Not long ago I posed a blog article about Bozeman Montana joining a long list of other municipal agencies in experiencing mishaps in its background checks for employment candidates. At the time city commissioners claimed that the request applicants present their email and login codes for their social networking sites was voluntary.
Now, a recent report that resulted in the study of the Bozeman situation, claims that the social networking background checks, etc. were compulsory. The city will hold a public hearing on the report, this month.
Whether the city was overzealous in attempting to hire the best employment candidates or intrusive, regarding the personal lives of its job candidates, it s a matter for debate. But this is one more controversy in the ongoing series of controversies affecting state and city agencies, and municipal services, regarding their background checking policies with respect to recruiting new employees. On a broad scale, this will be awhile before this issue is finally ironed out.