by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
A bill that City Council member Kevin Hyde has been working on since November is one step away from becoming law.
Hyde’s ex-offender ordinance will amend the City’s hiring policy to remove questions about any prior legal convictions from the City’s job application form. It also delays the background check into any potential employee until the applicant has applied for and been offered a job. The law covers the City as well as its contractors.
Hyde said the law is meant to provide “full and fair consideration” to the hiring of ex-offenders and establish a policy to assure fairness for anyone seeking a job with the City or one of its approved contractors.
“This is not a quota bill or a leveling of the playing field,” said Hyde of the bill that was officially introduced to the full Council last month. “Studies have shown that people who are employed are less likely to get in trouble again.”
Hyde stressed the bill isn’t designed to give an edge to a contractor who has a propensity to hire ex-offenders or those who at least interview ex-offenders.
Finance member Stephen Joost raised the issue of what may happen if an ex-offender is denied a position within the City or with a City-approved contractor.
“There is no legal course of action,” said Hyde. “The goal is not to create lawsuits. The goal is to create jobs.”
Hyde said only those to be hired will be notified as such and those who aren’t offered a position — regardless of the reason or the individual’s situation — won’t get any kind of explanation.
“We will not get to the micro-level as to why one person was hired over another,” said Hyde.
The Finance Committee approved the bill 6-0.
The committee also approved legislation to fund the Teen Driver Challenge Program, which is administered and run by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. The 12-hour driving class is for teens between 16 and 19 years old and is funded entirely through donations and includes four hours of classroom instruction and eight hours behind the wheel of a car.
The legislation was deferred two weeks ago because the Finance Committee had concerns about private citizens driving City-owned vehicles. Monday, Risk Manager Charles Spencer addressed those concerns. After relaying a story about a similar program in Georgia in which a teen pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake and ran over an instructor, Spencer said he was hesitant to approve the program from a risk management perspective.
“Student drivers differ from experiences drivers,” he said.
Lt. John Lamm of JSO explained that the use of a City-owned vehicle by one of the teen drivers is rare. As a rule, they are required to use private vehicles that must pass an inspection.
“The use of a police vehicle is a last resort,” he said.
The legislation was amended to preclude City-owned vehicles and require the drivers to use private vehicles that pass inspection. Also, JSO will oversee the funds and report back to the Finance Committee twice a year.
A bill sponsored by the mayor’s office that would have set aside $1.5 million from the City’s capital projects account was withdrawn at the request of the administration. The funds would have been for maintenance at the venues that comprise the Sports Complex as well as the Times-Union Center, the Osborn Center and the Equestrian Center.
“We are working with Procurement to make this happen,” said Lisa Rinaman of the mayor’s office. “We are doing this administratively.”
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