Committee on Generational, Cultural and Ethnic Diversity
MINUTES: FEBRUARY 7, 2006, 4:00 PM
MEMBERS: Chair: Bernice Spreckman, Vice-Chair: Vito Pinto; Legislators: Jose Alvarado, Lois Bronz, George Oros, Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Clinton Young
IN ATTENDANCE:
Legislators: Bernice Spreckman, Vito Pinto, Jose Alvarado, Lois Bronz, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, William Ryan, Judy Myers, Michael Kaplowitz; Staff: Amanda Modugno, Diana Toledo
Elected Officials: Supervisor Valerie O’Keeffe, Town of Mamaroneck; Mayor Gerald Logan, Village of Port Chester; City Manager Charles Strome, City of New Rochelle, Councilman Roberto Lopez, City of New Rochelle; Trustee Miguel Hernandez, Village of Ossining; Trustee Catherine Borgia, Village of Ossining; Deputy Mayor Bill Paonessa, Village of Mamaroneck; Trustee Bill Hanauer, Village of Ossining; Trustee Dom Cicatelli, Village of Port Chester; Special Assistant to the Mayor Lorraine Lopez, City of Yonkers; Coordinator of Economic Development Melissa Lopez, City of White Plains.
Other Guests: Vivian Sebastian, Carlos Bernard and Blanca P. Lopez, Westchester Hispanic Advisory Board; Co-President’s Mariana Boneo and John Gitlitz, Hispanic Resource Center of Larchmont and Mamaroneck; Jimmy Warren, Chief, Village of Sleepy Hollow; Martha Lopez, Director, Westchester County Office for Hispanic Affairs; Graciela Heymann, Westchester Hispanic Coalition; The Reverend Amaury Tanon-Santos, Westchester Hispanic Baptist Mission; Andres E. Tanon, Baptist Churches of Puerto Rico; Vanessa Merton, John Jay Legal Services, Pace Law School; Jim Russell and Charles Maron, Westchester-Rockland Citizens for Immigration Control; Robin Nichinsky, Mamaroneck-Larchmont Human Rights Commission; Carolina Moreno, City of Yonkers; Ann Spindel, Community Member; Don Hughes, White Plains; Royal Monroe, Det. LT. Port Chester Police Department.
Press: Harrison Report, Matthew Kerner; El Aguila, Rafael Vega and Miguel Blanco; News 12, Christa Lauri; The Journal News, Leah Rae, Candice Ferrette and Editorial Board Member Herb Pinder; Larchmont/Mamaroneck Public Access TV, Glenna Gray; MGNG Editor/White, Rock Stamberg; Univision, Alex Roland; New Rochelle Report/Hometown Media, Kathy Giluat, New York Times, Allan –, D. West and Anahad O’Connor; Westmore News, Masha Rumer; America Latina, Hoy.
With a quorum present, Chair Spreckman called the meeting to order at 4:06 PM.
ITEM DISCUSSED:
FORUM ON HIRING SITES FOR DAY LABORERS: Local officials invited to speak about the day laborer population in their communities.
Chair Spreckman opened the discussion by introducing members and stating that this would be the first of many meetings on this topic.
She explained the objectives of the meeting:
1) To find out ways that Westchester County can help solve the day labor problem.
2) Collect information from Westchester’s municipalities about the day labor situation in their communities, how they are managing the issues and find out what options are most effective or ineffective.
TALKING POINTS:
The following is a brief summary of comments made by guest speakers.
1) Mayor Gerald Logan, Village of Port Chester
There is an organized site set up in Port Chester: The Don Bosco Center. They used the Neighbors Link center in Mt. Kisco as a model. The program works well and has been established about two years. The village did not have to spend much.
The population of Hispanics in Port Chester is about 45%. Getting the day workers to use the designated site is difficult. Many are scared of organized programs because of the INS.
Local police work with the laborers to enforce traffic regulations. The village holds meetings at Hispanic restaurants in order to spread the word about the benefits of day laborers using the site. The site would be much more effective if the day laborers felt comfortable using it rather than waiting for work in other parts of the village. Getting the word out is a big part of the process.
The village is thinking about establishing a local law that would forbid contractors from picking up day laborers anywhere other than the site, which would be punishable by a summons.
2) Trustee Miguel Hernandez, Village of Ossining
This meeting is long overdue and a County-wide effort is really needed to help local communities, like Ossining, that have very little resources to handle this problem.
