Thursday, April 24, 2008

Day Laborer Issue Heard By Council

By Nao Braverman
Nathaniel Wolper, accompanied by another local resident, added a choral performance to the lively public commentary at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
“Keep our valley safe we pray,” they sang in harmony.
Other attendants also had comments about the safety of Ojai, referencing a recent local protest, which pitted people in support of, and against, illegal immigrants. Some locals said they were shocked to see such animosity in Ojai. Others said they were bothered by Ojai’s day laborers. All asked for the issue to be addressed by the City Council.
Ashley Meier, owner of Cowboy Babies and her employee, Britney Pergson, said that the day laborers standing near the children’s clothing store stared and made inappropriate comments. Their presence made employees uncomfortable and hurt business, said Meier.
Ojai resident George Huitrado suggested that the city should find a better place for day laborers to stand. A fluent Spanish speaker, he agreed that if the city found an appropriate place, he would help communicate it to the laborers.
Another local resident, Peter Donovan, suggested building a station with an overhang and rest rooms where day laborers could comfortably wait for work.
“I do encourage the city to address this issue,” said local peace activist, Evan Austin. “Let’s do this compassionately and thoughtfully.”
City manager Jere Kersnar said that the topic had been considered before, and agreed to revisit it with city staff.
In other City Council news Mayor Sue Horgan and Councilman Joe DeVito were appointed to serve as a sub-committee, working with Kersnar to select an attorney to advise the council on the city’s Housing Element.
Although the job of providing legal counsel was previously allocated to city attorney Monte Widders, members of the public had complained of an alleged financial conflict of interest.
Widders did not believe there was such a conflict but sought a formal opinion from the Fair Political Practices Commission and recused himself in the meantime. As the written opinion is expected to take several months, the city must find an interim attorney to represent them during Housing Element discussions. The committee was thus formed so that the selection process for a special attorney could begin.
Also at the meeting, Public Works director Mike Culver asked the city to authorize the application for a $250,448 federal grant for public transportation in rural areas.
Since 1989 the city has relied on this grant to offset the costs of running the Ojai Trolley service, said Culver.
The trolley service is paid for by a combination of state, federal and county funding, with the fees also contributing a small amount to expenses.
Culver said that the annual ridership of the trolley decreased by 23 percent from 139,733 in the 2004-2005 year, to 107,660 in the 2005-2006 year when the fee was increased. There has been a successive 4 percent decrease in ridership each following year, according to Culver. He said that this could be attributed to declining enrollment in the school district, as some students take the trolley to school. Culver added that although the ridership was decreasing, the trolley still provides a necessary service. The grant application was authorized.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

deport them and go after the people who hire them.

Anonymous said...

Yes right anonymous along with
the entire mirgrant California
agriculture economy? Sure Thing...

Anonymous said...

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

http://www.numbersusa.com/about/advisors.html

Dennis said...

Illegal aliens are criminals. So are the traitors that hire them. Deport the illegal aliens and jail the employers.

Anonymous said...

The day laborer’s are illegal, just because they made it onto the streets of our Cities, Towns and Nation does not make them any less so. These people are criminal opportunist who fuel the greed of unscrupulous tax evading employers. Not to mention the CRIMES illegals commit, from drunk drivers plowing over legal citizen’s to child rapist! One case in point, a man in the San Fernando Valley picked up his criminal DL then asked him to watch his nine year old daughter so that he could run to the store! Upon his return this irresponsible father witnessed his little girl in the process of being raped by the DL. Any thinking person who does the math knows the dozens of DL’s in the Ojai Valley are a tiny fraction of the millions who have illegally invaded our Nation. The negligence of our Government to protect American’s from this invasion which threatens our Sovereignty is simply unforgivable. Besides the threat to our Sovereignty, illegals bring their third world form of Government, cause a drain on our natural and economic resources, destroy our infrastructure. WHY should I have to pay taxes to fund criminals whose first crime was stealing across our Borders, where is the compassion for the 50,ooo victims who died at the hands of illegal immigrants, where is the outrage.. Labor ready is available and the lazy employers who find themselves in need of workers could just as easily call labor ready who will send employee’s directly to their work site. THERE IS NO EXCUSE for dozens of undocumented illegal foreigners to be standing on our streets! My town, as other’s outside of Mucky Muck Ojai CITY limit have become the backwater for illegal’s living multiple families per house. They purchase ranchetts with their ill gotten gains from drug/human smuggling and once embedded proceed to take over, scrawling graffiti on our businesses walls and having loud live welcome to the neighborhood illegal’s fiesta’s! I can only pray that they move into your neighborhoods and you suffer the indignity of being forced to listen to the Aztlanist drumbeat on an auspicious holiday as memorial day or wake up one nite to gunshots from over enthused revelers, EVEN worse live next door to a human smuggler who brings in twenty illegals on a Friday and farms them out by Monday in a house with not enough bathroom facilities to accomdate that many men so instead piss on underneath your bedroom window! To the shop owner’s may I suggest you place NO LOITERING signs on your businesses and demand the law be enforced., this tactic has worked at other DL sites. I hope to join with others in the community who have had enough and are willing to enact our freedom of speech and protest.

