Background Check On City Council Appointees Not Always Done In Birmingham, Alabama
Open government advocates are concerned about Alabama’s biggest city, Birmingham, hiring practices when it comes to filling vacancies for responsible decision making officer positions that are not directly elected by the voters. There are signs that the process definitely lacks transparency. For example, there was much talk in media with regards to the known J. Austin being appointed for a position in the Jefferson County Commission last year.
Some time after the appointment, it somehow became clear from public records that Austin had been convicted on marijuana charges 5 years prior to being appointed to the Commission. That took place in 2003, when he was studying in college. Again, this information was found out through viewing open public records, and it came as a complete surprise for the city council members, who had selected this candidacy from the whole of 10 applicants for the position. Apparently, no kind of a pre-appointment background check had been performed.
Responsible positions within city councils and county commissions offer excellent salaries for those who embrace them, and also they are positions of trust. Therefore the taxpayers may expect that only the best candidates are hired. With so many applicants filing we do have who to choose from, and there is simply no need to employ someone with a criminal record, be it even misdemeanor. But what could be expected, if the public officials, who make a decision to hire, do that sooner on recommendation than based on the objective evaluation of the candidates’ professional and personal qualities. Never caring to ask a candidate to submit to a background check, which has since long time ago become standard practice for private employers hiring people for comparatively ordinary jobs, can at least be interpreted as negligent hiring.
Even if there seems so far to be no legally outlined provisions for selecting candidates for many city council sponsored positions, a person who applies shouldn’t be objecting to answer set of questions common sense suggests to ask them, nor there should be a problem for them to agree for a background check so that decision making would be based at least on what might be learned about them from open criminal files.