12/19/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

Montgomery Advertiser – Report no longer identifies Alabama as ‘judicial hellhole.’

Montgomery Advertiser – The Montgomery Advertiser views recent talks among governors of states involved in water dispute as ‘encouraging.’

Tuscaloosa News – Key witness in Siegelman trial, Lanny Young, released from federal prison.

Tuscaloosa News – National report shows Alabama improving its capacity to deal with potential health disaster.

Tuscaloosa News – The Tuscaloosa News calls for state to begin a candid discussion of state’s death penalty.

Anniston Star – The Anniston Star, while supporting efforts to expand state’s pre-k program, says the state must move cautiously in considering governor’s proposal.

Anniston Star – The Anniston Star views proposal by Sen. Hank Erwin (R-Montevallo) to allow students to carry weapons on college campuses as misguided, and predicts measure will fail.

Opelika-Auburn News – The Opelika-Auburn News calls for state to increase investment in smoking prevention programs.

Huntsville Times – Joint Commission on Immigration sets January meeting for Huntsville.

Senate Sketches – “Senate Sketches,” the weekly column by Sen. Hank Sanders (D-Selma) for his constituents.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

Board wants background checks not to be public

MONTGOMERY — A new policy requiring background checks for two-year college employees will make it easier for the Department of Postsecondary Education to know more about the criminal histories of those they employ.

But the State Board of Education will consider asking state lawmakers to pass legislation that could make it difficult for the public to gain access to the information that the system accumulates.

Board members have asked Chancellor Bradley Byrne to develop a statutory exemption to the state’s open records laws that would make those background checks confidential and closed to public scrutiny.

Byrne said similar protections already exist for K-12 employees under state law, and board members were interested in seeing equal treatment for two-year college employees.

“We would only be protecting that information in the hands of the department,” he said. “That information is otherwise available.”

In 2002, the Legislature amended the Alabama Child Protection Act of 1999 to require criminal background checks for all existing K-12 employees.

The original law makes the information gathered from these checks confidential because they are “sensitive personnel records.” Disclosing the documents is a misdemeanor under the law.

Byrne said any employment decision made based on the results of a criminal background check such as firing an employee would not be considered confidential.

Last week, board members passed a policy requiring criminal background checks for all potential and existing two-year college employees.

The policy is aimed at preventing people convicted of certain felonies from working in the system, and went into effect immediately upon its passing.

State School Board member Stephanie Bell, D-Montgomery, said she has long supported the creation of this policy, especially since it is a commonplace employment practice among businesses and four-year colleges.

Bell, whose school board district includes Calhoun, Talladega and Cleburne counties, said even if legislation passes to make the information confidential, the information is publicly available on the Internet and in courthouses.

“From the time a person is charged it becomes a public record and if they’re found innocent, that is a public record as well,” she said. “All this would mean is that if someone called the department, we can’t provide that information.”

The Alabama Education Association argued against the passing of the board’s policy for two-year college employees, specifically because of its potential to dredge up decades old criminal information on employees who have otherwise turned their lives around.

Mary Bruce Ogles, executive secretary with the AEA, said the legislation is needed because inaccuracies in criminal background information, and old convictions could open up employees to public ridicule.

“I would hate to subject anybody to that,” she said. “I have no problem with them doing background checks on employees, but if someone made a mistake when they were a 19-year-old kid, they shouldn’t have to keep paying for that mistake for the rest of their life.”

Dennis Bailey, general counsel for the Alabama Press Association, said at last count there were more than 90 exemptions to the state’s open records law strewn throughout state code of law.

Bailey said if legislation exempting two-year college employees criminal histories passed it would be one more exemption that people would have to keep up with to make sure they don’t run afoul of the law.

Byrne said a draft of the statute could be ready as early as the state board’s January work session and would be included as part of the legislative agenda.

The first day of the legislative session is Feb. 5.