week's edition of "the steele report." on the main channel and also on kwwl.com, a short time later today. very, very interesting topic with a couple of special guests. some call this the criminal record ordinance but it's better known as the topic we call "ban the box." let me introduce our guests to talk about this important topic which has been sweeping the nation in the last couple years. first, reverend abraham funchess is the director of the waterloo human rights commission. and joining him n is mr. ron waterloo human rights commission. these two gentlemen are here with a pointed topic. yo obviously, are in the corner of this is something that needs to be done and i want to point out, we're knot n taking sides but i noticed on the kwwl job application, t tre's no box or question about the criminal background. let's start with the beginning, abraham, what is this movement

i kno about 100 municipals have said ban the box. >> thank you for having us on the shelf ban the box is a campaign that says let's take the box that asksriminal arrest history off the application entirely and at another point in the interview process, not the initial point, where perhaps a a conditional offer is getting ready to be made. then you can ask about the criminal arrest history and then through individualized assessment of someone who does have a ariminal arrest in their background. but this provides a fair opportunity for everyone to get past the -- passed th first gate and perhaps you'll find a really q qlified individual. >> ron: we had darren beckon not along ago and one of his employees who had a criminal cord and they didn't same concerned about that eititr way. are you finding a lot of

employers are concerned about that initial activity, saying do you have a criminal record and how it might eliminate you from the process ight away. it's certainly unfair. >> i'm a former h.r. manager, in my world, i had -- had ban the box and as we were looking at things, we really did take that -- didn' take that that into csiderati, are there a lot of people concerned in the cedar valley and a lot is because of lack of education. >> ron: i know the alliance came out recently, do you know -- are you working with them what they're feelings are. >> yes, we -- everybody is looking -- he came to the city council meeting and spoke on the entire constituents, associated with the chamber. but i think they started off

i think what they sent to its membership, we were proposing a ban that prohibited employers om even asking the question but that's untrue. we have the opportunity to set the record straight and we want to continue to dialogue with those individuals. the reality is we're asking peop@le to take the criminal arrest box off the application. but employers still have the right -- >> absolutely. >> -- to ask about criminal arrest records. we're suggesting that you do it later in the interview process. affording the a applicant, then, a fair opportunity to really be considered for the job. >> ron: who is driving this movement around the nation, ron, what do you think? 2013, maybe. >> actually -- >> late 1990s. >> yeah. and we proposed this, aaham,

>> the last few years. a lot of human rights individuals and, i think employers too. they found out that the job -- the amount of job seekers did not always meet what they needed and maybe they'rere taking people out the segment that shouldn't be out. >> ron: when you look at the overall situation, i assume, both of you have talked to those who have criminal backgrounds and been denied any opportunity to get a job as soon as they check yes i have a criminal background. that takes them out of the running right away. >> the horror storys that when people check that box, applicants get thrown and filed in chapter 13. we know thiss illegal but in practice, this is happening, even if it's not literally tossed. we think it's high time employers both public and private begin to appreciate, you know what?

if weant to talk about diversity inclusion, we know the chamber has a diversity inclusion committee. then we would think banning the box as an initiative would be something that would be -- one of your top priorities because this is a way we can reach out to so many of our citizens and give them a fair opportunity to get employment here. appliance and chamber has a -- the alliance and chamber has inclusion awards they hand out every year and i think they're conscious wanting to do the right thing. absolutely. >> ron: when you get into the process, though, and an employee, perspective employee is strung alcng a little bit and then all of a sudden this comes up and are you worried about them kind of -- you know, being taken out then even though the employer may realizes this a potentially good employee but i don't wawa to risk it? >> being a former h.r. manager,

good job description. and when those initial applications come in, you can view those and there are some people that just because they don't meet the job requirements would be taken out the running. but y can't, as abrbraham said, you can't just file 13 them, there's a requisition process you have to do to meet legal quirements but as you go down the road, it's amazing, i in my time, how many people i have interviewed and there have been literally hundreds that have had arrest records and come in and been honest with me,e, and i've hired a lot of them, and, in fact, i have three of them that i went on to corporate -- went on to corporate positions and they had felonies. just by that little box, you could lose a potentially good employee. >> ron: and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people being released from incarceration, prison, every

biggest issues out there. there's no jobs being afforded them. >> thehe's been a good jobob explaining how people with criminal arrest records have a difficult time finding employment and finding housing and serving on a jury and even getting food stamps, if you have that many strikes against you, the question has to become concerning human rights and so manyk, how is it possible for anyone to live a high-quality of life if they have that many strikes against them even after they've paid the time for the crime they've committeded and so this is an issue of basic fairness when you get right down to it and we appreciate we believe the chamber and everyone will come alolong once they understand the mechanics what it's about.

