As in so many government questions, the possibility of setting up a network of hiring centers for day laborers in the city is a matter of “if and when.”

The centers could be established, if and when a municipal commission recommends such action. If and when such a commission is formed, its existence would depend on a proposal recently presented to the City Council.

And this proposed law might come to something, if and when the Council and the Mayor’s Office agree on a point of political power: who will have the authority to name the members of the commission that will study the matter of the day laborers.

Yesterday some of the activists who have fought for the establishment of hiring centers for the day laborers observed, frustrated, as council members and the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Guillermo Linares debated who should have the power to name the 20 members of the proposed commission.

The proposal stipulates that the mayor and the council speaker shall each nominate 10 members.

But in testimony yesterday before the council, Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Guillermo Linares said that under the City Charter, only the mayor has the right to name “public officials,” which the members of the commission would be.

“I am disturbed,” said Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn), pointing out that there are other government organizations – from the Voter Assistance Commission to the Health and Hospitals Corporation – which have members nominated by both the council and the mayor.

Fidler stated that because of this disagreement, “we cannot go forward in a matter that you consider urgent, as do I, as does the administration.”

When Linares defended the commitment of the Bloomberg administration to immigrants, Councilman John Liu (D-Queens) responded emphatically, “Then let me congratulate you for being a good team player. Certainly, you will share both the credit and the blame the administration deserves.”

Finally, both parties agreed that lawyers for the mayor would talk to lawyers for the council to try to reach an accord. Linares told reporters that the mayor “is most interested in getting an effective mechanism established” for the day laborers. “That is a commitment the mayor has made and I have the directive to follow up.”

Meanwhile, organizations like the Latin American Workers Project testified on the need to establish day laborer hiring centers. Javier Gallardo, from the Workers Project, mentioned the examples of Jackson Heights and Woodside, where “every day there are over a thousand workers hoping to be picked up for a job.”