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. |