BOC Amends Purchasing Ordinance, Settles Lawsuit

On February 27th, the BOC voted unanimously to amend its controversial Purchasing Ordinance regarding provisions related to illegal immigration and employment verification procedures.  These changes represent an agreement reached between the County and various parties who sued the County in 2007.  The changes eliminate penalty provisions under the ordinance that penalized employers who were found to have illegal or undocumented workers employed on County contracts.  Furthermore it altered employment eligibility verification procedures to make the program consistent with new electronic verification programs promoted by federal and state regulations and will now only apply to new hires versus the previous requirements to check all employees.