the president himself at the national convention came oututnd basically said l l's ban the box right away. >> right, grassley is in favor the and several others are in favor of banning the box and several employe andnd among federal contractors and we certainly hope this will trickle down to the state level and ultimately the city level. ron, we have the potential to be the first city in the state of iowa to pass ban the box. and we don't apologize for being leaders. we would love to be number one. but you know, that's not the main thing, though, the main thing is to ultimatete be considered a part of the number of cities across the united states that thought this was important to take care of all its citizenry.

the show will be in its just a minute. >> ron: welcome back to the symptom. with reverend abraham funchess and ron wood, the chairman of the humum rights commission. the cedar valley alliance, they did a survey of businesses, they have a lot of partners in the area and their certains were the inineased costs of employee and tenant train, we're talking about tenants for apartments and difficulty in keeping liability

wise for businesses and the municipal prosecution and cost to defend and civil action lawsuits and the cost of defense for those. what are y your reactions for those concerns and as we talked about, you're trying to ease those concerns with more understanding. >> we believe education is the answer. with respect to those concern, those are things you should have in place regardless whether or not we're passing ban the box or what have you and the reality is we're splitting employment from landlords, we don't want to the deal with that at this time. but with respect to ban the box, we're asking people to engage in a fair hiring practice. for man entities this is not you. i think you informed us that kwwl, for instance, doesn't have criminal -- applicication. >> not on the box. there are people engaged in the practice already, you, kwwl,

wal-mart and target, home depot and starbucks. >> the koch brothers. >> ron: the koch brothers. really open-minded employers like beck and -- having hired someone who does have a criminal background and not being concerned about that. it's a potential for disaster, i suppose, but there's potential for disaster in hing anyone. >> absolutely. and the reality is what we're saying is that there are some people doing it on a volunteer basis but w want to make sure that everyone is making s sure they're careful about asking questions in a manner that provides a fair hiring opportunity. at least for anyone who comes through their door and if you are already engaged in the practices that is aboveboard, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. you should be concerned, perhaps, about the cost and thosee things, if you're breaking the law.

that's the case with anything. i think we were talking about code enforcement. >> yeah. >> and that's a case -- one of the objections was that why do we need another agency to tell us whats to do? let's do it ourselves. well, if we did it ourselves, why do we need code enforcement and why do we have police. the list goes on and on, ron. i think it's one of those things you do need a gentle push or reminder to make things successful. >> i want to add, the equal employment opportunity commission, have embraced ban the box in 2012, they thought it was a wonderful way to avoid disparate impact treatment. there's a human right concern there, a civil right concern. alone, because with the box being on there there'she potential for a disparate impact. so by banning the box, it allows one to quite frankly free

themselves of further regulationonas this becomes more popular around the united states of america. particularly big entities like wal-mart and home depot and starbucks. in order to avoid further regulation, it makes good sense to ditch the box. for those already doing the right thing, approaching this from a human-civil right perspective, they have nothing to worry about. >> ron: you mentioned that people who have been been incarcerated and paid their debt already, but this stays with them their entire life and they need at some point -- i'm a big one for second chances and i assume you are too. what does that mean to someone who has been released and given that opportunity f f a s second chance? >> i can speak to it from family members and we all as individuals probably have done something in our lives that we probably didn't get caught and we were the lucky ones.

but those individuals that did get caught, paid they paid their debt to socieiety and come back and live with the stigma and getting a job, being able to provide for themselves and their family and having the opportunity to grow within the community and d siness and youour professional life, that means everything in the world to an individual. >> absolutely, we all know that many of these brothers and sister, they've gotten ththe arrestst recor perhaps when they were very, very young. maybe it happened at 19 and they're 35, 40 years old and they're still penalized and they've received professional certification since that time and they're not getting credit for that, there are so many people in communities that do have good reputations that are willing to write letetters of recommendation and the individual letters of support for them. but that doesn't count if you're

paying attention to the criminal arrest report itself. it's not fair. some of are four years old and seven years old and old ir. when you look at what constitutes a felony, the biggest category right now is drug offense and quite frankly many people in the federal level are being released because of low-level non-violent drug offenses, the reality is that we're barring millions of individuals from getting meaningful employment for something that probably has absolutely nothing do with the job itself. andd ultimately, when you look at it critically, ron, it doesn't make sense, it's not fair. >> ron: a couple of minutes, quick both of you. what's it going to take to make waterloo the first city in iowa to officially ban the box? i'm thinking probably the first quarter of next year is when we'll go back to city council and ask them to deliberate about

waterloo and i think by that time, we'll probably have opportunity to reall engage the diversity inclusion team with the chamber and, hopefully, get it there as well so we can ask direct questions they might have, right now, i have confidence in human beings that we don't understand the facts surrounding ban the box, but once we do, we'll make the right decision. >> ron: we have an runoff election coming up. where do they feel -- you've talked to above the them, i assume. they'lbe on record one way or the other about banninghe b. >> and they both made statements to that effect. and i would encourage anyone within the business community, community, the regular people out there, get ahold of us. we're open for business at the waterloo human rights and we would be glad to come out and tell you what it is and answer