Anonymous said...

what a bunch of pathetic morons! I'm ashamed to be a US citizen...

Anonymous said...

April 28, 2008 10:15 AM

Why don't you just move? You aren't going to win this one.

Anonymous said...

deport deport deport, they have broken the law. As for the Ag workers the ones with work visas can stay. Everyone else needs to go and the one who hire them needs to be prosecuted to

Anonymous said...

ICE should round them all up at the famous stupid march May 1st and ship them back home !!!

they are CRIMINALS !!!! not "undocumented immigrants"

Liz
San Bernardino

Anonymous said...

wow!!!
a whole gagel of racists with computers. only in america....

Anonymous said...

Racists? Are you really that much of a dunce? You probably are. Its called the rule of law you half wit. Trying following the law sometime.

Anonymous said...

anonymous

Everything said about illegal aliens is right and they should not be allowed to be here, since the (powers that be)refuse to enforce the law I suggest we we join them and all do business on the city streets.

We no longer need to pay high rent for a store, no license fees,no utility payments etc etc etc. lets all just bring OUR wares and OUR services and set up on the side walks.

RIGHT

I know the city can't allow this, but how do they refuse LEGAL CITIZENS do do business on the streets and still allow illegal aliens and law breaking, tax dodging employers to do so?????????????

I sincerely think this would end this disgusting ignoring of the law for some and not others and if it didn't, see you in court.

Anonymous said...

Arizona has enacted laws that have the illegals leaving in droves. Why we do not do this here in our state baffles me.

Anonymous said...

Questionable responses here containing childish name calling (troll, rascist) and making personal insults of posters instead of addressing the topic maturely demonstartes that you are on the losing side of this discussion. Keep your head in the sand doing that, I hope you are enjoying your worsening 3rd world country communities. Illegal is still illegal, got ethics?

Anonymous said...

deport deport deport
www.infowars.com

Anonymous said...

look up the union of Canada America and Mexico and the amero that's the intention of the current admin

Anonymous said...

import more poverty from mexico because we have too much heath care jobs and $$$$ right B.S. don't accept this crap build mexico with pesos not dollars a#$%^#@ and race is not the motive common sens is my right to the American dream can be a day dream while the day laborers mexican/American dream comes true ???????????????wtf no new world order civil war is coming soon with the amero

Anonymous said...

well see the 1s that say that is so racist are the ones getting the grass cut for 4.00 an hour they are slave owners and are more racist than some one who calls another man a wb because what were we told as a child sticks and stones etc but coming here to live tax free is stealing fraud and shows every one that there are 2 sets of laws 1 for the rich and another for the poor please put the crack down and use that wast of space between your ears and stop talken out of well where the sun dont shine thanx john q. taxpayer

Anonymous said...

civil war then deport deport deport lamigra si no more dl

Anonymous said...

anon. 15 up from this post f#@!$%# nailed it and the only ones who understand are the ones that face that reality daily from the 09-20+ yr old gang banger who wants you to look away when they look at you {dogen} or your wife starten sh#$ not to prosper but to kill over turf something they don't own or have any right to claim anchor babies grow up to be gang bangers and don't care about human life no value because they saw there father sell out the whole family to the lowest bidder my great grand father hunted these hills as his son did and farmed an fished until pale faces said no we need roads where your land is eminent domain big word for B.S. same as aztecs did now {Hispanic} for the over p.c. nation out there

Anonymous said...

well i Guss the 22in rims and shinny new cars or banger mobiles are more important than time with the family no wonder these gangs are so pissed they need a hug so sad not much of a man without the homies or a 9mm pathetic coward if you live that way you deserve nothing less than to die in the streets you claim what an empty existence and a waist i don't see you as my enemy but you as your own enemy!!! grow up and become responsible for your actions!!!