10C
Date: May 5, 2026
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Rebecca Poirier, City Clerk
By: Robert Williams, Deputy City Clerk I | [email protected] Subject: City Clerk – Discuss and Provide Direction on Fingerprinting Requirements for Commissioners, Determine When to Fingerprint and if all Commissions Should be Included, and Direct the City Clerk to Draft a Resolution Establishing the Commission Fingerprinting Requirement Policy. Expenditure: Not-to-Exceed $1,596 (General Fund).
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation of the City Clerk that City Council:
1. Discuss and provide direction on fingerprinting requirements for Commissioners; and
2. Determine whether fingerprinting should be required before or after appointment; and
3. Determine if all Commissions should be included; and
4. Direct the City Clerk to draft a Resolution establishing the Commission fingerprinting requirement policy.
FUNDING
Funding is available in the fiscal year 2025-26 General Fund Operating Budget and is anticipated to be available in subsequent years.
DISCUSSION
At the City Council meeting date of July 8, 2025, Councilmember Mattucci received concurrence for the City Clerk to bring back an item to discuss and provide direction on updating fingerprinting requirements for Commissioners.
The purpose of this item is to evaluate whether implementing fingerprinting requirements for Commissioners would enhance public safety, ensure consistency with other City volunteer roles, and reduce potential liability exposure.
Fingerprinting is a requirement for paid and volunteer positions in the City. Many other local cities and municipalities like the City of Long Beach and Manhattan Beach require fingerprinting to be completed for appointed Commissioners. The City has existing procedures for incoming employees and volunteers to receive fingerprinting. Our current LiveScan vendor, #1 All Safe & Secure, previously named Safe & Secure, has been handling the City’s LiveScan fingerprinting and background check requirements since at least January 2011. 1 City Council
May 5, 2026
Adding additional positions to those required to undergo fingerprinting would incur no additional costs besides a one-time $19 per fingerprint charge. With twelve (12) Commissions, excluding Youth Council, the cost to the city would be up to $1,596 per year. In practice, many Commissioners will serve another term either in that same Commission or in another Commission, so the cost will likely be lower than this figure.
The LiveScan fingerprinting and background check process involves filling out a few forms with basic information and providing that to the LiveScan technician. The technician will then conduct the fingerprinting and send the results along with the information from the forms to the Department of Justice to conduct the final background check. The results on average take 48 to 72 hours or may take longer due to poor quality or manual review of the background check.
This fingerprinting and background check would be added to the other requirements for Commissioners including Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) Conflict of Interest Form 700, Commission Certification, Ethics AB1234, and Non-Supervisory Harassment Prevention trainings. Commission Certification Training is a requirement for application, while the others are only required once a Commissioner is appointed.
The City Clerk is asking City Council to discuss and provide direction on whether the LiveScan fingerprinting and background check should be a requirement for application or after appointment.
Fingerprinting at the time of application would increase the cost to the city by requiring more fingerprinting per Commission appointment. For example, if there were five applicants for one vacancy, all five would be fingerprinted versus one after appointment. Applicants would only be fingerprinted one time no matter how many Commissions they apply for and would cover them for future applications and appointments. Fingerprinting after Commission appointment could lead to complications if the background check does not clear. The City Council would need to direct the City Clerk to bring an item forward to have that appointed Commissioner removed from the Commission. This would create an unscheduled vacancy.
The City of Torrance currently has 12 Commissions that would be included in the fingerprinting requirement policy, as shown below.
•Airport Commission
•Civil Service Commission
•Commission on Aging
•Cultural Arts Commission
•Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation Commission •Historic Preservation Commission
•Library Commission
•Parks and Recreation Commission
•Planning Commission
•Social Services Commission
•Traffic Commission
•Water Commission
2 City Council
May 5, 2026
The City Clerk is also asking City Council to identify which Commissions, if not all, should be included in the policy. As an alternative to requiring all Commissions to undergo fingerprinting, the policy can apply only to Commissions that have direct contact with children. Assembly Bill 506 (AB 506), signed into law in 2021, requires all staff and volunteers who have direct contact with children for 16+ hours a month or 32+ hours a year to undergo a California DOJ Live Scan fingerprint background check and training. AB 506 specifies that it is focused on, “youth service organizations”, but other cities, under these requirements, have chosen to have certain Commissions who have direct contact with children undergo fingerprinting and background checks. Certain Commissions in the City of Torrance have direct contact with our Youth Council.
It is important to note that, choosing to only fingerprint certain Commissions will require staff to track which Commissioners have completed their fingerprint and background check. If a Commissioner moves from a Commission that did not require it, to a Commission that does require it, then the Commissioner would be required to complete it.
The following five (5) Commissions have direct contact with children and the Youth Council:
•Cultural Arts Commission
•Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation Commission •Library Commission
•Parks and Recreation Commission
•Social Services Commission
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