http://www.dailypilot.com/front/story/8594p-11778c.html

Sides argue economics, ethnicity
Elected officials give economic reasons for closing the Job Center, while some say other motives are involved
By Alicia Robinson, Daily Pilot

The questions of how cities should handle under-the-table employers and illegal immigrants and whether economic progress necessarily means expelling the poor have been lying dormant in Costa Mesa, occasionally flaring up when a City Council member would suggest closing the city-run Job Center.

Such flare-ups sparked to life last month, when the council finally voted to close the center, which pairs day laborers with employers. The debate since has done little but fan the flames.

Elected officials have given economic reasons for closing the center -- its cost to the city, the boost its closure will give property values on the Westside -- and some residents are in wholehearted agreement with that logic.

But in another segment of the community, there's a perception that the council's decision, perhaps unwittingly, is bowing to pressure to make the Westside whiter -- ethnically, that is -- by moving out an institution that serves mainly Latinos.

Since the Job Center opened in 1988, there has been opposition to it. Members of past councils have tried to close it but could not get enough votes. It was a campaign promise of Chris Steel, who served on the council from 2000 to 2004.

"If this had come up eight months ago, and Chris would have been the one to bring it forward, he would have gotten no or lukewarm support for it," said former Councilman Mike Scheafer, who was appointed to the council in 2003 and lost an election bid last fall. "The influence of some of the Westside activists and the election of two of them to the council has changed the dynamic."

Councilman Eric Bever and Mayor Allan Mansoor both campaigned for council seats -- Mansoor in 2002 and Bever in 2004 -- on platforms of improving the Westside.

To the councilmen who voted to close the center -- Bever, Mansoor and Councilman Gary Monahan approved the closure, while Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley opposed it -- the new dynamic is about economic progress on the Westside.

They have pointed out that the city is looking into other methods to match short-term workers with employers, such as private-sector employment agencies or a telephone referral system.

"We're looking for other ways to provide work for these folks, but just not through a government-funded, untaxed, underground economy," said Monahan, who proposed closing the Job Center.

But the closing of the Job Center won't bring an end to the underground economy. Some workers say they'll look for jobs on the street or in parking lots, and they won't use a private firm, because the jobs they get that way don't pay well.

"My sense is that the council is addressing another issue, which is illegal immigration," said Mirna Burciaga, a Westside business owner who ran for council in November. "If we close the center, are we really doing something to prevent illegal immigration? I don't think so."

The argument has been made that the city shouldn't sponsor a service that helps illegal immigrants get work. But to some observers, the issue is simply brown and white.

The major revitalization effort the city has launched on the Westside means industrial properties can be sold at a profit to developers, resident Geoff West said.

"With the industrial uses go the jobs, and who occupies the jobs? The Latino population," he said. "The fact remains that what they're trying to accomplish here, their definition of improvement, in my view, means extracting the Latinos, and everything will get better."

Even some workers who use the Job Center see the decision as a message that because of who they are, the city doesn't care about them.

"If we were Americans, they would send people to train us, to get some skills," said Arturo Hernandez. "Mostly we are Latinos. I guess that's the problem."

Some view the decision to close the center as racist in part because that's how they see one of the center's most vocal opponents, Martin Millard.

His writings have been published by at least one organization that has been characterized as a hate group, and one of his essays refers to "little brown people" who reproduce like cockroaches and describes immigration as an "invasion without guns."

But when it comes to the Job Center, Millard said, "I see it basically as an economic thing. I don't see race as an issue at all."

City statistics -- from crime figures to school test scores -- show Costa Mesa is in a decline, and the Westside industrial area is like dead weight, he said.

The low incomes of Westside residents won't attract upscale businesses, he added.

The charge of racism is just a last-ditch effort to fight changes on the Westside by those who have a vested interest in the status quo, Millard said.

"A lot of the people that don't want to see any improvement in the city are doing anything they can to fight it," he said. "There's a lot of money in the slums for those that are making a profit."

Monahan has been on the council for 10 years. In the past, he said the center should stay open, but he has opposed spending city money on it.

He said his record speaks for itself, and he doesn't need to defend himself to people who perceive racism in the Job Center decision. People "argue the race card," he said, when they can't argue the facts.

"I think it's a cop-out," Monahan said. "Make a case for why it should be open, but don't go saying it's an anti-Latino [measure]."

Mansoor has called the perception of racism "silly," and Bever declined to comment publicly on the issue.

But such dismissals don't cut any ice with some Job Center supporters.

"There is a racial undertone to this whether they admit it or not," Scheafer said. "They have to be aware that that issue is there, and to just blow it off isn't going to work."

The community likely will remain sharply divided on the Job Center, and the various arguments will be rehashed tonight when the council considers Foley's request to rehear the issue.

Workers who use the center felt they were denied a chance to speak before the vote to close the center because they didn't know about the meeting, and a number of them plan to attend tonight.

Their comments may fall on deaf ears, however. Monahan said rehearing an issue requires new information that may have resulted in a different vote.

"I think I've heard every argument over the Job Center from every angle over the last 10 years," Monahan said. "I don't know what new information [Foley will] bring forward, but I'll be curious what it is."