No fingerprint background checks for Costa Mesa panel members

Costa Mesa won’t require current and potential members of city commissions and committees to submit to a fingerprint background check.

The City Council this week opted not to put the procedure in place.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley asked her colleagues at Tuesday’s council meeting to consider requiring Livescan fingerprinting for panel appointees.

“I don’t see why this is any big deal for anybody that is in any of our committees,” she said. She noted that members of those bodies sometimes interact with children or are privy to sensitive financial information.

Costa Mesa has 12 commissions and committees comprising more than 100 members, according to the city. Those looking to serve on the unsalaried panels send applications for the council to review, but they are not subject to background checks, said city spokesman Tony Dodero.

Applicants for volunteer positions with city programs and events are already required to submit to Livescan fingerprinting, a process the city’s Human Resources Division uses to check whether someone has a criminal history or pattern of questionable behavior that should disqualify the person from serving.

It’s unclear who would make that call for applicants to commissions and committees.

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer called the idea of requiring such screening for members of those bodies “rife with problems.”

“Who is going to find out what is in your Livescan?” he said Tuesday. “Maybe you did do something wrong 25, 30 years ago and you’ve turned yourself around. Maybe you do have some sort of record and you’re OK now. We’re going to drag that all back up?”

Righeimer said there was “no way” he would “want to have a situation where this city has data on people just because they want to volunteer for a committee — no matter what they did in their past.”

But Foley said she was seeking only to expand the existing policy, not subject committee or commission applicants to anything more stringent.

“There’s nothing more dramatic about it, nothing more Draconian and nothing more invasive,” Foley said. “It’s all exactly the same as what we do already.”

Councilwoman Sandy Genis questioned why there was so much resistance to the idea.

“So we make people be Livescanned to pick up trash but not to be on the Finance [Advisory] Committee?” Genis asked, drawing snickers from audience members at the council meeting.

Council members voted 3-2 to end the discussion without taking action on the proposal. Foley and Genis dissented.

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Luke Money, [email protected]

Twitter: @LukeMMoney