CITY REVIEWS ORDINANCE ENFORCEMENT OF DAY LABORER LAW HALTED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - City officials are re-evaluating the legality of an ordinance that bans day laborers from asking for work from passing motorists in the face of a court ruling striking down a similar law in Los Angeles County.

Because the city's ordinance is similar to the county's, City Attorney Carl Newton has advised Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Don Rodriguez to stop enforcing the ordinance.

The county's ordinance violates the First and 14th Amendments because it is too broad and vague, U.S. District Judge George H. King wrote in a ruling made public this week.

Santa Clarita is one of a dozen cities with similar ordinances on the books that may be affected by the ruling.

Newton said he expects the county to appeal the ruling. He said he was especially troubled by the judge's chiding of the county attorney's arguments that day laborers were not prohibited from soliciting employment in the parking lots of home improvement centers.

``He called it trespassing, and in my opinion it is not,'' Newton said.

The Santa Clarita City Council passed the ordinance in 1997 after residents said the practice caused traffic problems.

``It's a safety issue,'' Newton said.

The county's 1994 law makes it a misdemeanor for any pedestrian to solicit employment, business or money from people in a moving vehicle. Officials estimate that about 20,000 day laborers look for work on county street corners providing contractors and homeowners with a steady stream of cheap labor.

Officers cite both the worker and the employer under the ordinance, Rodriguez said. Most of the citations are issued along San Fernando Road in Newhall, he added.

Newton will issue a formal report on the ordinance to the City Council and the Sheriff's Department in a few weeks.