The Baltimore City Council pushed back a final vote on the “Ban the Box” bill Monday by adding another amendment.
The amendment added another exclusion to the bill; jobs where a criminal background check is required by law. Councilman Nick Mosby, the bill’s sponsor, described the amendment as a technical one.
“We don’t want to waste folks’ time,” said Mosby, “We don’t waste the employer to the potential employees [time].”
The bill would prohibit employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal past until a conditional job offer has been made. Mosby said it would give ex-offenders a fair opportunity to compete for jobs. Employers often use “the box” that asks about criminal records to quickly eliminate applicants.
Earlier, the bill was amended to exclude jobs involving children, the elderly and those with developmental disabilities
Mosby proposed the bill in December 2013 to help reduce recidivism among ex-offenders. Many advocates believe the rate of ex-offenders committing another crime is higher in Baltimore City than anywhere else in Maryland.
As the bill worked its way through the council, business leaders started raising concerns about its effect on the city’s business climate.
Greater Baltimore Committee President Don Fry said his organization still had serious concerns about the bill overall but the amendment passed during the meeting was an improvement.
“We’ve had other amendments that we’ve suggested that have not moved forward at this time,” said Fry. The GBC wanted to see criminal penalties of a $500 fine and 90 days in jail removed from the bill. It also wanted to allow employers to conduct criminal background checks after a job interview.
Councilman Bill Henry was also concerned about criminal penalties in the bill. He said that it would be difficult to enforce them.
“How will you actually prove they did [a background check before the job offer],” said Henry, who added that the same concern was brought to him by other people.
Henry, who represents parts of North Baltimore, wanted to see the bill go back to committee for another public hearing and not hold “little conversations” about it before a council meeting. “Everybody who wants to and who cares about this will have a chance to come and hear everything that is said; contribute anything that they think hasn’t been said,” he added.
Henry, who is co-sponsor of ‘Ban the Box’, still supports the bill regardless of how the process for the proposal has gone. “I think the goal as articulated by [Mosby] to me was laudable; that we should be doing everything we can to make sure that people who may have a mistake in their past get an opportunity to make the case for themselves that they deserve to have a job that they’re qualified to do.”
Final vote for the bill is now scheduled for April 28, where its passage is expected.