WATSONVILLE—For years the Employment Development Department (EDD) has had an employee stationed in downtown Watsonville to help South County residents receive unemployment services.
That will change on Monday.
The EDD is removing its lone employee from the Workforce Development Board’s (WDB) 18 W. Beach St. location and relocating him to its Capitola offices.
That employee, Rodrigo Leiva, confirmed his departure to this newspaper on Thursday morning but said he could not comment on why he is being relocated.
WDB Director Andy Stone, who oversees several programs throughout the county including EDD, said the state agency is relocating Leiva because the building in which it operates is not compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA).
EDD mandate, Stone said, requires that its staff be housed in a building that meets all requirements of the federal law prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities.
Stone said the County of Santa Cruz for years has tried to work with property owner Bill Hansen to bring the building into compliance, but those talks are still ongoing.
According to county spokesman Jason Hoppin, the building needs small improvements such as providing braille on its signs, as well as larger, six-figure upgrades to its bathrooms, among other things.
The parking garage across the street run by the City of Watsonville also needs to be brought into ADA compliance in order for EDD to return, Hoppin said.
Hoppin said the county is in the process of hiring an architect to lower the costs of the upgrades.
Hansen in a Thursday afternoon phone call did not confirm or deny whether talks with the county are ongoing. He declined further comment.
Watsonville City Manager Matt Huffaker said the city was made aware of the necessary upgrades to the parking lot this summer through a letter submitted by the county. The letter called for upgraded striping and painting, a job that would cost roughly $10,000, according to Huffaker, who said the garage was up to ADA standards when it was originally constructed.
Huffaker said the county is taking the lead on the upgrades to the parking lot.
EDD helps residents submit and follow through on unemployment, disability and paid family leave claims by connecting them with the EDD hotline. It also helps them find jobs and fine-tune their resumes.
Additionally, EDD develops young people with career counseling and training and funnels them into its partner programs.
Leiva said he helps roughly 60 people per day, though during peak “seasons” that number can escalate to 75. More than half of his clients are seasonal farmworkers that speak little English and are illiterate in both English and Spanish, he said.
“This group is one of the most vulnerable in the county,” he said.
Stone said starting Monday the Watsonville location will still provide EDD’s “self-guided services” such as dialing out to its hotline. If residents have specific questions about EDD claims or paperwork, they would need to go to the WDB office in Capitola at 2045 40th Ave.
All the other services provided by WDB such as computer and internet access and job services will still be available.
“We still plan to provide services to the public,” said Stone, who said the county hopes to eventually bring the EDD employee back to Watsonville.
Watsonville Mayor Francisco Estrada and councilman Felipe Hernandez, who oversees the district in which the building is located, both said they did not know the EDD employee was going to be relocated.
