Despite endless publicity about offering opportunities for individuals with troubled pasts, the City of Urbana, Illinois does not seem too keen on hiring anyone who might have an arrest or conviction record. In fact, Urbana’s job application process seems to have been designed to intimidate and discourage people from applying to City position if they have had past run-ins with the police.
Check CU has documented Urbana City job requirements for at least eight different employment opportunities with the City from 2020 through 2021 which indicate that the applicant must first pass a criminal background check. An example for the position of “Building Official” is shown below (click on the image to view the full PDF):
Another example, for “Human Resources Assistant” is shown here:
Posting such a requirement within the job description would already seem to be a violation of Urbana’s human rights laws, but Urbana takes it much further than the written job description.
Every potential applicant who would have attempted to apply for employment would be shown the same requirement: “the selected candidate must be able to satisfactorily pass a background check”. Each applicant is forced to agree to the terms, or they would not be permitted to submit the application. An attempt to proceed with the application prompts the applicant with red text telling them that they must agree:
Every City of Urbana job applicant must also sign a waiver which says that if the applicant is damaged in any way (perhaps contemplating reputation damage or renewed attention from law enforcement) by the City’s investigation into their prior arrest or conviction history, Urbana is released from all liability. Again, the applicant is not permitted to file their job application unless they agree:
If an applicant attempts to skip any of the pages that include the aforementioned clauses and click the submit button on the final page, the application portal will show errors and force them to go back and comply.
A formal complaint over the City’s discriminatory job requirements and application process was filed with the Urbana Human Relations Commission (HRC) in 2020. The City Attorney denied the complaint, but an appeals board of the HRC determined that the City Attorney was wrong, and that the investigation and hearing process should go forward. However, City Administrator Carol Mitten unlawfully overthrew the decision of the HRC, arguing that City employees were not subject to the human rights laws.
When the issue of criminal background checks was discussed in a City Council meeting on March 22nd, 2021, Mitten argued in favor of judging applicants based on their arrest and conviction records. She also said that the reason that the City goes out of their way to warn applicants is that, “We do not want applicants to be surprised by that requirement after they are far along in the process.”
From that statement, it is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that Mitten fully understands and intends that the application process and requirements will cause some applicants to be fearful of applying from the start.
Mitten also argued at the same March 2021 meeting that the City’s job listings include language saying that “an arrest or criminal conviction does not automatically exclude an applicant from consideration”. However, at the time Mitten made that claim, Check CU could not locate any such language anywhere in the City’s online application portal (which is the one and only way to apply for a City of Urbana job).
When challenged on the legality of the checkboxes and waivers shown in the images above, Mitten began blaming the Urbana Free Library, because the City and their library share the same online job application portal.
It also became apparent during the discussion that the City had no objective process in place for when a criminal background check would be made and what types of findings would or would not disqualify an applicant.
The entire March 22nd, 2021 Urbana City Council discussion on the City’s use of criminal background checks can be viewed here: