A year ago, Lakewood officials stepped into the national debate over illegal immigration when they started requiring contractors, and City Hall itself, to screen new employees. They wanted to make sure any worker receiving city money could work legally in the United States.
It was a lightning-rod issue, one city leader said at the time. And that was well before a national controversy over Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Lakewood started using the E-Verify system last July. Officials reported this week that they have screened 33 new city hires, and have met resistance from only one of their 1,800 contractors and sub-contractors.
However, that one noncompliant company has given city leaders reasons for concern, including whether the law is being applied equitably. Two of the three local organizations that use the out-of-state contractor don’t have to abide by the law. But the third group faces a hard choice that could make it lose more than $20,000 from the city.
The Lakewood City Council says the problems could lead it to strengthen its E-Verify requirement.
“It was intended for everybody,” said Councilman Walter Neary of E-Verify. “It’s troubling.”
Certified Display Folder Services, based in Vista, Calif., works with at least three of the local organizations to which the City of Lakewood awarded lodging tax dollars.
The company contracts with the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau, Lakewold Gardens and the Lakewood Historical Society. It places promotional pamphlets in racks inside hotel lobbies, stores, restaurants and other tourist spots.
But Certified Display hasn’t signed up for E-Verify, and does not intend to.
A manager for the company, which has operated in Washington about 40 years and employs 14 people in this state, says the company already adheres to federally mandated screening requirements for employees.
Requiring contractors to go through an extra layer of scrutiny doesn’t make sense, said Weldon Vittitow, regional manager for the company in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
“It’s not that we don’t want to follow their rules. It’s just we haven’t found it necessary to do E-Verify,” he said this week. “If you’re making the effort (to screen applicants), that’s the whole point.”
City Attorney Heidi Wachter acknowledged that employers are already required to verify the information that E-Verify produces.
“It’s a technical version of what people have to do. It’s more accurate,” she said.
Lakewood’s legal department found that with two of the three local organizations that contract with Certified Display, the E-Verify requirement doesn’t apply.
The Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau receives the majority of its operating budget from local governments and is considered a “quasi-governmental” agency, which the Lakewood law exempts. Councilman Don Anderson said officials approved the exemption because they didn’t want to tell other local governments how to operate.
Lakewold Gardens contracts with a media buyer, a subcontractor who has been run through E-Verify, according to Stephanie Walsh, executive director at the 10-acre historic garden estate off Gravelly Lake Drive Southwest.
One of the companies that the media buyer works with is Certified Display. The law applies to contractors and sub-contractors, but doesn’t go beyond that.
“There was never an intent to circumvent Lakewood’s law,” Walsh said. “The question becomes, ‘How many contractors deep do we have to go with E-Verify?’”
The Lakewood Historical Society is the third local group that contracts with Certified Display, and it enjoys no exemptions. The society says it wants the company to enroll in the federal screening program.
“We’ll look at it as a serious problem going forward,” said Becky Huber, the historical society’s president.
On Wednesday, the city officially told the society that if it continues using Certified Display as a subcontractor, it would no longer receive city funds.
Wachter said the law allows for Lakewood to sever the contract, but it can’t fine or punish a contractor.
Neary said it seems ridiculous that the historical society won’t get to use a major tourism promoter along the I-5 corridor because it refuses to “play a shell game” with the city and a reluctant contractor.
Adopted by Congress in 1997, E- Verify uses federal databases to help employers confirm their workers can legally work in the U.S. The free service initially was offered in five states, then eventually to all 50.
Since Lakewood adopted E-Verify last year, Pierce County has followed, and cities such as Yakima are considering similar laws.
Last year, Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy vetoed an initial E-Verify proposal because it was too broad, but supported the measure that eventually passed.
County officials say they haven’t met resistance from contractors.
As for the Lakewood law, Certified Display’s refusal and the exemptions with the two organizations could prompt city officials to make it more stringent.
Anderson said that if private companies want to do business in the city, they need to follow the rules.
“My sense from the council is if we do anything, it will be to tighten up the law,” he said.
Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653 brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com
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