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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,March 11, 2024 Page 5 Commissioners until appointment, which she thought should happen sooner in the process. After Commissioners are appointed, they are required to fill out a Tennessen form giving the City authorization to do the criminal background check and then a third-party vendor does the background check. Councilmember Strahan indicated she was not asking for this to be placed in the code but wondered if it should be put in. She thought it was very important that the City is honest with people because the City does not want to intentionally embarrass someone who goes through the whole process and not have them be able to be appointed. Also, thinking of the City's Racial Equity Toolkit,realizing that people of color are more likely to have had opportunities to interact with the law, it would not indicate things that they were not actually penalized for. Mayor Roe stated it made sense to communicate that earlier in the process. He thought that the background checks were needed for Commissioners working with young people and minors, especially now that all of the Commissions are eligible to have Youth Commissioners. Primarily,the driving factor for having background checks was for the Commissions that would work with the youth, such as the Parks Commission. He was not sure if he felt this ought to be in the Code and was not one hundred percent sure if the City needed to keep doing it,per se,but he thought the Council needed to have more conversation if that is the continued desire of the Council. Councilmember Etten agreed regarding why there is a requirement and thought it was a very good point that if the City is going to do it, then it should be part of the application process and not after appointment. Councilmember Strahan thought this could live in the ethics requirements and would not need to be spelled out in the Code specifically. City Attorney Tierney indicated the City can put this in the Code, if the Council wishes, but she does not think that is required. Where it lives currently in the City policy is with the requirement for City employees to have a background check, so it is a commonsense place for it to be. Councilmember Strahan asked if the City required background checks for volunteers in the City. Ms. Olson explained for certain volunteers, the City does require background checks. Volunteers that work with vulnerable populations or if the person is working with cash. But, at this time, she did not think there was anyone working with cash.Because the City is working with a third party for the background checks, the City is required to follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act Laws, which requires that the background check be very specific to the job or the duty the person is doing