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Local
On Issue Of ‘Ban The Box’ Campaign
Group Says Legal Advice Conflicted
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
First United Church of Tampa Pastor, Bernice Powell Jackson is co-pres- ident of the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality (HOPE). HOPE is a coalition of local church groups.
Three years ago, HOPE was successful in getting the City of Tampa to exclude the box on job applications that asks if you’re an ex-felon. At the same time, they were try- ing to get the city to demand all vendors who do business with the city also exclude the box from their employee ap- plications.
Fueling their effort was news that St. Petersburg leaders had passed a law re- quiring firms that win big city contracts to fill 10% of their jobs with disadvan- taged workers, either ex- felons or someone who was on some form of public as- sistance the previous year.
Pastor Jackson said what they’re asking for is not the same legislation as St. Petersburg has.
“It’s also important to say that for the years we’ve been working on this, we wanted to expand what we had been lobbying for with the city, and that’s why we suggested
PASTOR BERNICE POWELL JACKSON
the inclusion of vendors who want to do business with the city.
“We only ask that the question be taken off the ini- tial application. We want to give ex-felons a chance.”
Pastor Jackson said through the process, the City Attorney has come up with an excuse as to why they can’t get their vendors to do this, and we’ve shown them there’s no reason it can’t be done.
“The last excuse was it can’t be done in Florida. How much longer will they be able to use that excuse?”
“We want a chance to talk to Mayor Buckhorn as constituents and make a case directly to him. But he’s said the city Attorney said it can’t be done in Tampa, and as far as he’s concerned it’s a done deal. The sad part is we think this could be beneficial to in-
JULIA MANDELL City Attorney
dividuals and families.”
City Attorney Julia Mandell said what hap- pened in St. Petersburg is not the same thing HOPE is requesting in Tampa.
“My legal advice is that the category of people aren’t a protected class they are campaigning for. You have to ask what we’re asking the vendors to do.
“I don’t believe there’s case law to support this. Under the city’s WMBE Pro- gram, an extensive analysis was done and they set mi- nority goals. A pure straight up ban wouldn’t be upheld in court.”
Atty. Mandell said what they did was to form a basis to see if this is a prob- lem with businesses hiring ex-felons.
“There’s no legal author- ity for this. No one in Florida has done this, and we’ve
LES MILLER County Commissioner
done it internally. I don’t’ think there’s support for this legally. It’s possible this issue could be addressed later on, if it’s an issue.
“It’s not about hiring ex- felons. It’s about the applica- tion process. What they are saying is ex-felons should at
least be granted interviews and given the chance to be employed based on the in- terview. There’s just no evi- dence to support this is a problem.”
County Commis- sioner Les Miller said he’s familiar with HOPE, and he doesn’t see how the city can make a private entity do any- thing.
“Felons have enough problems trying to find a job, but it’s not the place of gov- ernment to dictate to ven- dors their hiring practices. We can’t tell them what to do. HOPE needs to deal di- rectly with the vendors and get them to chance their pol- icy instead of asking govern- ment to make it a law.”
FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 9-A