Signing up to help uphold new city law

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Every morning, Emigdio Jaimes rises before the sun does

and heads over to the corner of 17th Street and Placentia Avenue. He

orders breakfast at Burger House for about $6 and waits for overflow work

from the Job Center, just across the street.

Every morning, Jaby Yam rises before the sun does and heads to the

same corner of town to prepare for business. He ties on his apron, opens

the doors to Burger House and dishes up breakfast for hungry patrons at

about $6 a plate.

Yam serves the food. Jaimes buys it. A seemingly harmonious

relationship. Seemingly.

“I don’t like them standing out there,” Yam said about Jaimes and his

dayworker colleagues. “I tell them to leave, but they keep coming back

and keep coming back.”

Jaimes doesn’t see what harm he’s doing. He and about 25 other men

patronize Yam’s business every day.

“We are regular customers,” Jaimes said in Spanish. “I don’t

understand why my money isn’t good here.”

On a good day, Jaimes is gone within an hour anyway, he said. Off to

do a day’s work at some construction site or in someone’s yard.

A new law passed by the City Council is designed to solve the conflict

between some business owners and the people who seek work outside their

establishments.

Yam and other fellow business owners around the city now have the

option of posting a sign on their property prohibiting the solicitation

of work. Once the sign is posted, police can arrest violators without the

owners formally pressing charges.

In the past, police were restricted from taking action because

enforcement would require a business owner to call the police, file a

charge of trespassing and then follow through with prosecution --

including testifying, officials said.

The signs will cut out those steps -- basically telling police the

owner is opposed to people soliciting work on the property and that

officers are free to take action against it.

Yam said police officers stopped by his restaurant Thursday morning,

asking him if he would like to participate in the voluntary program.

“I signed up. I think it will help,” Yam said.

Jaimes disagreed. It is not the solution, he said. Tolerance is, he

said.

Maurilio Miranda, who also stood outside Burger House, said the new

law may keep people off some property, but it won’t deter people from

seeking work in the city.

“We’ll just go down the street, or over to Harbor Boulevard,” Miranda

said in Spanish.

Many of the men in front of Burger House on Thursday afternoon could

be found at 7-Eleven on Placentia Avenue in the morning, until the police

showed up about 8 a.m., Miranda said.

“We ran,” Miranda said. “And then we came down here.”

The manager at that 7-Eleven declined to comment.

Another hotbed of soliciting dayworkers is the U-Haul rental site on

Newport Boulevard. Manager Christopher Sanders was not aware of the new

law and said he did not know whether company officials would participate.

When asked if the men standing outside the business created problems, he

answered, “It’s a toss up.”

On the one hand, some customers call before to ensure there will be

cheap labor on site to help them, Sanders said. But then there are other

customers who are unnerved by a group of men swarming the car asking for

work.

“I have a heart. I know those guys have to work and put food on their

tables,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how much farther they are going

to step over those boundaries.”

Dayworkers at the U-Haul site declined to comment.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .