Anaheim to Suspend Worker-ID Program

Anaheim officials agreed Tuesday to suspend a controversial ordinance that requires certain employees to carry city-issued identification cards.

The program will be on hold until officials can review the 35-year-old ordinance.

More than 100 union members and other workers packed City Council chambers Tuesday to ask the council to rescind the ordinance, which they say violates their constitutional and privacy rights.

The ordinance requires janitors, bartenders, models and other employees of businesses that serve alcohol to have the ID cards. Before the cards can be issued, employees must complete a one-page application and also be fingerprinted and photographed at the police department.

Critics of the process have said the questions, including items about citizenship and arrest history, are a violation of privacy.

“It feels like a very real attack on the workers who make Anaheim what it is,” said Mary Ann Mahoney, president of the local Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union.

Mayor Tom Daly said the city staff will study legal and enforcement issues in response to workers’ concerns.