Elmer Smith: A bill that thinks outside the box, but can it change anything?

THERE WAS something different about the obligatory photo-op and ceremonial signing of the "ban the box" bill yesterday. It started out as usual in the ornate City Hall reception room under the painted portraits of a few dozen dead mayors. As usual, Mayor Nutter was center stage with various VIPs arrayed behind him.

They followed him to a table where he signed a law that may well prove to be more symbolic than substantive.

Then, on cue, the cheers went up.

But this exultant crowd was different from most groups who show up to cheer when the mayor signs a bill that benefits them. Many had criminal records, some for violent crimes. One man in an orange prison jumpsuit, held his beautiful child in his arms.

Many of these men had served time in jail, then returned to a job market that often can't even accommodate people with no criminal records. Many of these men would have trouble competing in a job market this tight even if their records were wiped clean.

It's one of the reasons I was prepared to oppose this law: I felt it held out false hope to some hard-core unemployables and conferred victim status on those who, for the most part, acknowledge that most of their wounds are self-inflicted.

The Fair Criminal Records Screening Standards Act calls for fines up to $2,000 if an employer requires a job seeker to reveal his criminal past in the preliminary-application stage. But this law is easier to sidestep than it is to enforce.

It specifically prohibits the box on many applications that asks about prior convictions. But it permits employers to raise that question as long as they first interview the applicant.

And nothing in the law prohibits the inclusion of work histories. If an applicant has a huge hole in his work history, it wouldn't matter if he had been in jail or sunning himself on the beach.

I hate it when lawmakers write laws that make useless, self-serving statements about problems they can't fix. So I was loaded for bear on this one.

But City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, who led the fight for this bill, has managed a process and then fashioned a bill that drew very little active opposition from the city's business community.

In a city where one out of five people has been convicted or pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor or a felony, it may make sense to throw the weight of city government against a problem of this magnitude.

Miller argued that the bill would help reduce recidivism and enliven the economy.

It will give the term " 'paid their debt to society' some credibility," she said to cheers.

Several speakers evoked the imagery of the civil-rights movement to characterize this as a basic right. Sorry, I just don't see it that way.

For me, the real story of this legislation is the sustained effort of a tenacious councilwoman who has plowed this plot since 2004, and the near-unanimous support of a City Council that won't win any brownie points with the public on this one.

"A lot of corporations, particularly those that send people into other people's houses, were really frightened by this," Miller said.

She accommodated their legitimate concerns in revisions. As it evolved, the law exempted law-enforcement agencies and other employers that are required by statute to do background checks.

Ultimately, the Chamber of Commerce declined to make a public issue of its opposition.

"We had a lot of concerns about the original bill," chamber Executive Vice President Joseph W. Mahoney Jr. told me yesterday.

"To her credit, Councilwoman Miller worked through some of the big concerns our members addressed. We still think there are liability issues."

And I still think little will come of this law. But what little good it will do benefits some people who weren't in the room yesterday.

Eliminating the trap door that opens when someone admits that he has a record will get a few applicants to an interview room where some "frightened" employer may discover an overlooked gem.

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ElmerSmith.