain experience at many different trades and eventually start his own business.

“I plan to buy a truck and then I can travel to job sites and eventually get a license for a business,” he said in Spanish.