Plan to Close Jobless Office Faulted : Simi Valley: Unemployed cite convenience and importance of the facility.

Whether waiting in the unemployment line or looking at job postings, the people at the Employment Development Department in Simi Valley on Wednesday all had two things in common.

They were out of work. And they agreed that a state plan to close the office is a bad idea.

“That really would be a shame,” said Mary Barkey, an unemployed waitress from Simi Valley.

It was Barkey’s first time filing for unemployment benefits, and she said it would have been “a big hassle” if she had to drive to the next nearest office in Oxnard or Canoga Park.

“It’s a last resort for me,” she said. “It would have been such a hassle if I had to go to Oxnard.

“Think of all the people from Moorpark, Simi and Thousand Oaks. It would be really hard for them. They’re unemployed and now they’re going to have to worry about putting enough gas in their cars to get there.”

The plans to close the office sometime in 1996, disclosed this week, are part of a statewide effort to cut costs, said Larry Kennedy, manager of the Simi Valley office. Kennedy said that while costs to run the roughly 130 state unemployment offices across California are increasing, the budget to run them is staying the same. In Simi Valley, rent has gone up each year and now accounts for 30% of that office’s operating budget, Kennedy said.

State planners hope that automating many of the services, including having people use the telephone to file for unemployment benefits, will make up for closing offices, he said.

“We don’t have enough funds for everything,” Kennedy said. “There have to be trade-offs. If we spend more on facilities, we’ll have less to spend on services.”

About 21,000 people came to the Simi Valley office to file for unemployment benefits in 1994. But, according to Kennedy, the office is much more than a place to pick up a check.

People come for advice on finding work, writing a resume and interviewing for a job. And companies looking to fill a position can use rooms in the office to interview applicants.

Nearly 50 people lined up on Wednesday to interview with Doris Farrell, who works for a company that manufactures crutches and canes in Simi Valley.

“It is really helpful to be able to use their offices for interviews; we just don’t have the facilities to do that,” she said.

Standing in the back of line waiting for an interview, Raul Aguilar, 42, said the EDD is already doing a lot of the work by telephone.

“It can be a real waste of time,” he said. “I like being able to come in and set up an interview. It can be a good way to get a job.”

One of the more successful services that the Simi Valley office offers is called the Job Club--a clearinghouse, of sorts, for unemployed upper-level managers. The EDD office provides the use of a handful of computers, a small meeting room, and a single employee, Madeleine Brockwell, who helps the ever-changing group.