Motorists feel effects of forced days off

Security guard Virgil Piece was the only one who showed up to work Friday morning at the DMV in Costa Mesa, but he didn’t go into the building. The doors were locked, and he sat outside of the Westside office in a folding chair under an awning to stay out of the rain.

Pierce was the security guard charged with telling distraught motorists that the office was closed because California forced many of its workers to stay home a few days a month so that the cash-strapped state can save some money on payroll expenses. Friday was the first day that the mandatory furloughs went into effect.

Nonetheless, a steady stream of cars rolled up to the office. Most people got out, walked up to Pierce, heard the office was closed until Monday, smiled sheepishly and turned around.

Balboa resident Jeff Fenholt was driving without his requisite registration tags, which he hoped to get that morning.

“Oh great. I guess if I get pulled over by the cops I can tell them that the office was closed,” he said after being turned away.

Pierce said most people took it well when he told them the news. By 10:30 a.m. he had told about 70 people, and nobody had thrown a tantrum or yelled at him. Plenty of people were miffed, though, at having to repeat an errand that they didn’t want to run in the first place.

“I took the day off just to do this and now I didn’t work, I didn’t make any money, and I didn’t get my tags,” said Juan Carlos Landin, of Costa Mesa, walking back to his car.

Friday’s scene may become a familiar one as 200,000 state workers have been told to take the first and third Fridays of every month off without pay to help the state deal with a budget deficit estimated to be in excess of $40 billion by the middle of next year.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.