Council half-bails Day Labor Center

Barbara Diamond

The City Council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to offer its traveling money

for a matching grant to keep the Day Labor Center in operation

through June 30.

Councilman Wayne Baglin voted against the proposal made by Mayor

Cheryl Kinsman to reallocate the unused City Council training, travel

and dues budget to the Crosscultural Council, which runs the center.

Private donations had already been pledged in the wake of the

council’s decision at the May 4 meeting not to fulfill the

Crosscultural Council’s request for $8,000 to see the center through

the fiscal year. Village Laguna promised $1,200.

Council members Toni Iseman and Steve Dicterow both supported

taking the $8,000 out of the city’s $3 million-plus reserve, as

requested, but Kinsman, Baglin and Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson

refused.

Pearson voted for the matching grant, but with some reluctance.

“I am concerned that we are giving so much to nonprofits,” Pearson

said. “They should fund themselves and become less dependent on us.

“We have been generous. We have given them the site. We have given

them bathrooms. We have given them benches. We have given them water.

But they need to be more self-sustaining.

Pearson offered to advise nonprofits on fund-raising. She has

advised the Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. on fund-raising for a proposed

senior center on Third Street, for which the city purchased the land

and agreed to a $1 a year lease.

The council city granted the Crosscultural Council $24,000 at the

beginning of the fiscal year, $10,000 less than requested, and said

come back if you must.

Operating the center costs an estimated $50,000 a year, some of it

raised by contributions from contractors and homeowners -- about

$18,000 for the year. Adding that to the $24,000 granted by the city

-- $4,000 of which went to other Crosscultural projects -- left the

center about $12,000 short.

The center site on Laguna Canyon Road was chosen in response to

multiple complaints on a daily basis from North Laguna residents

where the laborers gathered on street corners with no bathroom

facilities and no supervision. Even after the move, there were

complaints until the Crosscultural Council’s oversight began,

including paid supervisors.

“If I were on the [Crosscultural Council], I would give it back to

the city and say do it yourselves,” Iseman said.