On a recent Saturday morning, several men gathered in the parking lot of a busy Vons shopping center in downtown Vista, eager for a day's work.
HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Manny Robles, a Vista code enforcement officer, passed day laborers as he drove through a shopping center parking lot at Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues. Robles looks for day-labor employers to make sure they are registered with the city.
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HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
A temporary, one-day permit helps ensure that day-laborer employers are in compliance with a Vista ordinance.
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When a potential employer pulled up beside them, the hiring process only took seconds as two day laborers hopped into the back seat and the car sped away.
Before taking the jobs, neither worker asked whether the employer was registered with the city or had a written job description, something city law mandates. Only a handful of workers on that recent Saturday said they were aware of such requirements.
“They don't want to pay us a lot of money,” day laborer Blas Bazan said, referring to why some employers might not hand out what are called term sheets that describe the job, rate of pay, transportation and the employer's contact information.
More than 18 months and two lawsuits have transpired since a controversial day-labor hiring law was enacted in Vista, and questions remain about the intentions of the ordinance and whether the goals of the ordinance have been achieved.
The City Council approved the law in June 2006 to discourage temporary workers – mostly Latino men – from gathering at what had become an informal hiring site at a parking lot near the busy intersection of Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues.
The lot had become a volatile scene, with members of an anti-illegal immigration group and supporters of the laborers often facing off, forcing sheriff's deputies to monitor the crowd every Saturday. Some residents complained to City Hall that they felt harassed by the workers as they tried to go shopping.
HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Manny Robles, a Vista code enforcement officer, issued a one-day hiring permit Wednesday for Anne Malatesta, who was looking for day laborers to help move furniture. Potential day-labor employers must be registered with the city, but code enforcement officers on patrol can issue a temporary permit.
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HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Anne Malatesta, who was issued a temporary hiring permit Wednesday, talked to day laborers in a parking lot at Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues in Vista. Malatesta was looking for workers to help move furniture.
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When council members unanimously passed the law, some said they hoped it would put an end to the job site.
But workers still gather there most days. One city official says the number of day laborers there actually might have increased.
“If anyone had hoped the ordinance was going to do away with day labor, they were obviously mistaken,” said Dorothy Johnson, an attorney in the Oceanside office of California Rural Legal Assistance.
Vista Mayor Morris Vance said his primary goal was to change the behavior at the Vons site.
“It had a fairly decent early effect on the situation in the sense that it organized what was going on there,” Vance said.
Vance said he doesn't get a lot of complaints anymore, except from members of the San Diego Minutemen, the opponents of illegal immigration who still show up some Saturdays to heckle people who hire day laborers.
What the law says
The law has three elements. Employers must register at City Hall before hiring day laborers; post a city certificate in their vehicle window when hiring; and give each worker a term sheet, keeping a copy for themselves. Registration is free.
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LAWSUITS
2006: The American Civil Liberties Union and California Rural Legal Assistance sued Vista, saying the day-labor law was unconstitutional and limited free speech. A settlement reached in June allowed unregistered employers to register in the field to avoid a citation on a first offense.
2007: The American Civil Liberties Union sued Vista and obtained a preliminary injunction that blocked the city from releasing the names of people registered to hire day laborers. Several newspapers, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, appealed. In December, the 4th District Court of Appeal declined to overturn the Superior Court decision that bars Vista from releasing the names of employers.
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For the first year after the law was passed, employers faced a $100 citation on a first offense if they weren't registered. Fifty-four citations were issued. After a lawsuit settlement in June, the city was precluded from giving citations on a first offense. It now allows people to register with code enforcement officers in the parking lot. If they refuse, they receive a warning.
No employers have been cited for not issuing term sheets. City Attorney Darold Pieper said the contracts could protect day laborers from unscrupulous employers, but the city doesn't check whether they are actually handing them out.
When City Council members passed the law, they also talked about finding a nonprofit to operate a formal hiring site elsewhere in the city. It was a request made by advocates for the day laborers.
Nothing has been done in that regard, said Tina Jillings, co-founder of the Coalition for Justice, Peace and Dignity.
“It's just been the status quo, and they haven't done anything,” Jillings said. “So we continue on with the day laborers standing on the corner of Escondido Avenue and South Santa Fe. And that's the way it goes.”
Vance said the hiring hall suggestion “didn't go anywhere.”
“We didn't go beyond looking at it, and it's a dead issue right now,” he said.
Observing day laborers
Jillings often visits the parking lot in the mornings to take the day laborers food and water. She said she thinks the number of day laborers has remained constant over the past year.
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Vista's day-labor law: By the numbers
133: People registered with the city as day-labor employers.
7: Employers registered since a Sept. 20 Superior Court ruling preventing the city from making employer names public.
54: Unregistered employers issued $100 citations before a June lawsuit settlement stopped the city from citing them on a first offense.
0: Unregistered employers cited since the June settlement.
SOURCE: City of Vista
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The city counted the workers at the site for four months, beginning a month before the law took effect, and found an average of 28 workers on weekdays and 34 on Saturdays.
Although a formal study hasn't been done since, Assistant City Manager Patrick Johnson estimates that the average increased to about 50 workers a day for the past six to eight months.
“The numbers have stayed steady of people that are looking for hire,” Johnson said.
As of Jan. 30, the city has registered 133 employers.
These days, code enforcement officers patrol the parking lot a few times a day to check whether employers are registered.
San Diego Minutemen members are sometimes there. Jeff Schwilk, the group's founder, said he believes the ordinance isn't being enforced. Schwilk said a small group of activists spent the morning of Dec. 29 filming and observing employers to see if they were complying with the law.
“Out of a dozen, one person had a certification from the city,” he said.
Purpose of term sheets
Jillings said most employers she sees on her frequent visits have certificates.
The term sheets, Jillings said, have been helpful – although not all day laborers are aware of them or look for them because they are desperate for a job. And she sees fewer term sheets than she used to.
Jillings' organization has received fewer complaints from workers in the past six months about employers not paying them.
“They think it works for them,” she said of the day laborers. “There are some that continue to, you know, get in cars and take a job without that contract.”
A day laborer who was waiting for work on a recent Saturday said he wished he would have known about the term sheets. A $150 check for a landscaping job in early December bounced.
Not providing term sheets could result in an employer losing a registration certificate, said Pieper, the city attorney. If an employer didn't meet the contract's terms, it could be presented in small-claims court.
“It would be very useful in that situation,” Pieper said.
While 133 people may have permits to hire the workers, fewer are offering jobs, the day laborers say. City officials say no employers are being cited, but it could appear that way to workers as code enforcement officers give information to unregistered employers.
Abel, a regular day laborer who declined to give his last name, had no knowledge of the ordinance, although perhaps he has felt its effects. Abel recently estimated that jobs have declined about 25 percent in the past six months.
“The employers are being ticketed for picking us up,” he said. “So the bosses don't do it anymore. They are still gun-shy because of it.”
JesÚs, another day laborer, said he has seen work dwindle and thought unregistered employers were being ticketed by code enforcement.
“They should go after the delinquents, the people stealing things and doing graffiti instead of picking on us,” he said.
JesÚs said he was ready to move to a different location after not being able to get work at the corner for 17 straight days in a row. He lost his regular job six months ago, he said on a recent Saturday morning.
“Sometimes, we don't make enough money to pay the rent,” JesÚs said.
Matthew Rodriguez: (760) 476-8239;
matthew.rodriguez@uniontrib.com
Kristina Davis: (760) 476-8233; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com
