Los Altos and Mountain View are working together on two projects for the Los Altos-based St. Joseph the Worker Center: an ordinance to govern soliciting work from the sidewalks, and a larger center to handle the growing numbers of day workers served at the center.
In an effort to get day workers off the streets and into the center, staff of the two cities will draft a joint ordinance which prohibits soliciting for work from sidewalks.
"We want to be fair," said Los Altos City Councilman King Lear, who served on a joint-city day-worker task force last fall. "So we have a two-element approach: make a rule to get them off the sidewalk and make sure the center is set up to handle the workers," he said. "They do provide a service to Los Altans."
The Los Altos City Council directed City Attorney Bob Booth to work with the Mountain View city attorney on the no-solicitation ordinance, said Layne Long, assistant to the Los Altos city manager. Long was not sure when a draft of the no-solicitation ordinance would come back to the Los Altos City Council.
Once the ordinance is in place, "the two cities will coordinate enforcement," Lear said. The two police departments will also need to conduct discussions.
Meanwhile, the center is bursting at the seams and needs new quarters. "We have said to both cities that we want to have the site resolved before the ordinance is passed," said Elizabeth Keller, executive director of the center. Negotiations are under way for a new location for the worker center.
"Our dream," Keller said, "is a community center in Mountain View of which we'd be a part. The model in my mind is Redwood City, the Fairoaks Community Center." Fairoaks includes about 20 different agencies, independent of each other, but housed in the same place. "It's such a great concept," Keller said.
Both Los Altos and Mountain View have shown support for the center with their joint task force, as well as the allocation of community block-grant funds.
For more information about workers or the center, call 962-1902.