Costa Mesa Gives Job Center More Time

In a packed meeting marked by loud disagreement that ran into early Wednesday morning, the Costa Mesa City Council voted to push back the possible closure date of a controversial job center lauded by some as a model for day-laborer facilities.

The 3-2 vote will keep the job center open until Sept. 30, with the council revisiting the issue in August.

The council also voted to cancel an earlier decision to allow only residents of Costa Mesa to use the center.

With council members Linda W. Dixon and Eric Bever casting dissenting votes, the council also approved the creation of a task force made up of representatives from the city, the Chamber of Commerce and community organizations to come up with alternative funding -- either through grants or the private sector -- to lower the city’s $103,000 annual contribution. The task force will also have to find a new place for the job center.

Beginning Tuesday evening and ending after 2 a.m. Wednesday, dozens spoke for and against the center. Supporters said the center gives workers dignity while keeping them off city streets and out of parks.

“This is a human rights and a human dignity issue,” said Robert Lee. “They [the city] are going to spend a lot more policing these people once they’re out of work.”

The center, at Placentia Avenue and 17th Street, allows job seekers to register and then matches them with employers. Since opening in 1988, authorities say, the center has found employment for about 34 laborers a day.

At one point during the hearing, a man brandished a copy of the movie “A Day Without a Mexican.” The movie is a fictional account of what a day in the life of Californians would be like without Latinos who often work for them.

“I recommend it,” the man said while addressing the City Council.

Detractors of the center argue that it attracts illegal immigrants, encourages unlawful employment and cheats the government out of tax revenue by allowing laborers to be paid in cash.

Evelyn Miller of Irvine said keeping the center open was “bad public policy.”

“It is public knowledge that many, maybe most, of the people there are unlawfully present in the country,” she said. “This City Council should not aid and abet lawlessness.”

Leon Martella called the job center “dilapidated,” adding that “illegal immigrants do not belong in this country.”

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, who voted to keep the center open, seemed shaken by some of the public comments.

“Race and name-calling doesn’t get us anywhere,” he said. “It just tells me you have no argument left ... on either side of the issue.”

The decision Wednesday cancels a vote last month to shut down the Costa Mesa Job Center by June 30.

The council based that vote on the cost of running it and a preference by the council that job seekers switch to private placement firms.

Shortly after the mid-March decision, Councilwoman Katrina Foley -- who had opposed it -- requested that the issue be revisited because workers and employers had not been informed.

“The decision was made in haste,” she said, “without having adequate research or a plan for the consequences.”

On Wednesday, she warned that the city could face costly challenges resulting from the center’s permanent closure.

She cited Costa Mesa’s anti-solicitation ordinance. Such ordinances have been successfully challenged by civil liberties groups in California that argue that people have the right to ask for work on public sidewalks. One such group, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, was present at Friday’s vote.

Outside council chambers, Delfino Rojas Soriano, a day laborer who uses the job center, cheered as news of the decision was translated by an interpreter.

“It’s a victory,” he said. “This gives us five months to explore other options. We don’t care if we have to move, as long as the center stays open.”