Mental Health Queries Halted in Hiring of Guards at Base : Discrimination: The private company that supplies Edwards changes its policies after the government said its practice violated federal laws. The firm calls the move a security disaster.

A firm that supplies civilian guards for Edwards Air Force Base--the nation’s premier military flight test center--has been told by federal job discrimination officials to stop asking applicants about mental-health problems, which the company says could cause a security disaster.

Delta Patrol Services changed its personnel policies to settle a complaint by the U.S. Department of Labor in October that some background questions the company was asking guard applicants violated federal anti-discrimination laws, a Labor Department official said.

The original policies, Delta said, were mandated by the Air Force.

The change will have no immediate effect because of a revision in the company’s contract with the Air Force, said Roscoe B. Ballard, director of the department’s anti-discrimination office in Van Nuys. But the lack of screening could create “a disaster waiting to happen” in the future, Delta President Taylor Searcy said.

Delta supplies 170 guards to Edwards, the sprawling base in the Mojave Desert 20 miles north of Lancaster. The base also is patrolled by Air Force police and two other private security firms. Delta’s responsibilities include test areas for jet fighters and helicopters and a computerized data center.

The Long Beach-based security firm asked would-be guards, among other things, if they had a history of mental illness or had been treated by a psychiatrist. Applicants also were asked if they had used illegal drugs or been convicted of drunk driving.

Labor Department officials said their investigation showed that Delta did not hire any minority-group job seekers who answered “yes” to such questions, although it hired “a number of Caucasians” who responded the same way.

Delta denied that, saying no whites who answered “yes” were hired.

Searcy said his company is required to ask mental-health and substance-abuse questions under its contract with the Air Force because some guards have “access to a lot of confidential material.”

Ballard said although employers may legally turn down job seekers with active mental-health or substance-abuse problems, federal law prohibits discrimination against those who had such problems in the past but have recovered.

Using a hypothetical example to explain the law, Ballard said: “The fact that I had to go to a psychiatrist 10 years ago doesn’t mean I’m not qualified today. Same thing with drugs or alcohol. If I once had a problem with alcohol and drugs but I don’t anymore, I shouldn’t be penalized today.”

Ballard said, however, that the Labor Department cited Delta only for asking such questions of guards hired to patrol outside test facilities. The firm was allowed to continue asking mental-health questions for guards cleared for “special access.” Such employees check the identities of base workers entering buildings and may have access to classified flight-test information.

Searcy said the majority of Delta’s guards have special-access clearance, but declined to specify a percentage.

Ballard said he has referred the issue of special-access guards to Labor Department attorneys for review. But, he said, the Air Force may be exempted from some job-discrimination rules under national security regulations.

“We’re not faulting the contractor for following what they are clearly required to do under the contract. . . . There’s a potential conflict of regulations here,” he said.

Ballard said that during settlement discussions Delta signed a new contract with the Air Force under which all guards hired in the future will have special-access status, meaning the settlement agreement will have no immediate impact.

But Searcy said Delta may resume hiring non-special-access guards when the one-year contract expires, creating the potential for security problems in the future.

The Labor Department also charged that Delta rejected a black man who had applied for a guard job because of his race. Delta denied any racial discrimination, but promised to hire the man for the next open job that does not require special-access clearance.

Under the settlement, Delta also agreed to make “every good faith effort” to hire and promote more minorities and women at all levels of its work force, including guards.