For about three years, Ossining has utilized a shelter in a parking lot across the street from a community center. The center is open for use. There is a volunteer who teaches ESL. Also, they have the Ossining Hispanic Action Coalition meeting on Wednesdays to help day laborers who have not been paid by contractors. This is a big issue.
Their program works well and neighbors and residents rarely complain. The local police controls traffic by working with the contractors.
Legislator Stewart-Cousins mentioned that the Human Rights Commission could certainly help handle the issues regarding unfair business practices.
3) City Manager Charles Strome & Councilman Roberto Lopez, City of New Rochelle
City Manager Strome
The city looked for private institutions for a site and found a Hispanic Catholic Church to use. The biggest problem was day laborers gathering on street corners and causing a disruption to the city’s quality of life. The city did a survey and found out many day laborers wanted a hiring site and a place to go for programs and services. They discovered that many workers actually live within the City of New Rochelle.
Having a site coordinator to work with the day laborers and help them is crucial, but they are not free.
The city worked directly with contractors to pick up at the site, not at other locations. Traffic had been a big concern, so there was heavy police presence at first and they issued tickets to contractors that were double parked.
The city’s goal is for the program to be funded privately and run privately. The city wants to step away from the project.
So far, it seems to be a successful program and complaints are limited. On a daily basis they have 60 to 100 workers.
The County can best help by funding these sites.
Councilman Lopez
The coordination of this site was a community effort and was successful because the community put time and effort into it. Providing services and teaching language is very important. There has to be a site coordinator to run things.
Funding and fundraising is also very important.
We should have sites like this throughout the county.
Legislator Spreckman highlighted the following important aspects of a successful site: the location, funding, a site coordinator, police presence and cooperation and working directly with contractors.
Legislator Pinto suggested finding sites near bus stations and providing bus passes so the day laborers can get to work sites.
Chairman of the Board Ryan inquired about finding regional solutions and learning from other communities on how to handle theses situations.
4) Supervisor Valerie O’Keeffe, Town of Mamaroneck & Deputy Mayor Bill Paonessa, Village of Mamaroneck
Supervisor O’Keeffe
The hiring site is located in the Village of Mamaroneck. Larchmont and Mamaroneck are now in collaboration with the Village of Mamaroneck on this issue.
They are looking to do a study (maybe done by college students) to identify where the laborers live, what kind of skills the have, how often they come to the site, what kinds of jobs they have and how often they get a job.
It is probably better to have the site on private property because of the success of other programs done privately. Private groups are very good at coordinating these sites and programs, teaching the proper skills and working towards the goal of assimilation for the workers.
They would like to follow in the footsteps of places like New Rochelle.
They are trying to pass the ball to the private sector.
Deputy Mayor Paonessa
The village has a model, but the adjoining communities have taken advantage of site and put pressure on the village. They are asking for municipal cooperation and for other localities to look for sites.
They use a park now, but they believe the park location will turn into a problem when it gets warmer. There needs to be control and a police presence for the site to work.
They are asking other adjoining communities to look into other sites to relieve the pressure.
Utilizing private partnerships would ease the burden on the taxpayer. They don’t want to use taxpayer money for the sites. Location is very important and they do not want residents to be unhappy.
These people are a good resource for the community and they have to be viewed that way.
Supervisor O’Keeffe continued to speak about goals for citizenship and remembering the human aspects of this situation.
5) Special Assistant to the Mayor Lorraine Lopez, City of Yonkers
They have a program in the City of Yonkers that helps the laborers with contractors. They have a non-profit immigration service that helps about 100 people a month. They have literacy volunteers. They would like the workers to go to the services that are already available, so they don’t want to establish new programs that would take away from the existing ones.
They are working to find a suitable site in Yonkers. There is a very large population of workers. They have a big problem with contractors that don’t have permits. They would rather find a long lasting solution than an actual site and get the workers reoccurring jobs. The city does not have an appropriate site to use as of yet, but they are looking for private organization to help.
The other problem is that the day laborers like to congregate in certain areas and will not travel to other sites.
Chair Spreckman asked to adjourn the committee meeting after a fire alarm went off in the building.
On the motion of Legislator Stewart-Cousins, seconded by Legislator Bronz, the Committee on Generational, Cultural and Ethnic Diversity officially adjourned at 5:17 PM.
Upon re-entry into the building, a few members of the Committee on Generational, Cultural and Ethnic Diversity took unofficial comment from members of the public that wanted the opportunity to speak. Committee members made it clear that more meetings would be scheduled in the near future on this topic.
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