The problem is that CalWORKs is run through local WorkSource and One Stop agencies (under the Workforce Investment Board of that local jurisdiction), and most, if not all, of them suffer from a performance-based requirement that a certain percentage of their clients be employed each year. I don't know where this requirement comes from, but it is institutionalized in every single WorkSource I talked to.
This pressure from the performance mandate creates an incentive for intake specialists to avoid taking on difficult cases, e.g. people with recent and/or extensive criminal history. And it leads also to the agencies turning a blind eye to employers that flagrantly violate existing laws against criminal history discrimination. This is why One-Stop in Alameda County is one of the organizations against whom National Employment Law Project (NELP), along with its allies (including A New Way of Life Reentry Project), asked Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) to investigate and file a commissioner's charge.
At today's LA County Board of Supervisors' meeting, I asked the Board to continue Supervisor Knabe's motion so that we can revise the language of the form contract between the County and employers participating in the program to reflect the Title VII requirement for finding a job-nexus to use an applican't criminal record. The Board declined to continue the motion, but the County has asked us to participate from now on in bringing the Plan in line with Title VII. This will most likely include staff and employer training, revised contracts, and additional tracking. Also important is that, through the hectic, last-minute negotiation with Supervisor Ridley-Thomas' office (via Richard Fajardo, a fellow UCLAW alum), we finally established a working relationship with the supervisor that replaced our erstwhile staunch ally, Supervisor Yvonne Burke.
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