TORRANCE – The city of Torrance announced it will begin performing background checks on city council members and city commissioners.

The fingerprinting doesn’t apply to current elected officials and commissioners.

According to the Daily Breeze, the matter was discussed during its May 5 city council meeting.

Torrance Assistant City Attorney Tatia Strader said anyone currently holding a position could not legally be required to undergo fingerprinting, nor could they be disbanded if a criminal record was revealed, so the new requirement would only apply to prospective commissioners and council members.

“There may be some limitations on people who are already in office because you’re moving the ball,” she said. “Generally, you can’t do that sort of thing. Even if it came back with something, you can’t remove that person from office.”

The city council members voted unanimously to implement a requirement that all elected and appointed positions include a background check prior to the individual participating in any public meetings.

Commissioners serving on the Cultural Arts Commission, Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation Commission, Library Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission and the Social Services Commission would be subject to fingerprinting.

In the 2022 Inglewood election, candidates were blindsided by a mandatory fingerprinting request when they went to pick up nomination forms from the City Clerk’s office.

Inglewood Mayor James Butts explained why City Clerk Aisha Thompson unilaterally decided to impose background checks on potential candidates for the upcoming election without any official city documents giving her the authority to do so.

“The Election Code says, not only shall you not be elected, but you can not be a candidate for office if you are convicted of one of several enumerated felonies, and how would you know that if you’re the clerk unless you had a live scan check,” said Butts during the August 23, 2022, city council meeting.

California Code, Elections Code – ELEC § 20

Current as of January 01, 2025 | Updated by Findlaw Staff

(a) A person shall not be considered a candidate for, and is not eligible to be elected to, any state or local elective office if the person has been convicted of a felony involving accepting or giving, or offering to give, any bribe, the embezzlement of public money, extortion or theft of public money, perjury, or conspiracy to commit any of those crimes.

(b) For purposes of this section, “conviction of a felony” includes a conviction of a felony in this state and a conviction under the laws of any other state, the United States, or any foreign government or country of a crime that, if committed in this state, would be a felony, and for which the person has not received a pardon from the Governor of this state, the governor or other officer authorized to grant pardons in another state, the President of the United States, or the officer of the foreign government or country authorized to grant pardons in that foreign jurisdiction.

According to the Inglewood City Charter, “the provisions of the general laws of the state of California relating to municipal elections shall govern elections held in Inglewood unless otherwise provided for by charter or ordinance adopted by at least four affirmative votes.”

Mayor Butts then went on to compare that all city employees are livescanned so there shouldn’t be a concern with background checks on the people that control “hundreds of millions of dollars”.

“People declined after being asked to sign an affidavit stating that they had not been convicted of any one of the several enumerated felonies, and it may be something that we take up later, as a council, as to whether or not it will be an ordinance,” said Butts.

“We heard that ‘nobody else does this’ and the thing about it is Election Code is very clear…and I want to applaud the clerk for using common sense to require of people that want to ascend to the highest level of government, here in the city of Inglewood, for the same background that we give to a part-time employee.”

The matter has yet to appear before the Inglewood City Council to make an ordinance before the city holds its municipal election scheduled for November 3, 2026.

According to the Inglewood City Charter, the city treasurer is required to have a bond in an amount determined by the Inglewood City Council, which hasn’t come before the council for a public vote since Dr. Wanda Brown vacated her seat in 2024.