Day worker center reopens Day worker center reopens (October 08, 2004)

Church had shut doors after director's firing

By Jon Wiener

More than a week after its sudden closure, St. Joseph the Worker Center reopened this week with its former director at the helm. But the bitter fight between the center's backers and its former sponsor seemed to be intensifying.

The Sept. 13 firing of director Maria Marroquin set off a chain of events that resulted in the Calvary Church on California Street locking the doors to the multipurpose room that has served as home to the center for more than two years.

An anonymous $2,400 check delivered Monday enabled the center to reopen independently of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the county-wide charity with which it merged in 1998. St. Vincent de Paul cancelled the phone line at the center on Tuesday, and someone padlocked the dumpster at the church, further inflaming tensions between the two groups.

St. Vincent de Paul fired Marroquin in response to complaints from some workers who accused her of taking donated clothes and favoring some workers over others when assigning jobs.

Calvary Church Pastor Jim Stringer said St. Vincent de Paul's failure to notify him of Marroquin's firing was a violation of an informal agreement to keep him informed of major changes while using the church.

St. Vincent de Paul executive director Steve Pehanich said the organization was looking at other properties in Mountain View where it could open a new center. He would not rule out the prospect of taking legal action against the church and the workers' center for locking the doors.

"What landlord has a say in personnel issues?" he said.

St. Vincent de Paul's former president, Mountain View attorney John Rinaldi, expressed his solidarity with Marroquin by resigning from its board. Rinaldi said the charges against Marroquin were the complaints of a handful of workers whose unwillingness to volunteer for center activities made them less likely to be chosen when people came looking for workers.

"Every director they've ever had here had charges of favoritism," said Rinaldi. He added that Marroquin, a former day worker herself who was named Woman of the Year by state Assembly member Sally Lieber in 2003, should not be punished for taking clothes that St. Vincent de Paul would have thrown in the trash.

Gonzalo Garcia, a day worker speaking in Spanish, called the charges against Marroquin "absurd," and added that he was very happy to see that she was coming back.

"It's very good news. Now, we need the support of the community," he said.

Stringer, Rinaldi and Garcia were all at the church Monday, as neighbors brought loaves of sourdough bread, barbecue pork ribs and boxes full of books. The $2,400 check will be enough to pay the center's costs for the month of October, according to Rinaldi, who is working to obtain more funding.

Workers, who had been congregating in the church parking lot during the closure, returned to washing cars and doing chores while hoping for employers to come to the center. A smaller group has relocated to El Camino Real because they do not feel welcome at the center, according to Pehanich. The society is temporarily providing them and other workers who feel disenfranchised with rent subsidies and free lunches, he said.

Both sides said they want to be accessible to all workers, but underlying tensions continue to exist between workers who use the center and those who don't.

"Some day workers don't like being here because there are rules," said Garcia, a member of the worker's commission that advises Marroquin about center operations and counsels workers about their rights.

Garcia said the source of the tensions centers on the expectations of volunteering and how priority is assigned as jobs come in. "On El Camino, the street is free," he said.

City council member Greg Perry, who used to teach English classes at the center, is concerned that the worker center and St. Vincent de Paul will begin competing with each other or worse. He is serving as an intermediary, trying to get the two sides to mediate their differences.

"To me, the worst thing would be for people who give their money to charity to see it used for lawyer's fees," said Perry.

Perry said the center had obtained a new phone number (903-4102) that would be accessible by Oct. 8.

Stringer was all smiles Monday after reopening the doors. Marroquin was planning to return to work Wednesday after spending a week following the hate crime trial of a man accused of beating her son, Angel Santuario.

"I'm so happy," said Stringer on Monday. "And I'll be even happier when I'm not here anymore."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com.

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