12 ATTACHMENTS - Laserfiche WebLink

a posted disclosure of a licensed or non licensed facility. She indicated that she recalled the Commission modifying a policy that allowed facilities with 20 or less students to obtain their zoning permits over the counter. She noted that the City had granted some by error because of where the business was going to locate and suggested incorporating a 24 -hour "cooling -off period" prior to granting over the counter approvals to avoid any potential problems. Commissioner O'Connor agreed with most of what has been discussed and emphasized the need for the Commission to understand the unintended consequences before moving forward. He added that once this is known, he believes the Commission would guide the process by how it defines child care in terms of number of children, hours, etc. Commissioner O'Connor then referred to City liability and requested Ms. Harryman to address this issue should the City impose a higher standard than the State. Ms. Harryman stated that she sees this as two separate issues: (1) The City can have higher standards. An applicant; however, may make the opposite argument and feel they are pre empted, as the State has occupied the field on when licensing is and is not required. She stated that she was not certain if there was case law on this, but the City's position is that it can impose the requirement for health and safety reasons as has been done in the past. (2) Liability is a separate issue. She stated that once the City takes on a more active role in criminal background checks or those items listed in Exhibit B, from an exposure standpoint, the City may get sued if a child is injured; but when the case is litigated, the City has certain governmental immunities that would protect it. Commissioner O'Connor inquired if the exposure was due to the City processing background checks as opposed to the State processing. Ms. Harryman replied that in Option A, staff is suggesting that the State process background checks, as they are trained to investigate complaints. She noted that if the City takes a more active role in this, it would increase its exposure. Commissioner Blank noted that background checks are done frequently in private industry. He stated that there are five levels of background checks from having a driver's license to higher security levels but that he did not envision the City doing the background checks. Ms. Harryman explained that what staff is proposing is that the applicant self certify, which can have shortcomings. She added that any crimes or convictions of a sexual nature will obviously be an immediate disqualification for someone to obtain a permit, whereas other crimes may or may not be disqualifiers, depending on the nature of the crime and when it occurred. She noted that these areas will raise many more questions for staff to figure out. EXCERPTS: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, July 8, 2009 Page 7 of 12