03/14/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Il-A-l Sergeant Vern Smith, Eugene Police Department, noted the denial of the license by the Police Department was not used as a way to deny anyone the right to work. He said that applications for licenses request certain information under the City Code, and that some portions of Mr. Byrd's record had not been included on the application. He noted this was in violation of City Code and grounds for denial of the license. John King, 1121 Washington, testified he was a job counselor with the Oregon State Employment Office and had been working with Mr. Byrd since his arrival in the state of Oregon. He had worked with gaining employment for many ex-offenders and also said the requested informa- tion for various licenses often discourages applicants. He noted Mr. Byrd was aware that he had forgotten some of his convictions expressed the following concerns: That Mr. Byrd had written months ago of his plan to come to Oregon, requesting help in seeking employ- ment: that he, Mr. King, had helped him do so; that two states had found no fault in granting a license to Mr. Byrd; and Mr. Byrd had done everything possible to find work; citing these actions as definite indications of Mr. Byrd's desire to be a good, productive citizen. Gary Wilborn, 17150 Deerhorn Road, Springfield, spoke as the parole probation officer for Mr. Byrd. He noted that since January, Mr. Byrd had abided by all the conditions of supervision set forth and had been seeking and had found employment. He questioned the prior arrests and said that arrests and convictions were two different things, noting that none of the arrests left off the application form had resulted in convictions. Public hearing was closed with no further testimony being presented. Mr. Obie questioned Mr. Byrd as to why he had forgotten to place the 16 arrests on his application. Mr. Byrd replied that most of the arrests had occurred when he was a juvenile, but that he had listed the two convictions that had occurred after he became an adult. He said the 16 different times that he was arrested had slipped his mind, that he would have had to return to the police departments in Illinois to get a full listing of all those. Mr. Delay said it was his understanding that the application was in violation of the City Code, but asked if the Police Department had any opposition to the license application otherwise. Sergeant Smith replied that the nature of some of the arrests led the Police Depart- ment to believe that it would not be conducive to the citizens of Eugene or in their best interest to have such a person employed in this particular business. Mr. Bradley noted that it seemed to be a technical procedural irregularity, with the information being left off the application, and wondered whether Council would have the power to grant the license, then suspend it for a 30-day period so as to deter others from failure to provide information on applications. Joyce Benjamin, City Attorney's office, replied that the decision of the Council would be final in such an appeal. aOLt March 14,1977--page 8 ~ e .