Background Checks Needed, Grand Jury Says

Spurred by the case of a county manager who hid a felony record to land his job, the Ventura County Grand Jury on Tuesday recommended background checks be required of candidates for management positions and current employees eligible for promotion.

Background checks that verify education, work history, criminal record and driver’s license status should be conducted on “all prospective management and professional employees,” the report said.

The county Human Resources Department is developing a background-check policy for non-sworn county personnel that will be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors in mid-July, department Director Barbara Journet said.

Journet said the recommendations by the grand jury “are certainly in line with what we’d be recommending to the board.”

County officials decided to create a policy after investigators last year learned that Kevin DeWitt, the county’s former mental health administrator, had used a phony doctoral diploma and bogus transcripts to land his job.

Investigators also found that DeWitt had been convicted 10 years ago of eight bank fraud charges after admitting that he wrote fake references on loan documents while working as a junior loan officer at a bank in Louisville, Ky.

DeWitt’s criminal past was uncovered by FBI agents last year as they conducted an unrelated investigation into improper billings in the county’s Behavioral Health Department.

The grand jury report suggested that the Sheriff’s Department could conduct these checks at no cost or an outside agency could perform them for about $100 per employee.

Although the grand jury reviews county government operations and issues reports, its reports serve only as recommendations to supervisors.