Pittsburg to conduct pre-employment screenings for potential city workers

The city of Pittsburg, Kansas has partnered with business outsourcing solutions company ADP to begin conducting background checks on newly hired city employees, The Morning Sun reports. Outside of police department hires, this marks the first time that the city will look into the criminal background of potential employees. However, Pittsburg had been conducting pre-employment drug screens prior to the implementation of the new policy. According to the news source, ADP will validate social security information, compile a seven-year address history and perform a criminal background screen for each applicant once they have been given a conditional offer for employment with the city. The city will pay $30 per screening to ADP as part of the contract. In addition, with youth baseball right around the corner, the examination will also include a sexual predator check. "We have a lot of people we are looking to hire that will work with kids and the community," Megan Fry, Pittsburg human resources director, told the news source. “We want to be responsible for the people involved in those programs.” A poll conducted by the Orange Country Register revealed that one in four adults have a criminal record, which means extensive background checks may severely limit the amount of viable applicants for a particular position.