Expansion of the LA County's background check

At the end of the last month, the LA County CEO William Fujioka asked the Board of Supervisors to exercise the authority required to expand the County's check of its employees' criminal history and include the FBI national database. The request was placed on the agenda (Item 11) for this morning but was continued until next week.

Although the applicable law, California Penal Code § 11105(b), states that the provided FBI records must be vetted by the California DOJ to comply with the requirements of California Labor Code 432.7, several problems remain.

1. The FBI records are incomplete and inaccurate, as admitted by the US Attorney General's Office in its 2006 report to the Congress. See page 3.
2. The California DOJ has had a track record of releasing inaccurate reports, including those from the FBI, which is understandable, given the volume of requests they receive each day.
3. In the last 2 years or so, the California DOJ has been trying to comply with the requirements of the California Labor Code, but this too often results in a significant delay in the release of a report to the requesting agency, which in turn results in a negative consequence for the individual whose background is checked. For example, after waiting for a month or two, the agency would simply go ahead and hire the next person.

Obviously, my hope is that the County delay giving a go-ahead to this request by the CEO until and unless these problems are adequately addressed--either by the DOJ or the County. Meanwhile, though, one wonders why prompted the request in the first place?

It's hard to tell from the CEO's letter to the Board, but I infer that it's because the County is concerned about hiring people with criminal records through the South Bay WIB's ARRA implementation, because (initially, at least) the expanded background search will include only volunteers and non-union employees. If so, it wouldn't be surprising. The County is made of people, most of whom share an irrational fear and bias against people with criminal records. And why would it be surprising when their collective bias shows through at a time of change like this?