After the job center on the Westside closed its doors, many workers staked out spots in the parking lots of local businesses and on city streets to congregate and seek employment, which has led to complaints by some residents, according to City Manager Allan Roeder.
The 7-Eleven at Placentia Avenue and Victoria Street is the current hub of day-laborer activity in the city, and the most outspoken critics say that the laborers sometimes yell, drink and urinate in public.
“The community is tired of it, and my goal is to give our police force and our attorney the tools they need to get the upper hand on the issue,” Bever said.
Those tools would most likely include an ordinance similar to the one in Laguna Beach, where day laborers are forbidden from soliciting work on city streets — a policy that might not be constitutional without a day labor center — so that the police have an easier time cracking down on people illegally soliciting work.
“Cities have had their day laborer ordinances challenged and have lost because they didn’t have a resource center. Solicitation is a 1st-Amendment right, so courts are going to look for an alternative forum for solicitation,” said David DeBerry, Orange’s city attorney.
Since Orange adopted its new ordinances late last year, police reports indicate an 80% decrease in the number of day laborers found soliciting in six identified “problem areas,” DeBerry said, citing a report given to the Orange city council Tuesday.
Costa Mesa City Atty. Kimberly Hall Barlow is looking into the legality of adopting Orange’s day labor framework, and Roeder expects her to give her opinion to the council within the next month or two.
