Costa Mesa May Stiffen Dayworker Law

The Costa Mesa City Council will consider Monday whether to clamp down further on job seekers who stand on street corners waiting for would-be employers to drive by and offer work.

In a bid to move such dayworkers off the street, the city last year created a job center on Placentia Avenue and passed an ordinance restricting potential workers from approaching cars on public streets in hope of finding employment.

But city officials were told that last year’s ordinance has failed to stop about 50 workers from gathering to wait for work each morning at the corner of 18th Street and Harbor Boulevard, at Santa Ana Avenue and East 20th Street and at Lions Park, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department.

With that in mind, the City Council agreed Monday to consider next week an amendment to the ordinance that would make it illegal for a person searching for work to be within 300 feet of those three locations “with the intent to solicit employment from an occupant of any motor vehicle.”