Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rights leaders seek easing of work card requirements

These are the jobs classifications that require work cards in the city of Las Vegas:

Accupressure/reflexology; Adult nightclub; Apartment house managers; Auctioneers; Advertising specialty; Burglar alarm services; Carnivals and circuses; Child care; Commercial dance studio; Erotic dance studio; Escort bureaus; Gaming; Ice cream trucks; Liquor control; Locksmiths/safe mechanics; Massage establishments; Martial arts instructor; Mobile food vendor; Outcall entertainment; Pawnbrokers Peddlers, solicitors; Private security; Teenage dance hall; Temporary merchants; Vacation certificates business

Civil rights leaders are urging Las Vegas officials to relax work card requirements which, critics say, act as barriers to employment.

The city is in the process of reviewing a list of 26 vocations that require a work card as a condition of employment.

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, says the city is missing the point. Instead of picking and choosing what jobs should require work cards, Peck said the city should first revise its laws so they will stand up in court.

Peck, who has offered to work with Las Vegas officials, said he would consider legal action if the city does not attack the core of the problem, which can be done by reviewing work card rules.

"Litigation is an option of last resort," Peck said. "But if the city refuses to make significant changes, then we will do whatever we must to protect and vindicate people's rights."

Peck, along with other civil rights groups and state lawmakers, have for years been addressing the issue with local governments. Those who want to revise the laws say convicted felons who have served their time in prison cannot obtain certain jobs because they can't get a work card.

Work cards, which have been around for decades, began as a requirement for casino employees. But now, for example, the cards, which are issued by Metro Police after a background check, are carried by ice cream truck drivers, locksmiths and people who install burglar alarms.

Last month, after calls for changes from the Culinary Union and the ACLU, the Clark County Liquor and Gaming Board approved an ordinance that eliminates the need for many hotel workers to obtain work cards. The new ordinance excludes maids, bartenders and bellhops and requires only a casino's "key employees" -- workers who have direct access to safes and casino cash -- to get work cards.

Peck argues that the city has failed to follow the county's lead. Mayor Oscar Goodman last year formed a "blue ribbon" committee in an attempt to build a consensus regarding work card requirements. But that committee, composed of representatives from the community, disbanded shortly after it was formed.

Still, city officials say they are working to reform work card requirements and expect to propose rule changes by summer's end.

Goodman met last week with Metro Police Lt. Stan Olsen to discuss the list of professions requiring work cards. The mayor said he saw no reason for people such as peddlers, solicitors and circus performers to carry work cards.

But Goodman and Metro have differing opinions as to whether maids should carry the cards. Goodman said the requirement should not apply, although he said he understands why police believe it necessary for people with access to tourists' possessions to have a work card.

"A lot of this is driven by the unique fact that we're Las Vegas," Goodman said.

Recent work card debates also have involved lawmakers.

During this year's Legislature state Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, proposed a bill that would have resulted in sweeping changes in work card requirements. She ultimately withdrew the bill, as she wanted to try to work with city and county officials before pushing a state mandate.

The bill would have given people convicted of minor crimes, as well as those whose convictions came seven years prior, the chance to obtain a work card.

"I just think work cards are flat-out wrong," Carlton said. "I understand where they have come from and the history, but that history is gone now. I don't think that people who clean rooms and flip eggs and pour coffee have to be finger-printed to go to work."

Carlton hopes to meet with city officials to discuss the issue. If nothing can be resolved she said she would submit a more comprehensive bill in 2003.

John Redlein, assistant city attorney in Las Vegas, said the state already has deemed gaming, child care and adult businesses as "privileged" jobs, meaning that a work card is a prerequisite for employment. The law also gives cities the authority to regulate other vocations.

He said that, when the wrongful practice of a job could affect the health, welfare or safety of the public, a background check is a reasonable regulation.

For instance, Redlein said apartment managers, who have a moral responsibility to their tenants, must obtain work cards.

"They have keys to dozens and perhaps hundreds of people's apartments and garages," he said. "We want only people of known decent, moral character to have this extraordinary access."

Redlein said the city's laws are constitutional.

"We would win if we went to court on requiring work cards of locksmiths, ice cream truck drivers or burglar alarm installers. If there is a recognizable risk to the health, safety or welfare of our citizens, the courts have always sustained these laws," he said.

Redlein dismisses Peck's argument that convicted felons can't find work because many can't qualify for a work card. Not all jobs are deemed privileged and provided florists and people who repair shoes as examples.

"The work card regulations do not generally prevent people with criminal records from working," Redlein said. "(Convicted murderer) Charles Manson probably couldn't be prevented from operating a flower shop or a shoe repair store because there's no clear connection between those trades and the public safety."

Convicted felons who live in Ward 5 spoke about their difficulties in finding steady work. Work cards are an obstacle to employment, residents said during a community meeting earlier this month.

City Councilman Lawrence Weekly said he is working to ease work card restrictions as they apply to convicted felons.

"I'm one of those people that is a firm believer that if you have done the crime you should do the time," Weekly said. "But I also firmly believe if you have paid your restitution, who are we not to give you another opportunity?"

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