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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda 10-21-2025; 8-f - Authorization for County Manager to Sign the State Bureau of Investigation Non-Criminal Justice Access Agreement 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: October 21, 2025 Action Agenda Item No. 8-f SUBJECT: Authorization for County Manager to Sign the State Bureau of Investigation Non-Criminal Justice Access Agreement DEPARTMENT: Human Resources ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Non- Brenda Bartholomew, Human Resources Criminal Justice Access Agreement Director, (919) 245-2552 PURPOSE: To authorize the County Manager to execute the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Non-Criminal Justice Access Agreement, enabling compliance with new statutory hiring requirements. BACKGROUND: The North Carolina General Assembly enacted Session Law 2025-16 (House Bill 216), which impacts hiring practices across all local government entities. Effective October 1, 2025, new statutory language under North Carolina General Statute (NCGS) §153A-94.2(b) mandates that counties must require criminal history record checks, including fingerprinting, for all applicants offered positions requiring the job responsibility of working with children in any capacity. Prior statutory language allowed but did not require a criminal background check as a hiring requirement. Counties had the discretion to conduct criminal background checks. Under the new law, background checks and fingerprinting are mandatory for positions requiring the job responsibility of working with children in any capacity. Currently, Orange County conducts background checks for designated classifications and fingerprinting is not currently a requirement. Effective October 1, 2025, Session Law 2025-16, SECTION 4.1. NCGS 153A-94.2 reads as rewritten: "§153A-94.2. Criminal history record checks of employees permitted. Lal The board of commissioners may adopt or provide for rules and regulations or ordinances concerning a requirement that any applicant for employment be subject to a criminal history record check of State and National Repositories of Criminal Histories conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation in accordance with G.c 1433 1209.25 G c 1433.1209 761. G.S. 143B-1209.26. The local or regional public employer may consider the results of these criminal history record checks in its hiring decisions. (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, if the position being filled requires an applicant for employment to work with children in any capacity, the board of commissioners shall require the applicant, if offered the position, be subject to a criminal history record check conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation in accordance with G.S. 143B-1209.26. The local or regional public employer must extend a conditional offer of the position pending the results of a criminal history record check required by this section." 2 Further, all counties and cities must require an applicant, if offered the position, to be subject to a criminal history record check conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) in accordance with NCGS §1436-1209.26. To comply with these new legal requirements and to facilitate the process, counties must enter into a Non-Criminal Justice Access Agreement with the SBI to access fingerprint-based background checks through the State and National Repositories of Criminal Histories, enabling them to submit fingerprints and receive criminal history information for hiring purposes. § 143B-1209.26. Criminal record checks for municipalities and county governments. The State Bureau of Investigation may provide to a city or county from the State and National Repositories of Criminal Histories the criminal history of any person who applies for employment with the city or county. The city or county shall provide to the Bureau, along with the request, the fingerprints of the applicant, a form signed by the applicant consenting to the criminal record check and use of fingerprints and other identifying information required by the State and National Repositories, and any additional information required by the Bureau. The applicant's fingerprints shall be used for a search of the State's criminal history record file, and the Bureau shall forward a set of fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal history record check. The city or county shall keep all information obtained pursuant to this section confidential. The Bureau may charge a fee to offset the cost incurred by it to conduct a criminal record check under this section. The fee shall not exceed the actual cost of locating, editing, researching, and retrieving the information. (2003-214, s. 4; 2005-358, s. 1; 2014-100, s. 17.1(m), (o); recodified from N.C. Gen. Stat. 1438-945 by 2023-134, s. 19F.4(i), (j).) The purpose of the SBI Non-Criminal Justice Access Agreement is to outline the responsibilities of the NCSBI and the County regarding the proper care, custody, and control of all criminal history record information received by the County from the NCSBI as authorized by NCGS 14313-945. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact related to the signing of the agreement. All responsibilities associated with these provisions will be managed by the Human Resources Department. ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC PLAN: This item supports: • GOAL 2: HEALTHY COMMUNITY OBJECTIVE 5. Invest in, support, train and retain our community safety, health, and emergency services employees and direct care workforce. • GOAL 6: DIVERSE AND VIBRANT ECONOMY OBJECTIVE 6. Provide workforce and business development resources to enhance the skills of our workforce. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board authorize the County Manager to sign the required agreement with the SBI and any amendments or renewals thereof, ensuring statutory compliance in the hiring process for positions required to work with children in any capacity. vSTA ln NORTH CAROLINA d 3 MAfw r,y sI STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION , 3320 GARNER ROAD •' P.O.BOX 29500 RALEIGH,NC 27626-0500 ROY COOPER R.E."CHIP"HAWLEY GOVERNOR (919) ,582-8600 DIRECTOR STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION NON-CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACCESS AGREEMENT North Carolina General Statute ( CGS): 1438-945 (City/County Government Employment� This Agreement made and entered into by and between the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (hereafter referred to as "NCSBI") and the Agency named below Orange County Government (hereafter referred to as "AGENCY") for the purpose and consideration hereafter set out: I. Purpose: The purpose of this Agreement is to outline the responsibilities of the NCSBI and the AGENCY regarding the proper care, custody, and control of all criminal history record information (CHRI) received by the Agency from the NCSBI as authorized by the North Carolina statute listed above. II. Responsibilities of NCSBI: i A. NCSBI agrees to provide the appropriate training to the AGENCY Administrator, or designee, as requested or needed for the above mentioned NCSBI system access. B. NCSBI agrees to notify the AGENCY Administrator of any changes in the record disseminated to the AGENCY Administrator, due to a court ordered expungement, which are discovered by NCSBI within ninety (90) days of dissemination of such record to the AGENCY Administrator. C. NCSBI will conduct a compliance audit of AGENCY regarding the handling and dissemination of CHRI. The audits are conducted on a three (3) year cycle. III. Responsibilities of the AGENCY: The AGENCY agrees to comply with the following policies and procedures: A. The AGENCY recognizes that the purpose for which it is authorized to receive CHRI is to assist in determining whether current employees or individuals applying for employment have any disqualifying information appearing on their criminal record. 