The Costa Mesa City Council this week repealed a law that banned day laborers from actively soliciting work on city streets. The council unanimously agreed Tuesday night to scrap the ordinance without discussion. Costa Mesa’s anti-solicitation law, which was passed in 2005, prohibited job-seekers from attracting drivers’ attention by waving arms, making hand signals, shouting, jumping up and down, and waving signs. The law also rendered it illegal for a driver to hire someone standing in the street. The law subjected day laborers and other solicitors to a $1,000 fine and imprisonment of up to six months, according to the municipal code.
