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Personnel director warns of legal limits on committee‑led criminal background checks in Rule 33 rewrite
Summary
County personnel director told the Rules Committee that statewide and national criminal background checks require specific agency access and procedures; the committee removed proposed language that would have directed chairs to perform lien and background checks and instead discussed a disclosure requirement for appointees.
The Putnam County personnel director told the Rules Committee on Feb. 17 that portions of a proposed Rule 33 revision related to in‑committee lien and criminal background checks would be difficult to implement as written and raised legal risks.
Paul Eldred, the county's director of personnel, told the committee that statewide and federal criminal background checks are restricted to agencies that hold originating agency identifiers (ORIs) and that the county already uses controlled channels for those checks. "To do a statewide and to do a national criminal background check...there's only certain agencies that are allowed to do that," Eldred said, describing the technical and contractual requirements — an ORI number, a terminal access coordinator and a state contract that governs access and retention of records.
Eldred said agencies in Putnam that have the necessary ORI access include the sheriff's office, the probation department, the county's Bureau of Emergency Services, and the personnel department itself. He cautioned that improper handling of criminal‑check results can trigger violations, and he summarized legal considerations such as the person's age at the time of an offense, the elapsed time since an event and whether the offense has a nexus to the position being considered.
Committee members had previously considered language that would require the committee chair to query other counties for liens and judgments; Eldred said those records are public but obtaining them from other counties carries administrative cost and limited utility. The committee agreed to strike the lien‑check and criminal‑check provisions from the-redlined version of Rule 33 presented for discussion.
In place of the removed language, the committee discussed and tentatively approved a requirement that prospective appointees sign a disclosure stating they have no interest in a county contract or an interest as defined in New York's General Municipal Law. Legislators said that disclosure — and a list of current county contractors supplied by the law department — would help identify potential conflicts of interest before confirmation hearings.
Committee members and county counsel also discussed confidentiality rules for reference checks and related material. Eldred said references and some personnel records are considered private under the Public Officers Law and should be retained as confidential by the legislature when provided in the background of an appointment.
Cost and process issues were raised: routine fingerprinting and state criminal searches for post‑offer checks typically run in the low‑hundred‑dollar range, Eldred said, and most jurisdictions perform such checks after a formal offer rather than as a public committee exercise. The committee asked staff and counsel to draft tightened language that will preserve necessary vetting while avoiding legal and administrative pitfalls.
No final vote on Rule 33 occurred; the item was discussed and amended in committee for further consideration.
