Editorial

Some will argue to no end that Costa Mesa’s Job Center does nothing

but cost the city more than $100,000 a year while attracting illegal

immigrants to the city.

But, in truth, the Job Center does much of what it was intended to do

when it opened Oct. 4, 1988. Rather than face complaints from residents

that day laborers were lining the streets and crowding Lions Park, the

city took the initiative and created the hiring hall at Placentia Avenue

and 17th Street.

On Sept. 17, the City Council will discuss the center at its meeting.

During that session, a few will argue that the city should stop funding

the center or eliminate it altogether.

If the city decides at some point to stop supporting the Job Center,

the center will fail and the problems that existed before its existence

will return. And residents’ complaints, too, about the influx of day

laborers lining the streets will return. It’s that simple.

And it’s quite obvious that the city has been a model in its effort.

After setting up the center, Brea and Laguna Beach followed suit within a

few years with their own incarnations of hiring sites.

Not only does the Job Center appease residents’ worries about blight

along the streets and at Lions Park, but it provides work for those who

need it and employees for those who need them.

For some people, it’s a ritual -- a way of life -- to wake up before

the sun shines and show up at the center before everyone else. That way,

they have a better chance of obtaining work that day. The employers then

show up and hire a few here, a few there. Basically, that’s how it works.

But the Job Center hasn’t been without its enemies.

Councilman Chris Steel, elected in November after nine previous

attempts, ran a campaign blasting the city for funding the center, which

he argues attracts illegal immigrants to the city and drives legal

residents out of it. Instead, the center’s funding can be used for street

improvements, crime, etc., he has contested.

While some of Steel’s argument may be true, it should be noted that

the city does screen workers at the job center to ensure they have the

legal status to work here.

When the city created the center, it didn’t expect to recoup its

expenses. And no one should expect that to happen now, either. It’s

called a public service. It cures a blight that residents wanted removed,

provides jobs and provides employees.

And to our way of thinking, the $100,000 Steel is complaining about is

a drop in the bucket compared with the problems created by loitering at

city parks and businesses that would return with a vengeance if the Job

Center went away.

If there’s something actually wrong with the Job Center, then fix it,

don’t eliminate it.

That won’t solve anything and will only take Costa Mesa backward and

re-create a problem solved nearly 13 years ago.