>> ron: thank you, guys, for coming. our two guests, the reverend abraham funchess. and the executive direcr of the waterloo human rights commission and ron wood, the chairperson of the waterloo human rights commission.

succesuful, we'll see after the >> ron: welcome back to our final segment o"the steele report." we're talking with chuhuck rowe,

the executive director of a great organization, the boys and girls club of cedar valley. and chuck, you've been the executive director since 2010 all right? >> six years already. >> ron: two locations in waterloo, in addition to the one onlines street. a couple of blocks from the tv station, anoer location at sacred heart. cedar falls and evans dale. serving how many kids a day? >> nearly 3 a day. >> ron: serve them only a daily basis and you have a lot of great events throughout the year. one of them we want to talk about in the last minutes of our program is a great one. that's the cedar valley christmas. tell us what that is about. november 30th. singing voice -- get your voice ready, ron. it's become one of the great traditions of the cedar valley.

what it is, we advertise it as an old-time christmas col thing. >> ron: it happens at the performing arts center and truly special because you have special guests coming by in addition to the people who normally sing for you. >> besides just being a special guest, we're official partners with the waterloo [inaudible] with this event. and they're going to be providing musiciaia throughout ththnight and we'll have -- you know, pre-concert in the lobby beforehand, featuring the musicians and during the show, when peoplee were used to -- doing the community singing part, we'll have the symphony playing along. >> ron: jason wineberger, the maestro of the symphony, hopefully, you've had a chance to hear their concerts over the years, they're partnering with you this year. that's really an added attraction. beyond even talkiking about it,

it's fantastic, it really is. >> it made sense for us, we worked with jason on several things before and he's the nicest guy to work with. greatt guy. everyone in the organization is would you feel u wonderful. on the one hand, we have all of these musicians who are going to enhance the program and make it better but we also talk about the funding that -- what it will be used for. helping the youth education programs and the fact that we have music education programs, it made sense to work together. >> ron: it's a partnership that hopefully will be for a long time. it's on november 30th. how do you get tickets? >> the easiest way, go to cedar valley hie v. hy-v you get to enjoy themm for five dollars and you can visit the

cedarvalley.org. >> ron: who else will be singing that night? >> i wrote it down. i didn't want to forget. some of the choirs are cedar harmony. waterloo west, groundy center, choir. bell can'to, women's chorus, ststluke, the western he community windy hill singers and a couple of other special groups that you'll be surprised about. >> ron: that's a cross-section of the community. the first four are fantasticic. cedar value christmas, november 30th, gallagher performing arts center and the win with the symphony and jason wineberger. that's fantastic. let me ask you this. you do a lot of founding during the year and -- fundraising during t t year and in jululy, there was someone who lied to

the wal-mart people about representing you guys, the boys and girls club of cedar valley, when they had nothing do with you. e wal-mart works with ththe salvation army and the red kettle campaign. but you don't do any fundraising outside of wal-mart. tell people how they can make sure whenhey give to the boys and girls club, they're not giving to someone who is a false person. >> t easiest thing to do is call our office or visit our website. we alway announce w wn we're doing a fundraising. you you feel bad for the people at wal-mart, they're good people. those people flat out lied and said, took phone numbers and when wal-mart did check up, they were doing the best they could and instead, being lied to. to. it's sad there's people like that in this world. >> ron: no reflection against wal-mart. nothing against the boys and

girls club or against wal-mart but who would lower themselves to misrepresent that and basically steal money from people when it's not a legitimate cause. and someone else has been going on around selling things in your name. which is false? >> we've heard a lot in cedar falls people are going around to houses selling magazines saying it's from the boys and girls club. it's scary because there's a lot of people who end up losing out. especially the kids but also hurts our organization and wal-mart and people that are being honest and it's a shame there are people like that. >> ron: if you have a question, there's a lot of great fundraising events and game show and things and -- call the boys and girls club of cedar valley and they'll let you know what the legitimate fundraising efforts are. it's a great organization, serving more than 300 kids a day, two in waterloo -- and i

wanted to mention, we worked with the salvation army and you mentioned wal-mar they've been great to let us go to their locations for the red debt kettle campaign. we'll be back with what we call the metal in the kettle campaign. mandate astart that at the cedar falls wal-mart. and i'll let you know about that later. that will be on the 12th and ally on the 19th. we've been working with wal-mart and the salvation army and we know they do a fantastic job letting people be outside. and it wasn't the boys and girls club of cedar valley, someone misrepresented you and that's unfortunate. does that really hurt people in trusting, do you understand, in their legitimate donations they make to you? >> it does a little bit. i think people know no contact us and people who stand in froront

of store, they should ask questions. it's raising awareness for everybody, it's not just boys and girls club, but it's an awareness of everybody to double-check your facts before you give money. but wal-mart is doing something nice for us, for cedar valley christmas, purchasing a block of tickets and favoriting them back to us. and donating them back to us. >> ron: the executive director of the boys and girls club of cedar valley, thank you very much. have a great cedar valley

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