RESTRICTIONS KEEP DAY LABORERS AWAY FROM INTERCHANGE.Byline: R.A. Hutchinson Daily News Staff Writer The city has won the latest round in an ongoing battle to keep day laborers day labor n. Labor hired and paid by the day. day laborer n. Noun 1. from gathering at the Kanan-Agoura roads interchange. For the past three weeks, the familiar faces of several dozen job-seekers hanging around near the businesses and open area at the intersection have been gone, largely as a result of proactive measures In antiterrorism, measures taken in the preventive stage of antiterrorism designed to harden targets and detect actions before they occur. by the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station. ``There's been a whole bunch of tools we've used to combat the problem,'' said Lt. Mike Ford. ``We have no objection to someone going out and earning a living. Our main concern is for safety.'' Ford said the latest approach has been to assign Deputy Jim Castro to tackle the problem. Castro, a Latino cop who is bilingual, has been spending several hours a day explaining to the laborers they can face fines for soliciting work along the public roadways. ``He also tells them their options - the city's (job bank) hot line and Malibu's job center,'' Ford said. The city has taken several steps over the years to control the problem, instituting a city-funded job hot line that matches workers with employers and reducing the violation from a misdemeanor to an infraction Violation or infringement; breach of a statute, contract, or obligation. The term infraction is frequently used in reference to the violation of a particular statute for which the penalty is minor, such as a parking infraction. INFRACTION. . Ford said it was difficult to enforce the city code that prohibited people from stopping and hiring workers along the street because as a misdemeanor the violation had to be prosecuted by the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County District Attorney's Office. The District Attorney's Office required law officers to present the actual solicitation solicitation In criminal law, the act of asking, inducing, or directing someone to commit a crime. The person soliciting another becomes an accomplice to the crime. The term also refers to the act of obtaining bribes, as well as to the crime of a prostitute who offers sexual , which was labor- and time-intensive for police. A year ago, city officials rewrote the ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been to reclassify Verb 1. reclassify - classify anew, change the previous classification; "The zoologists had to reclassify the mollusks after they found new species" class, classify, sort out, assort, sort, separate - arrange or order by classes or categories; "How would you the violations as infractions. Police could cite violators on the spot and send them to Traffic Court in Calabasas. Though both measures helped temporarily, Ford said the current effort has been more successful because officers are using a number of laws for enforcement, including a state vehicle code that prohibits the vending of goods or services within 500 feet of a freeway off-ramp. In this case, the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. is a only a few yards away. Police also have distributed fliers to local construction and transportation businesses warning people that it is illegal to stop and hire workers from the street. And, three weeks ago, the Sheriff's Department conducted a sweep of illegal encampments in the fields near the intersection, rousting out transients living there. ``We won't know if this is going to be a success story for another two to three months,'' Ford said. ``We have to give it time. . . . to see if it's something that's going to keep coming back.'' Councilwoman Louise Rishoff said city officials are pleased with the results so far. ``A miracle has occurred,'' she said. ``The business owners are much happier.'' |
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