Loosening of work card rules proposed

Jeffrey Libby

Tuesday, April 3, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.

For the would-be cocktail waitresses, busboys, groundskeepers and many other laborers on the Strip, securing a job may no longer mean first spending hours in line waiting for work cards from Metro Police.

Last year 87,798 job applicants in the resort industry made detours from job interviews in order to pass police background checks and submit to fingerprinting.

But if a proposal from the Clark County Business License Department is accepted by the Clark County Commission on Wednesday, that number could be cut in half.

"It makes a lot of sense, and I've been arguing it for a long time," Commissioner Mary Kincaid said. "It will make it easier for people to go to work."

Ardel Jorgensen, director of the county Business License Department, said the county code has expanded since the 1960s on state laws that require key employees in the gaming and liquor industries to submit to background checks, in large part to keep mob influences out of casinos.

That will not change under the draft proposal. Blackjack dealers, cashiers, keno writers and employees in managerial positions will still have to obtain work cards through Metro.

So, too, will maids and other employees who have access to hotel room keys, Jorgensen said.

But cocktail waitresses, kitchen help and others would not anymore.

Many of the people applying for jobs as dishwashers and other food industry positions come with a nickel in their pocket, Jorgensen said, and the $35 charge for the work card causes an unnecessary obstacle to them finding work to support their families.

Metro Detective Toni Weeks said her department has been involved in the process to streamline the requirements for work cards in the months leading up to the proposal. But as of this morning she had not seen the proposed ordinance and was hesitant to endorse the plan.

A public hearing is set April 25.