Without a center

The early-morning scene at the corner of Placentia Avenue and 17th Street is noticeably different these days. It is void of constant activity.

Gone are the blue benches and umbrellas that filled the front lot of the Costa Mesa Job Center. Gone are the city employees who staffed the office, and gone are the rows of day laborers who waited to be matched up with contractors.

When the Costa Mesa City Council voted last year to shut down the Job Center, which had been in service for 17 years, reality set in for job seekers and employers that the days of a centralized, labor-ready center are over -- for now, at least.

In the first few days since the Dec. 31 closure, those searching for work have mostly dispersed to busy street corners and storefronts. Still some, like Costa Mesa resident Joel Morales, wait at the intersection where the Job Center used to be, hoping that employers who need work will still stop by looking for him.

“The hardest thing is to find a new spot,” Morales said. “People knew this was the place to go. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

A NEW DAY

So, what now?

For starters, a group of Costa Mesa residents have set up a phone system that allows employers to call in and find available workers.

The service, at (949) 764-1528, is operated by Mika Community Development Corp., a nonprofit Christian organization that provides services to low-income, Westside Costa Mesa residents. The answering machine is checked several times a day by Mika’s executive director, Crissy Brooks.

On the message, contractors are asked to leave what type of work, what date and how many people they are looking for, as well as a contact number. Workers are simply asked for their phone number and informed that someone will get back to them when a job opens up.

Brooks said more than 100 workers are already on her list, though only a few employers have used the system. She said she went to the Job Center during its final week and passed out information about the service, which is free for both parties.

“The main purpose is to provide information,” Brooks said. “We have a way to stay in touch with the community during this interim period when we are trying to find a new home for the Job Center.”

That effort has been going since summer, when it became evident that the Job Center would close. Brooks has been working with Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce President Ed Fawcett and other committee members on finding funding and a location for an employee training center -- tentatively being called Center for Resources and Employment Opportunities.

Morales said some employers he had found through the Job Center had asked for his phone number before the center closed. But for the most part, Morales said, the end of the center has meant a struggle to find work. He said he has heard of a few workers going to other work-ready centers in Orange County.

But according to Huntington Beach Business Development Manager Jim Lamb, most laborers will not be coming to the Luis M. Ochoa Community Job Center in his city.

Opened in 1999, the center is intended to be a place where Huntington Beach residents can come to find work. Lamb, who oversees some aspects of the center, said the Huntington Beach City Council has ordered the center to serve its own population, not other cities’.

“The people who are looking for work generally aren’t mobile,” Lamb said. “My guess is when they close a Job Center, the laborers don’t get in cars and drive, they hang out at the local Home Depot or paint center.

“We’ve always had a gut feeling that people go to the closest place to where they live to find a job.”

NEIGHBORING BUSINESSES REACT

Fawcett said he has been concerned for months about where laborers would go once the center closed down.

Some store owners and employees who work within a few blocks’ radius of the Costa Mesa Job Center said they weren’t concerned about laborers loitering outside their businesses.

“For me, it’s not a problem,” said George Arena, owner of Best Family Custom Framing and Art Gallery, which is less than 100 yards from the now closed Job Center.

Nita Di Schino, human resources manager for Griswold Industries, said her company used the Job Center on a fairly regular basis.

“It was a good resource. It concerns me that people we hired seemed to be having trouble now,” she said.

John Asaro, president of Alden’s Carpet and Drapes, said he didn’t think closing the center served a purpose.

“It’s a bad idea to close it in the first place,” Asaro said. “There will be people wandering everywhere on the street. Closing it down doesn’t make them [the workers] go away.”

Costa Mesa police have not stepped up patrol or established any special units to comb the Westside neighborhood where the Job Center once operated, Sgt. Marty Carver said.

“We have had increased calls for areas such as Placentia and Victoria, in addition to the area near the Job Center,” Carver said. “We’ll handle it like any other patrol call.”

Lamb said he never figured the Costa Mesa Job Center’s closure would affect his city’s center, which he said costs about $50,000 to operate per year.

He said the Huntington Beach center was set up as a way to direct day laborers to one location, rather than having them on street corners, negatively affecting commercial areas.

“I would assume Costa Mesa should have the same concerns,” Lamb said. “The workers are going to stay around.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter. He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at elia.powers@latimes.com.

20060108ihwcahknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)At left, Anthony St. Onge, right, and Dennis Haifley relied on the Job Center to find work. 20060108isqyc9ncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Above, a Costa Mesa man, who goes by the name Tortuga, walks the grounds at the now closed Costa Mesa Job Center on Saturday morning while trying to find work. 20060108isqycmncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Veronica Sanchez rallies for the reopening the Costa Mesa Job Center during a news conference outside City Hall on Thursday.