One Ohio city is attempting to change its own background check laws after they were found by some to be too intrusive.
The City of Newark had issued waivers allowing extensive background checks to be performed on members of city boards. However, Law Director Doug Sassen is now looking to change those waivers, which he feels are a form of intrusion. According to an article by the Newark Advocate, the waivers have caused many board members to threaten resignation.
“Now that I’ve got the law director’s opinion on the changes that are necessary, I will certainly heed them,” Newark Mayor Bob Diebold said in the article. “I would have liked to have received them before (permission slips were mailed).”
The battle over the city’s background check laws began in September 2008 when Diebold eliminated a Parks and Recreation Citizen Advisory Board member from reappointment because a police report showed he had been involved in a verbal confrontation in 2000.
Since that incident, many board members have refused to sign the waivers and police forms for background checks, which allow investigation into a board member’s education, previous employment, health, credit, reputation, military records and other factors.
“This is a total invasion of our privacy based on what we do,” Ronda Barber, a member of the Human Relations Commission, which plans events for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, said in the article. “There is no interaction with children, and we don’t handle money. “It’s not like we have anything to hide, (but) I don’t know who would go through that process.”
Barber resigned from her position after 10 years because of the background check laws. Sassen claims his office did not approve the form Diebold chose to use for the background checks, which did not state that each board member would be given the same check.
“(Our office) did not prepare, did not review, did not endorse and did not recommend this form,” Sassen added. “We simply advised the mayor’s office under what circumstances they were permitted to do a background check.”
