O.C. May Feel Day-Laborer Ruling

For Raul Ovidio Paez and fellow day laborers gathered Friday outside a building-supply store on West Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles, the issue seemed obvious: Why should police chase down job-seekers when there is serious crime to respond to?

“We’re just looking for jobs; we’re not committing any crimes,” Paez, a 30-year-old native of El Salvador, said as he and others waited for chamba (work) from passing motorists outside the HomeBase store in Ladera Heights.

He spoke one day after a federal judge in Los Angeles struck down as unconstitutional an L.A. County measure that barred people from seeking work from drivers on unincorporated county streets. U.S. District Judge George H. King found the measure too broad, vague and in violation of the 1st and 14th amendments.

Lawyers in the case say a dozen or so small cities in Southern California, including several in Orange County, have enacted similar restrictions. The ruling could prompt new challenges of those city ordinances, said Thomas A. Saenz, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

One Orange County city official said the federal judge’s ruling was “way off base,” and will urge his council colleagues to fight the decision if necessary.

“I disagree completely with the judge’s decision,” said Costa Mesa Councilman Joe Erickson, who served on the city’s Planning Commission when a similar measure was adopted. “Before we had this ordinance, it was a nightmare for the neighborhoods. We had all sorts of problems. We had many, many men who would congregate. There were problems with alcohol use, drug use. People were literally running into the middle of busy streets hoping to be picked for a job.”

The 1994 L.A. County ordinance was an important victory to those opposed to the sometimes boisterous presence of about 20,000 mainly Latino day laborers on urban streets and country roads in Southern California.

Civil rights activists called the judge’s decision to place a permanent ban on enforcement of the county measure a milestone in their effort to protect the job-seekers’ right to solicit employment. Echoing the longtime contention of critics, the judge noted that authorities can always enforce measures against jaywalking, littering, public urination and other offenses.

In recent years, lawmakers in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Orange, Costa Mesa and other areas have set up hiring sites where the workers can gather.

Some of the sites offer work sign-up sheets, portable restrooms and rest areas. Still, many job-seekers gravitate to well-known corners, streets and parking lots outside hardware and home supply stores.

Huntington Beach opened its job center on Gothard Street about a year ago, after merchants at several mini-malls began complaining about large groups of day workers gathering and trucks blocking the entrances.

“We’re not interested in hassling people,” Councilman Ralph H. Bauer said. “Obviously we were trying to get them off the street. It’s not good image-wise, and it gives them a chance to get in a central location.”

Huntington Beach Councilwoman Shirley S. Dettloff said officials were careful to model the ordinance--which is about three years old--after other successful ordinances.

“I think the difference would be if you just had an ordinance but didn’t replace it with something else,” Dettloff said. “We adopted an ordinance but then offered a place that we felt gave day laborers and employers heightened safety.”

Brea also operates a job center. However, officials there said they haven’t seen the need to enact the kind of regulations other cities have. Just operating the center has been enough.

“We’ve never had an ordinance, and we wouldn’t have had one,” said Judy Campos, who heads the city’s community services department. “We’ve had the job center for 10 years. When we started, we had about 20 to 25 day laborers. Now we have about 125 who are registered.”

The city of Cypress has neither, although officials there toyed with the idea when Home Depot set up shop. With a job center just three miles away in west Anaheim, the City Council decided it wasn’t necessary.