ITD officials target possible discrimination

No longer can Boundary County officials ask when an applicant graduated from high school — it could lead to age discrimination. Changes to the employment application are some of the changes the county is making to be compliant with anti-discrimination laws.

The changes resulted from an audit by Russ Rivera, civil rights contract compliance officer with the Idaho Transportation Department.

“We haven’t had this before,” said Jeff Gutshall, Boundary County Road and Bridge superintendent. “This is the first time for an audit.”

The five main things the county needs to correct include: updating the discrimination complaint procedure, creating a new discrimination complaint form, correcting the employment application, creating a demographic map of the county, and maintaining documentation of Title VI training.

“We are changing because of discrimination charges,” said Renee Nelson, Boundary County Title VI compliance officer and Road and Bridge office manager.

The changes are not necessarily because of discrimination charges in the county but other cases in the state. Even the Idaho Department of Labor is redoing their employment application said Nelson.

On the application the county can request information on military preference but the veteran’s preference page needs to be removed prior to the interviewer looking at the application and stored separately to prevent discrimination.

Also the applicant cannot be asked whether they have committed a felony as that can lead to discrimination by the interviewer. A background check can be completed to acquire that information.

The application will also need to contain a page to collect demographic data, such as national origin. Completing the page would be voluntary and would also be removed prior to the interviewer seeing the application. The county needs to keep all demographic data on file for every job opening.

Boundary County officials also need to create a demographic map of low-income and minority areas in the county. The map would be referenced to ensure projects don’t adversely impact those areas, such as the financial burden of detours for road projects.

“I was told years ago that basically the whole county is low-income,” said Gutshall.

“They are starting to enforce more than in the past,” said Dan Dinning, Boundary County commissioner, of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

One of the most important aspects of the audit was county employees being willing to find answers if they don’t know explained Nelson. For example, if a person requests an interpreter for a county meeting, the county employee has to be willing to help them meet that need.

“Trying to work with people is really important,” said Nelson.

Any jurisdiction that employs more than 50 people and receives federal funding must be compliant.