Pine Bluff sets review of form on jobs

Box on criminal history targeted

PINE BLUFF -- In a move billed as an effort to help people with criminal records find greater success re-entering the workforce, the Pine Bluff City Council is expected to join the national "ban the box" movement through an effort to pass an ordinance to remove a check-box regarding past criminal history from the city's initial job application form.

The ordinance, sponsored by Mayor Shirley Washington and three members of the eight-member City Council, was initially placed on the council's agenda Monday night, but it was pulled from consideration to allow the city attorney and the human resources manager time to look over the ordinance and suggest any changes.

Council member Steven Mays, chairman of the Ordinances and Resolutions Committee and a co-sponsor of the ordinance, said it will be back at the next City Council meeting for first reading once the review has been completed.

"They want to go through it and read it again to make sure we're doing everything with this ordinance that we need to be doing," Mays said. He added that he has received calls from constituents who were worried that the ordinance would do away with background checks for applicants.

"They wanted to make sure we are still going to perform background checks and we are," he said. "We're still going to do background checks, drug testing, everything we need to do to make sure we know who we are hiring."

To date, according to the National Employment Law Project, a number of states have adopted statewide laws or policies: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In Arkansas, Little Rock and Pulaski County have both done away with the criminal history disclosure on initial job applications.

"Oh, we got rid of that in the '90s," said Kathleen Walker, employment services manager for the city of Little Rock. "That was when 'ban the box' first came out."

Walker said that currently, with unemployment rates below 4 percent, it is difficult already to keep positions filled without discouraging applicants who have been incarcerated. She said the city does disclose what jobs, such as with the police and fire departments, or those that would require handling of city funds, prohibit the hiring of anyone with a criminal background.

Cozetta Jones, communications director for Pulaski County, said the county removed the criminal history reporting requirement two years ago, and the change allowed the county to make more knowledgeable selections before making a final hiring decision.

"The initial selection is made without the knowledge of any criminal background," Jones said. "The applicant can then explain and provide more information about the charge on his or her record. We can now obtain a complete picture of the applicant."

Before removing the box, she said, it was possible to be screened out of the hiring process without having the chance to provide an explanation or additional information.

Mark Hayes, director of the Arkansas Municipal League, said the organization has no official stance on the move, but said he sees the push behind the effort in a favorable light.

"It strikes me that doing the criminal investigation after the job's been offered but before employment takes place is certainly a good public policy way to deal with the problem, if there is in fact a problem at all," Hayes said. "There may not be. It may be the person really has paid their debt to society, they've been rehabilitated and they're ready to enter the workplace. There's certainly nothing wrong with it from a legal perspective."

State Desk on 03/19/2019

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