Lawsuit seeks to halt city funding of Day Labor Center

Laguna Beach residents Eileen Garcia and George Riviere have launched a legal assault against Laguna Beach to shut down the Day Labor Center.

Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative group, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the couple on Tuesday in Santa Ana Superior Court seeking to halt taxpayer funding of the center on Laguna Canyon Road.

The suit claims that the city funding violates federal law because the operators of the center do not ascertain the immigration status or right to work of those who come to the center seeking jobs.

City Manager Ken Frank said Wednesday that the city has not been served the suit, but he believes the center is operating legally.

Frank said the city gave $22,000 in the last fiscal year to the Cross Cultural Council, a group that operates the center, and the city also pays for portable toilets and other items at the center.

“The lawsuit is short-sighted and not in the best interest of the city,” Frank said. “This [center] is a public service.”

The city began supporting the center about a decade ago after complaints from residents about laborers seeking work on city streets and in shopping areas.

The Cross-Cultural Council oversees the operation, which charges $1 a day to the laborers and $5 to the employers, and matches employers with laborers who can fill their needs. The laborers make an average of $10 an hour.

On Wednesday morning, the center was operating as usual, and 22 laborers had been given jobs through its offices, labor center operator Irma Ronses said.

Laborer Victor Lopez said that if the center is shut down, he would seek work at another designated labor center.

Another man, who declined to give his name, said he would probably solicit work on the streets.

Frank said that if the city is stopped from funding the operation of the center, it would still be the only place in Laguna Beach where laborers can legally solicit work, but no one would provide intermediary services to the laborers and employers.

“It will be chaos,” Frank predicted.

Frank added that private parties have come forward offering to pay for the labor center operation.