Council to hear job center report

As community members meet to discuss how and where to open a

privately run center for day laborers, the city of Costa Mesa

continues preparations to close down its own Job Center for good.

The City Council will hear an update Tuesday on the progress of

the private group, which has been tight-lipped about its activities

because of the controversy over the city’s Job Center.

Costa Mesa’s Job Center was opened in 1988 to help match day

laborers with employers. After years of debate, the council voted in

April to shutter the Job Center at the end of December.

Businesses, churches and other organizations have offered their

help in setting up a private center, said Crissy Brooks, who has

participated in the private group’s meetings and will report to the

council Tuesday. She said that it’s premature to discuss possible

locations for the new center.

“We’re just going to take it one step at a time, and we’ve had

very positive support, so we’re grateful for that,” she said.

Preparations for closing the city’s center will begin in October,

Assistant City Manager Steve Hayman said. After it closes, both day

workers and any new privately run center here are likely to face

difficulties.

Some council members have suggested workers could use a private

employment firm such as Labor Ready, but Hayman said most probably

won’t.

“It’s essentially the difference in how the operations work,”

Hayman said. “With Labor Ready, typically they [the workers] have

said they get less money.”

That’s because the private services need to pay their own

overhead. Also, some argue, employers who hire day workers on their

own can afford to pay higher hourly wages because they may be dodging

taxes, workers’ compensation costs and other state and federal fees

they’re supposed to pay.

But a bigger obstacle may be a backlash from people who believe

job centers support illegal immigration. Several well-publicized

protests have been held recently at Laguna Beach’s day worker center,

which was modeled on Costa Mesa’s.

Some of the Laguna protests were held by a Ventura-based group

called Save Our State. The group likely would have protested in Costa

Mesa if the council hadn’t chosen to shut down the Job Center, Save

Our State founder Joseph Turner said.

“One of the reasons we go out to day labor centers is we feel it’s

a small enough target that we can actually make some headway,” he

said.

“There’s no doubt in our mind that these cities [that operate job

centers] are in clear violation of federal law, and they need to be

punished.”

Turner said he wasn’t sure whether he would protest a private

center in Costa Mesa, but his overall goal is to close job centers.

But to David Peck, who chairs the nonprofit group that operates

the Laguna Beach center, the protests there have generated little

more than publicity.

“It hasn’t changed anybody’s thinking that I know of, and I doubt

that it will,” he said.

Peck hopes to see the private Costa Mesa effort thrive, not least

because he’ll be seeing more day laborers if it fails.

“If they’re not successful, that will really impact our site as

well. But my impression is that’s a really dynamic group of people,

and they’ve been really successful,” Peck said. “We hope they are.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at o7alicia.robinson

@latimes.comf7.