Mayor & Local Summit Discuss Day Laborer Situation

by Harold Wolfson, of the Local Summit

(September 23, 2004) Mamaroneck Village Mayor Philip J. Trifiletti said that his current program for dealing with day laborers in Mamaroneck will provide “control” over workers and their employers who gather at Columbus Park six mornings a week, through a permanent police presence and an effort to reduce the number of laborers who show up from out-of–town. The mayor did not say how he will keep out non-resident workers.


9-23-04: Day laborers congregate at left while police check vehicles in Mamaroneck.
Photo by Paula Eisenberg

He discussed the issue of day laborers with the Local Summit organization which met on Tuesday, September 21 at the Nautilus Diner.

The mayor said that the number of laborers seeking work had grown so large, sometimes up to 250, that it was a burden for Mamaroneck. He would like officials of adjoining communities, which benefit from the work of the laborers, to help out.

The Local Summit invited him to explain his program after it had learned that on August 23 the Village had instituted a sudden, unannounced police presence at Van Ranst Place adjacent to Columbus Park, the community’s traditional day laborer location. This was only weeks after the mayor had announced on an LMC-TV program that the Village was close to naming a new site for laborers on Fayette Avenue, which the laborers and the Hispanic Resource Center approved.

Mayor Trifiletti (l) and Reverend Javier Viera discuss the day labor situation at the Nautilus Diner.

Reverend Javier Viera, minister of the Mamaroneck United Methodist Church and a board member of the Hispanic Resource Center that assists area immigrants, told the meeting that the net effect of the heavy police action, which still exists, has been to dry up most day laborer jobs by scaring off employers. Now, three weeks later, many of the laborers are desperate to earn money for food and rent.

The mayor said he had not undertaken any concerted effort to restrict work and that the police action was similar to many others the Village has undertaken elsewhere. He presented a list of particulars as to why the ongoing police presence, which has resulted in 200 summons being issued, is necessary. He said: there have been traffic safety problems with workers rushing into the street to reach potential employer vehicles; there has been substantial worker littering in the newly refurbished park; there has been public urination and defecation; and there has been harassment of others using the park.

Rev. Viera said that while he couldn’t rule out that there may have been a few infractions, the elimination of most of the workers’ employment was a disproportionately heavy and punishing response.

He said, further, that he and other members of the Hispanic Resource Center, located at 200 W. Boston Post Road, have monitored the site and recognize that many others use the park, such as parents and young children, passersby, teenagers, homeless and others. He said officials tend to link all of the problems to the workers, mostly for things they have not done. “The laborers come to the park to find work, not cause trouble,” he said.

The mayor said he planned to have a permanent policeman stationed at Mamaroneck and Old White Plains Road to monitor the area, which he said is “now under control.” He said the police have now designated the basketball area of the park as the current day laborer site and have put up a sign to mark it. He said he was continuing his search for a new, designated day laborer site but it was difficult to find an appropriate location and he was not sure he will be successful.

In July at the LMC-TV program taping, the mayor had said that the naming of the Fayette Avenue location as the day laborer site was the fruition of 18 months of planning and discussion with the Hispanic Resource Center and would provide workers with a location where they would not be endangered by busy traffic and where they and employers could meet without bothering and being bothered by local residents. “This is a win/win situation for both the Village and the day laborers,” he said at the time. (See: Official Day Labor Site in the Works.)

At a subsequent Village board meeting at which the Fayette laborer site possibility was brought up, some neighbors, business owners and property owner groups complained about possible traffic jams and safety problems in using the industrial site as a laborer location. Shortly after this meeting the Village increased the police presence at Columbus Park, which the mayor said at one time included two patrol cars and six policemen. It is now down to three officers, he reported. (See: Residents, Businesses Opposed to Fayette Avenue.)

The mayor said he has asked for a cooperative day laborer effort on the part of adjoining communities --- Village of Larchmont, Town of Mamaroneck, New Rochelle and Harrison. He said he has been in touch with the leaders of these communities to set up day laborer sites in their area, but their response “has been a deafening silence.” He urged members of the Summit to contact these leaders and encourage them to participate in a solution to the issue that really is too big for Mamaroneck Village to solve alone.

Mary Lee Berridge, the meeting’s chairman, and one of the Local Summit’s two coordinators, said the organization will form a task force to study the complicated day laborer issue and, she hoped, come up with some initiatives that will be helpful for the day laborers and the community.

The Local Summit, which hosted the mayor’s talk, was founded eight years ago to pursue projects that make the community a better place to live for everyone. Much of its work is done in small task groups that report to the full membership. Meetings are held at 7:45 am on the third Tuesday of the month at the Nautilus Diner. Harold Wolfson is active with both the Local Summit and the Hispanic Resource Center.