Day worker dispute approaching mediation Day worker dispute approaching mediation (October 29, 2004)

Workers speak out against treatment inside center

By Jon Wiener

The board of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul voted on Oct. 20 to enter into mediation with the day worker center at Calvary Church, hoping to resolve a dispute that has dragged on for over a month. : The stakes continued to rise last week as lawyers for St. Vincent de Paul sent a letter to Calvary Church Pastor Jim Stringer a day before the vote, threatening litigation over Stringer's decision to kick St. Vincent de Paul out of the center in mid-September.

As lawyers fired letters back and forth, both sides called for mediation. But even the question of what mediator to use was up for debate.

Project Sentinel, the city's mediation program, offered its services last week. But Steve Pehanich, executive director for St. Vincent de Paul, said he was looking into other mediators, preferably ones who spoke Spanish, though Project Sentinel has mediators with that capability.

Pehanich said he was planning to bring representatives of a group of workers who have abandoned the center to the mediation. The disenfranchised workers complained about their treatment by center director Maria Marroquin and members of the volunteer workers commission. Their allegations came to light after Marroquin was fired for taking donated items like clothes and food for her personal use, and have been cited as the real reason for her firing.

Workers stand opposed

Some members of this group, which Pehanich said numbers from 20 to 30, have been huddling on Escuela Avenue in front of the Calvary Church since the closure. In an interview with the Voice last Saturday, they vowed to continue their vigil for as long as they need to in order to make their point.

"A year of suffering outside is better than a year of suffering inside," said Lucinda Maldonado.

Some of the individuals in the group have outside jobs, but said they are standing in solidarity with workers who have complained about the way Marroquin operated the center. Complaints ranged from being charged a dollar for lunch (center officials said the fee is voluntary), verbal abuse and favoritism in assigning jobs. These problems, said the workers, had been building for more than a year before they voiced them to St. Vincent de Paul.

The street group also claimed to speak for others who had left the center over the last year and had gone to El Camino Real to look for work. Not a single worker has been hired while standing on the sidewalk by the church, they said. Those with outside jobs can afford to be there. Those who can't will occasionally wander up to El Camino to be more visible.

"We're here because we want to show [the people inside the center] and the public that this is a problem," said Maldonado.

John Rinaldi, former president of the St. Vincent de Paul board, said few of those on the street had been active at the center, though he had given legal support to some of them.

Rinaldi, one of the founders of the day worker center and a lawyer who helped bring a lawsuit against the city of Los Altos protecting the right of workers to be on the street, said he had not heard these complaints in the past.

"If that were true, they would have told me about it," he said.

Funding issues unclear

Rinaldi accepted Project Sentinel's offer of free mediation services last week. He said he is hoping for a full account of funds donated to the center, money being claimed by both the center and St. Vincent de Paul.

This includes a $60,000 donation from the law firm Morrison and Foerster (which represented the day workers against Los Altos), which Pehanich said was mostly spent, and the last installments of a three-year $150,000 grant from the Peninsula Community Foundation. The cities of Palo Alto and Los Altos have also donated thousands of dollars each year.

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

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