The nonprofit organization that connects low-income workers with the community was in danger of closing its doors by next month.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
The city council rescued the Malibu Community Labor Exchange from having to close its doors by approving $10,000 in emergency funding for the organization during its city quarterly review meeting Wednesday last week.
The emergency funding is only intended to sustain the labor exchange until its March 6 fundraiser, scheduled to take place at a private Point Dume estate, which the nonprofit hopes will raise enough money to keep it open through the remainder of this fiscal year.
Headquartered in the Civic Center, the labor exchange facilitates the community employment of low-income workers in an organized, safe environment. Prior to obtaining the emergency funding, the organization was operating with an approximately $20,000 deficit due to a lack of private funding. Malibu resident Mona Loo, 17-year board member and 10-year executive director of the labor exchange, said she is “overjoyed” by the city’s rescue funds and said it will cover the cost of putting on the fundraiser to ensure that the organization can keep its doors open.
“It’s a small thing for a community like Malibu to help people who really want to work and who have very little to support themselves and their families,” Loo said Monday in a phone interview, adding that the labor exchange is also an asset for residents by providing them ready workers without needing to give prior notice.
“It also gives the community an opportunity to have some emergency help with sand bagging and fire clearance,” Loo said. “Any time Malibu has an emergency, the laborers are 100 percent hired. Many people don’t want to pay for a full day [of labor] so it”s convenient to have someone for a few hours.”
In addition to dealing with its financial uncertainty, the nonprofit must now also scout for candidates to replace Loo, who announced to the city council she will soon retire.
“I’ll be spending half of my time in another community, in another city, but I’ll be back in Malibu every month and will continue to work with the labor exchange board,” Loo said. “I feel some other people should take the lead and keep this project going both for the Malibu community and the workers, many of whose lives we were able to change.”
Council members also noted the value of the labor exchange, and also said it has helped remedy ongoing complaints by some residents, particularly in western Malibu, of unsupervised workers loitering around neighborhoods.
“I see the labor exchange as a service to the city as well as huge humanitarian service,” Mayor Sharon Barovsky said at the meeting. “I would hate to see them shut their doors next month.”
Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich, the only dissenting vote, said she “whole heartedly” supported the labor exchange”s cause, but warned that the issuance of the emergency funding could open the flood gates for other nonprofits to rely on the city for bailout money.
Councilmember Andy Stern at the meeting called Conley Ulich’s statement “cold-hearted.”
“We’re talking about the least fortunate people in the community,” Stern said. “I think the labor exchange needs the break.”
The city has subtracted the $10,000 rescue amount from its annual general fund grants, which now total $65,000. The fund grants are distributed to nonprofits each year. The labor exchange is not obligated to repay the emergency funding, but the city has not yet determined whether the nonprofit will qualify to receive fund grants next year.
The labor exchange’s total annual budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year is $78,000. The same year, the organization received $22,000 in general fund grants from the city. Forty thousand of the $78,000 budget is used to pay the salary of the labor exchange’s single employee, Oscar Mondragon, who has a family of five and works there six days per week, Loo said. The remainder of the budget covers the cost of insurance, telephone bills, operation of office machines, trash collection and the maintenance of portable toilets. Los Angeles County, which owns the land that houses the labor exchange, allows the nonprofit to operate without paying rent, Loo said.
The labor exchange is also the only eligible service program in Malibu that qualifies for the city’s Community Development Block Grant Funds. The organization annually receives about $12,000 of CDBG funds from the city, and has been awarded $11,597 of those funds for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.