by Jason Morris

So it looks like the city was a “day late and a dollar short” on their background screening program.  It appears in 2007 they were enlightened and decided to start running background checks….but what about current employees?  A day late; They should have been running these way before 2007, don’t they read the news? A dollar short; adding a simple service like IQ Review would have gone back and checked those not already screened.

Swimming Pool Rape Case Prompts Demand for Background Check Policy Review

By Amos Maki (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, August 21, 2008

Mayor Willie Herenton and members of the Memphis City Council are demanding answers after an employee at a city swimming pool was charged with raping a 17-year-old girl and exposing her to HIV.

Timothy Bernard Payne, a pool attendant at Westwood Community Center, was hired in 2006, one year before the city began running background checks.

Payne was indicted on a rape charge in 1993, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault. He was charged Monday with the July 31 rape and is being held in the Shelby County Jail on $250,000 bond.

On Aug. 5, Human Resources director Lorene Essex told the council she would perform regular background checks on temporary employees who had contact with children after a television station reported a city lifeguard remained on the job after being charged with assault.

Essex said the lifeguard, who had since been terminated, had a clean background check when he was hired, but because the city does not do yearly follow-up checks, the charge he received while he was a lifeguard was unknown to city officials.

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