"You need a liquor card for the job” is something job applicants often hear in Kansas City, Mo. But City Councilman Scott Wagner has introduced an ordinance to change that.
Kansas City requires the personal licenses for people who sell alcohol in the name of public safety – protecting credit cards and personal ID information from someone who has a serious felony record.
But at a committee hearing on Wednesday, Laura McDonald of the More-Square Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity was one of several witnesses who questioned that logic.
“It's a really horrible public safety strategy to keep people with felony convictions from getting jobs," said McDonald. "Sometimes the jobs they are best suited for are the ones you are regulating them out of.”
Other witnesses including representatives of the restaurant industry testified that requiring the $42 card was an unfair burden on job applicants – assuming them guilty and forcing them to pay to prove they are not.
They also noted that the cards are not required in Kansas or in some Missouri suburbs and questioned whether the city's true motive was revenue, not public safety. Approximately 10,000 of the cards are issued each year.
Some police officers and city officials worry that dropping the cards would put the public at risk. One skeptic was Public Safety Committee chair John Sharp.
A vote on the proposed change was postponed for at least a week.