Agoura Hills : City to Continue Job Placement Service

Refusing to give in to defeat, Agoura Hills will continue operating a largely unsuccessful job-placement service created five years ago to prevent day laborers from congregating on city streets.

The City Council has voted to spend $10,000 in federal grant money to fund the program for two more years, even though the service has placed a relatively low number of day laborers.

“It is still the only alternative,” said Mayor Ed Corridori, acknowledging the program’s defects.

Employers seeking workers contact the Agoura Hills Telephone Hiring Exchange, which keeps a list of people seeking jobs. Last year, according to city records, 304 employers used the hotline and 323 workers were placed, most of them domestic workers. Meanwhile, day laborers continue to line Agoura and Kanan roads each day.

Hilda Cutler, who coordinates the program, said there are substantially more job opportunities for domestic workers, who are in high demand in the Agoura Hills area.

The city has other means to prevent day laborers from congregating, including an ordinance that prohibits motorists from picking up day laborers on city streets, the mayor said. Corridori said the phone-bank program might have better luck drawing employers if it were better advertised. The city currently runs a small ad every week in a local weekly newspaper.