Future of job center uncertain

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- With the election of Chris Steel to the City Council,

the city’s job center could be in jeopardy of losing city funding.

Throughout his campaign, Steel targeted the job center -- where day

laborers and temporary workers meet with employers -- for removal from

the city budget.

The city opened the center more than 10 years ago to keep day laborers

from asking for work on street corners and parks.

“The city should not fund the job center,” said Steel, who said the

center attracts illegal immigrants and drives legal residents out of the

city. “We should use that money to address the problems of legal

residents -- neighborhood problems such as street improvement, noise and

crime.”

Jean Forbath, founder of Share Our Selves, disagrees with Steel’s

stance on the issue, saying the center is an asset to the whole

community.

“ I’m sure [Steel] has good ideas for the city, but I think he has to

realize there is a place for everyone in a community that hopes to be

part of a just society,” she said. “Before we had the job center, people

were complaining of day workers intruding on their comfort and property.

People looking for work and people looking for workers certainly

appreciate it. It’s an example of how well a job center can work.”

Steel also advocates citizenship screening at the center and has

called the current requirement that workers provide proof of legal

residency “a joke.”

But without two additional votes for removing the center from the city

budget, Steel will not be able to bring his idea to fruition.

Councilwoman Libby Cowan, who was reelected Tuesday, said she will not

be one of those votes.

“I absolutely believe [the job center] is an essential part of our

community and it’s a more cost-effective mechanism for providing service

to both laborers and those who hire them,” Cowan said.

Mayor Gary Monahan could be a vote in Steel’s favor, however.

He has historically opposed using city money to pay for the center --

expected to cost $139,940 in this year’s $78-million operating budget --

and said he would like to see it become more self-supporting.

“I do believe [the job center] is a drain on the financial services of

the city,” Monahan said. “I think we’re spending way too much money on it

and the money can be spent on other things. I believe there is a way to

charge the employers and those who work there to make it closer to

self-supporting. The job center needs to have more private funding.”

The city charges a one-time fee to pay for identification cards for

employees at the center, but the fee is only expected to generate about

$3,000, said City Manager Allan Roeder.

The city would probably close if it is removed from the city budget,

Roeder said, adding that the city has not found private groups willing to

run the center, although it has tried.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon and projected Councilwoman-elect Karen

Robinson, who leads incumbent Heather Somers by only 100 votes with an

estimated 3,000 absentee ballots still uncounted, were not available for

comment Thursday.