ORLANDO, Fla — In 2007, a volunteer firefighter was arrested and charged with intentionally setting fire at a women’s club. A story about his arson arrest made the paper back then, but that arrest did not prevent him from staying at his job or getting other jobs in other departments, including in Lake County.
Lake County did a background check through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but there was no criminal history shown, including any arrest. The records were expunged in the court records too. That’s why this 9 Investigates is not using his name.
But WFTV looked at his personnel record from Polk County. That personnel file showed documents about his arrest. It showed that there that there was a pretrial diversion, along with complaints from patients and some unsatisfactory performance reviews. It also shows that it was recommended that he be fired in 2014.
Lake County officials said they did not have anyone to speak to WFTV, but said by email that it is not common practice to request entire personnel files due to the fees and time required. They also said he was not required to divulge his arrest, saying, “Lake County makes employment reference checks with listed employers within the last 5 years. At the time, a reference check was conducted with the applicant’s current employer.”
But the union for the Lake County fire department sent a statement about the hiring, saying in part, “While we are disappointed that these serious charges were not identified during the hiring process, we believe it is appropriate to recuse ourselves and allow lake county administration to conduct a full independent investigation.”
The county has not yet said there would be an investigation.
Other local departments, like Orange County Fire Rescue, said they do run what’s called a level 2 background that includes fingerprints based criminal checks and polygraphs, and said the previous employer may be contacted.
According to attorney Mark Lippman, that is not unusual for public agencies. When asked if he thinks public agencies should have stricter background checks or if the current system works, Lippman said, “It depends. I mean, how strict can you go when you’re doing a complete background check and nothing comes back even with a fingerprint? I mean, that’s pretty intense.”
But the fire union at the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said its agency has gone one step further by now checking those personnel files for candidates so it can look for any disciplinary issues.
Lippman said that’s great but a big undertaking for cities, and not every department can do that.
“So the further you investigate, the better it is, but it also, you have the which side,
“Do you want to get somebody hired faster to fill the position or do you want to have a complete background check that may result in the same reason of hiring them, but it also may give you a better reason not to hire them? So it really depends on the need at the time,” he said.
Lake County said the employee has been a good employee and moved up the ranks since he has been there.
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