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County Official Denounces End to Site Search

By Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 15, 2006; Page B02

Gaithersburg's decision to cease efforts to create a day-laborer center has prompted a senior Montgomery County official to accuse the city of "attempting to wash its hands of this issue and push the day laborers outside of City borders."

Montgomery County Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Romer, in a letter dated Monday, also said that county officials were "troubled and disappointed" by what he termed the city's retreat from commitments to work with the county to open an employment center targeted mainly at immigrant workers.



Gaithersburg City Manager David B. Humpton said yesterday that he had been angered by the tone of Romer's letter and that the city had tried its best to find a site, but had faced strenuous community opposition.

The county's plan to fund an employment center at a site chosen by the city has sparked controversy in Gaithersburg for more than a year, with residents who live near proposed sites objecting that a day-laborer center would be inappropriate near residential areas.

The failure to open a center in the city ensures that the debate over how to handle the workers will continue in the county, as it has in Herndon and in other communities across the country.

Humpton, in a letter to Romer yesterday, rejected the idea that Gaithersburg wanted to push out day laborers and said the city had acted in good faith to resolve the issue. He also said that the city and county do not "advance a solution to the day laborer situation by continuing to exchange letters that point fingers at one another."

In interviews, Humpton and Mayor Sidney A. Katz said that the city would halt efforts to find a location. "We don't believe there is a place we could find," Katz said.

Humpton said this outcome represents a victory for the opponents of the center, who have included the Maryland chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an Arizona-based group that opposes illegal immigration.

"They have, in a sense, won," Humpton said.

"His failure is a victory for the opponents? What an acknowledgment," said Kim Propeack, advocacy director for CASA of Maryland, a nonprofit organization that aids immigrants and operates day-laborer centers funded by the county.

"I don't know how much more vocal he wanted us to be," said Grace Rivera-Oven, who runs a Spanish-language cable show and has supported the center. "Regardless of what the city decides, these are still people who live in the city," she said of many of the day laborers. The city, she added, "will still have to deal with this issue."

Romer, in his letter, also said that Montgomery would send the city "an invoice to cover all the costs of the county's expenses" in leasing a property that was intended to house the day-laborer center but that city officials have rejected as inappropriate.

Montgomery spokesman David Weaver said the county was a year into a 5-year, $35,000-a-year lease and would seek to recover from Gaithersburg whatever it would cost the county to get out of the contract.

Humpton said he intended to discuss the issue of payments with Montgomery officials.

In his letter of response, Humpton said Romer failed to acknowledge the city's "exhaustive site search" and reiterated the city's hope that the county can find a site for a day-laborer center in a "heavy commercial or industrial area" outside the city limits.

"There's no evidence to suggest that laborers or employers are going to travel to make these transactions," Weaver said.

Romer also questioned Gaithersburg's consideration of an anti-solicitation ordinance, which would ban the curbside solicitation of employment, when the city has not resolved the day-laborer issue. The City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the measure Nov. 20.