Community Commentary -- Richard Anthony

I have read many newspaper articles over the years and have seen

numerous letters to the editor from the public regarding the Costa Mesa

Job Center. Given the politics of the moment, as a Costa Mesa resident I

felt it was time for me to voice my opinions on this issue.

What is it that some people in our community have against people who

are, quite simply, seeking work? When you boil it all down, the human

beings using the Job Center -- be they legal or illegal -- are simply

seeking employment: a time-honored tradition held dear by all Americans.

Or so I thought.

Seeking work is something I was taught by my parents to be a good

thing. Did my parents teach me wrong? Would opponents of the center

rather have these people on welfare? Or begging for handouts on street

medians at freeway exits? Or selling drugs? Or robbing homes to support

themselves and their families?

The people using the Job Center are chasing the American dream. They

want to work, plain and simple. They aren’t sitting at home asking for a

handout. They are seeking jobs and gainful employment. It’s not really

that complicated.

Now, why was the center created in the first place? As I understand

it, due to many problems and issues with people gathering to solicit work

in city parks, on street corners and in front of businesses that didn’t

want them there, a law was passed in Costa Mesa that prohibited persons

from soliciting work at these locations. But, city leaders wisely

understood that people seeking work is a good thing, and that potential

employers of these people (referred to as “day laborers”) needed these

workers too.

Therefore, what was necessary was a place for workers and potential

employers to be able to legally get together with one another to employ

and to be employed. The sole reason the Job Center was established was to

provide a place for workers to legally gather to seek work from

employers. Again, not that complicated.

So, once again, for the opponents of the Job Center, I ask: What

problem do you have with people who want to work?

Several issues have been raised pertaining to the Job Center. I’d like

to address a few of them.

One issue I hear over and over is that all the users of the center are

“illegal immigrants” and that the center doesn’t check for legal

residency.

This is simply not true. As I understand it, every person who uses the

center has to provide at least one of several forms of state- and/or

federally-approved documentation that verifies legal U.S. residency. Now,

I guess it is reasonable to assume that some documentation is false. But

the point is that the city is taking a reasonable approach to attempt to

ensure users of the facility are legal U.S. residents.

Second, opponents say the Job Center is a “failure” since people still

gather away from the center to seek jobs. What makes me laugh is these

same opponents admit that the Job Center gets a hundred or more people a

day seeking work. Call me crazy, but my understanding of basic

mathematics tells me that this is 100 less people a day seeking work that

would otherwise be out in our parks, on our street corners and in front

of businesses that don’t want them there.

If you want to complicate the mathematical equation, let me put it to

you this way. If “X” equals people using the center, and “Y” equals the

total day laborers anywhere in the city of Costa Mesa, then “Y” minus “X”

equals less day laborers seeking work in the city of Costa Mesa at places

other than the Job Center.

Remove the Job Center and more people are in places we don’t want them

to be soliciting work. Mathematics are a great equalizer. They don’t lie.

So, explain to me again how the Job Center is a complete failure?

True, the center hasn’t entirely solved the problem of workers

congregating to solicit work in areas other than the Job Center. But to

say the center is a “failure” is not true either. It seems to me the

logical thing to do would be to enforce the city law and ticket workers

and persons seeking to employ laborers who practice this in places around

the city other than at the center. That would help -- and did help years

ago when the city did this -- to eliminate workers gathering in places

other than the Job Center.

Now, for a second, let’s address the fact that some workers and

employers do not use the center and do congregate elsewhere in the city.

Well, I understand that charging a fee is a “political” attempt to pacify

those persons screaming out against the center. But let’s be honest, the

fee charged to users of the center really doesn’t amount to much in the

way of revenue. You probably spend more on your daily cup of coffee over

the year than equals the revenue gained from this fee in a year.

But, the fee does make people who don’t want to pay it go elsewhere.

After all, simple logic says if you could pay a fee for something -- no

matter how nominal the fee -- or go elsewhere and get the same deal for

free, you’ll take the free route.

So, why charge a fee at all? It makes no sense and it defeats the

purpose of the center, which is to get people (workers and employers) to

use it and to stay out of places we all agree they shouldn’t congregate

at.

Lastly, I think I know the real issue here and want to ask a big

question.

What is the “real” agenda for the opponents of the Job Center? I think

it is simply the fact that the majority of the people who use the center

are not a class of people who the opponents of the center approve of

(i.e. white, middle class, United States citizens), plain and simple.

Whether this is elitist and racist or not, I leave that for individual

people to decide against those individual opponents of the center.

Personally, in my mind though, if it walks like a duck and quacks like

a duck, then it’s probably a duck. But as Dennis Miller says at the end

of his rants: “Those are just my thoughts. I don’t know, I could be

wrong.”

* RICHARD ANTHONY is a Costa Mesa resident.