4 B. The AGENCY agrees that its use of CHRI is for this purpose alone and for no other, and that neither it, nor any of its employees, shall make any other or further use of such information, including confirming the existence or non- existence of a criminal record. C. The AGENCY understands that in order to obtain a state and national criminal history record check, only one (1) applicant fingerprint card shall be submitted to NCSBI for processing. D. The AGENCY must make requests in writing through the Authorized Official to the NCSBI. Requests from other AGENCY officials will not be honored. The applicant's/employee's complete name, sex, race, date of birth, social security number (optional) and any other descriptive data as shall be appropriate to identify the individual, shall be submitted on the fingerprint card provided by the NCSBI. E. The AGENCY understands the Authority for Release of Information form is not to be submitted to the NCSBI but shall be retained by the AGENCY for a period of one (1) year from the date the fingerprints are submitted to the NCSBI. F. The AGENCY understands that if the information contained in the CHRI is used to disqualify an individual, the CHRI shall be provided to the subject of the record and afforded an opportunity to provide additional information or challenge the accuracy of the information. Any individual wishing to correct, complete or otherwise challenge a CHRI record must avail themselves of the procedures set forth in the Division of Criminal Information (DCI) administrative procedures. (14B NCAC 18B .0404). G. With the exception of Section III, Paragraph E noted above, the AGENCY understands that under no circumstances shall CHRI obtained from NCSBI and FBI be released to or reviewed by anyone other than the AGENCY. H. The AGENCY understands that an individual should not be presumed to be guilty of any charge/arrest for which there is no final disposition reflected in the CHRI. I. The AGENCY agrees that the CHRI will not be received or sent by email or fax. The AGENCY agrees to contact the NCSBI for approval before initiating use of an electronic system intended to store any CHRI received by the NCSBI. J. The AGENCY agrees to comply with the most recent version of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy and, if applicable, the Security and Management Control Outsourcing Standard for Non- Channeler. K. The AGENCY agrees to notify the NCSBI in writing prior to entering a contract with a third party for outsourcing services that will require the third party to have access to CHRI supplied by the NCSBI and/or the FBI. L. The AGENCY shall be responsible for the security and privacy of the CHRI received by it or received by any private contractor pursuant to a specific agreement with the AGENCY. 5 M. The AGENCY understands the CHRI shall be kept under lock and key, separate from the Personnel Files. The CHRI shall only be available to the Authorized Officials as set forth in this access agreement. N. The AGENCY shall be responsible for reviewing AGENCY policies and knowing what data can and cannot be used as grounds for denying or terminating employment in accordance with standards in the appropriate enabling legislation referred to above. O. The AGENCY understands that NCSBI and the FBI maintains only those criminal records for which an individual is required by law to submit to the fingerprinting process; consequently, there are criminal records maintained by other states or local agencies that are not on file with the NCSBI or the FBI. P. If state and national, the AGENCY agrees to pay the fee of thirty-eight ($38.00) dollars for every criminal record check. The AGENCY understands it will be billed at the end of each month for the amount due. The AGENCY will return a copy of the invoice with the AGENCY's check in the amount of the total payment due. The payment is due the following month. The AGENCY's check should be made payable to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and mailed to: NC State Bureau of Investigation Attention: Business Office Post Office Box 29500 Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0500 Q. If state ONLY, The AGENCY agrees to pay the fee of ten dollars (10.00) for each name check or fourteen dollars (14.00) for every fingerprint card processed by SBI, which reflects the cost of providing the CHRI record. The AGENCY understands it will be billed at the end of each month for the amount due. The AGENCY will return a copy of the invoice with the AGENCY's check in the amount of the total payment due. The payment is due the following month. The AGENCY's check should be made payable to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and submitted. IV. Penalties/Liability The NCSBI reserves the right to terminate this Agreement upon determining that the AGENCY has violated any applicable law, rule or regulation or has violated the terms of this Agreement. The Agency agrees to indemnify and to absolve of liability the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, NCSBI, and its officials and employees from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, suits, and proceedings by others, against all liability including but not limited to any liability for damages by reason or arising out of any false arrest or imprisonment, employee action, or any action whatsoever, or against any lost, cost, expense, and damage, resulting therefrom, arising out of this Agreement, or breach of this Agreement, or NCSBI rules and regulations. 6 Complete required fields below I certify that I have read and understand the terms of this Agreement with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Information and Identification Section, and I will uphold the Agreement. Orange County, North Carolina I certify that the following person(s) personally appeared before me this day, each acknowledging to me that he or she signed the foregoing document: BY: Travis Myren Printed Name of AGENCY Authorized Official Signature of AGENCY Authorized Official Date: Official Signature of Notary Public f i Notary's Typed or Printed Name i My Commission Expires i I (Seal) I i i I i, i i CS 1 OFFICIAL USE ONLY i This Access Agreement becomes effective on MONTH/DAY/YEAR i Approved by: i Denied by: i i