You’re a nonprofit. You’re hiring. You’re watching your pennies. Spend money on a background check? You might be thinking, Why bother?
Think again. Even a church that’s filling a job with someone who already has had experience with a nonprofit would do well to have professionals such as those at Global Backgrounds perform a background check on a candidate — including when the candidate looks perfectly suited to the job.
The experience of a church in Roanoke, Virginia, might make many clergy, church elders, and nonprofit administrators and board members seriously reconsider hiring merely on the basis of trust. The experience there shows that professionally done background checks are not just the province of multinational corporations, and not just when the subject is a highly paid executive.
Amy Mauck Krohmer, a former secretary for the West End United Methodist Church in Roanoke, has been sentenced to four years in prison after she pleaded guilty in the Roanoke City Circuit Court to embezzlement. Criminal Division records show that the sentence includes 16 years of suspended jail time, and 10 years of probation after she’s out from behind bars.
The church lost more than $195,000, but Krohmer has been ordered to make restitution. What she is unlikely to restore is the goodwill among church members, perhaps the biggest cost for her actions.
No Background Check
Krohmer had been charged with taking money before, court records show, but apparently the people who hired her at West End United Methodist were unaware. Krohmer had pleaded guilty to making a fraudulent credit card application while she worked for the Williamson Road Business Association in Roanoke. She originally was charged with embezzlement of between $4,000 and $5,000 by making illegal purchases, but she bargained for a guilty plea on the lesser charge. She did serve a brief jail sentence in that case. Both the conviction and jail sentence would have shown on a local criminal background check.
The chairman of the West End Methodist administrative board told the court he started to look into financial discrepancies at the church in 2018, including falsified payroll checks, according to an account in the Roanoke Times newspaper. Other things under review included unpaid bills that resulted in penalties and interest, and credit card purchases.
The administrator, who came to the church after Krohmer was hired, said no one knew of her criminal past. Why? No background check had been done, he said.
The result: More than $200,000 in losses, the court was told.
According to the Times report, Roanoke Deputy Commonwealth Attorney Donald Wolthuis said that in addition to using the church credit card for personal purchases, Krohmer wrote checks disguised as legitimate expenses and inflated some of her paychecks, one by $2,000.
Judge Chris Clemens told the Times it might be the worst larceny embezzlement he had seen in his 13 years as a jurist.
It was, however, a case that was entirely avoidable.
Virginia Now Has a ‘Ban-the Box’ Law
At the time Krohmer was hired, Virginia allowed employers to inquire during the hiring process about criminal history — usually by having a box checked on the application — and to use background check findings on crimes by applicants in deciding their qualifications.
That's no longer the case. Since then, Virginia has adopted a “ban-the-box” law, making it illegal to ask about criminal activity or search for it in background checks before a job has been offered. The intent of these laws is to give offenders a second chance at employment.
Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia and some other cities, along with the following states, now bar such questions until after a job has been offered: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The list keeps growing, with more states banning criminal inquiries before a job offer for public-sector positions.
After a Job Offer: Is It Too Late?
Job offers can be made conditionally.
Ban-the-box laws might make background checks more important than ever. If a professionally done background check made within the allowable period uncovers a criminal record, the employer may reconsider the hire based on that information and after giving the job candidate an opportunity to respond. If the company withdraws the offer — called “adverse action” in legal terms — it must do so within the dictates of applicable laws.
An employer may not withdraw the offer because of conditions barred by other laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act, monitored by the Federal Trade Commission, and the Civil Rights Act, monitored by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC does not allow hiring decisions based on race, national origin, color, sex, religion, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), or older age. The EEOC says it does not allow inappropriate questions about medical status, medical history, or family medical history.
It seems likely that illegal activity such as Krohmer’s while employed by the Williamson Road Business Association would have raised a red flag with anyone offering her a job, including West End Methodist. A background check fee that is almost certain to have been below $100 would have saved $200,000 — a pretty fair tradeoff.
Permission Needed
Background checks cannot be ordered unless the applicant allows the check. Permission must be sought and obtained in writing. Someone with a criminal history might refuse permission, and that’s allowed, but an employer may make permission a condition of hiring. That policy must be clearly stated in writing and applied equally to all candidates.
Equal Treatment
To ensure equal treatment, which federal and state laws require, a best practice is for an employer to have a policy regarding background checks and to put that policy in writing. Included in that would be that candidates grant permission as a requirement of employment.
It’s also best to have a written policy on what the company will do to consider the findings of a background check and its procedure for taking adverse action based on the findings, including withdrawing the job offer.
Although forming written policies may involve considerable work, it could pay big dividends — perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, even for a neighborhood church.