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Published on 12/01/1999 All articles from this issue

Mountain View to consider day worker limits in the wake of Los Altos ordinance

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By Ellen Murray

Special to the Town Crier

Spurred on by a July Los Altos ordinance to keep day workers off city streets, Mountain View City Council members will consider a similar ordinance at their meeting next Tuesday.

In an effort to protect public safety and forestall potential employer traffic congestion at areas where day workers congregate, the council's Neighborhoods Committee will make a formal recommendation to the city for an ordinance that prohibits employer solicitation on the streets.

The controversial issue gained heat after business owners near the St. Joseph the Worker Center, at Jordan Avenue and El Camino Real in Los Altos near the Mountain View border, complained that the congregation of workers discouraged people from patronizing their businesses. A search for a larger day-worker location has stalled. The number of day workers on the Mountain View side of the street has increased since the Los Altos ordinance passed, according to Mountain View Assistant City Manager Alex Terrazas.

While not a last-ditch attempt, the ordinance recommendation will provide for "some regulation of employer solicitation," Terrazas said. "The ordinance presently in effect was developed some time ago and prohibits panhandling in the median of the street only."

Attempts to reconcile the issue have stymied the Neighborhoods Committee comprising councilmembers Nancy Noe and Sally Lieber, and Mountain View Mayor Mary Lou Zoglin.

Nancy Noe said that the Neighborhoods Committee's recommendations actually have three components: expansion of the Center, an education/outreach program for people who hire workers and a "no solicitation, no stopping" ordinance along El Camino Real.

"We will make these recommendations to the council but we will also encourage them to postpone implementation of an ordinance until we can find additional space for the workers' center," she said. "An expanded center is really key. We've been working for a real solution with the city's attorney, center staff and workers, and the community."

While the committee hopes the city may make some of its own space available for a future center, it is still exploring other options as well.

St. Joseph the Worker site manager Ana Solarzano said that the 3-year-old center provides job matching, English as a second language classes through Mountain View-Los Altos Adult Education, health clinics coordinated with El Camino Hospital, meals and other resources.

"There is no effort to check worker documentation since we are not an employment agency," she said. "We are a private, non-profit agency operated by St. Vincent de Paul to provide worker services. If employers want documentation from potential workers, it's up to them to ask."

Solarzano said about 50-60 workers register with the agency Mondays through Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon. Men and women register, she said, for jobs as varied as heavy labor, child-care, elder-care and housecleaning.