Background Checks Come To Colorado
 

Those of us in Colorado got emails today from CHSAA stating that we will have to submit an arrest report from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation before the seasons this year.

Some questions raised on our local FB page that aren't answered in the memo from CHSAA:

1. Who stores the information?
2. How is the review board assigned?

And the big question dealing with efficacy: What's to prevent a convicted offender from using an alias to get his officiating license and submitting an arrest report for the fictional alias? I don't recall submitting any ID when I signed up the first time.

Fingerprints?

Not part of the package at this point.

But you will have to provide SSN and DL#, correct?

An "arrest" report? I don't even know how I'd go about finding that sort of thing on myself. Background checks are one thing - "arrest report" sounds like something entirely different... and the 2 concerns you raised are exactly what I would have a problem with.

How would the person get paid? I know different places do things differently, but I imaging all sorts of problems come tax time if my W-2 from officiating didn't match my real name.

Instructions were given to go to the CBI website and buy the form. Sounds pretty simple, but I'll let you know if it's different. The idea is any arrests you've had will show up and require further documentation to show their disposition. Convictions will require review by a board.

Perusing the website, it sure seems easy to submit false information (no SSN required). Name and birthday are all that are required.

CHSAA officials had to know this was coming after the events of the basketball season. The letter from MT & TR even states "highly publicized arrests of officials" as the primary reason for the new policy. Wonder how many officials are simply going to say "enough" and walk away...

Be ready for the additional notes in your state packet this fall bemoaning the lack of officials again.

That's funny. Think this through all the way.

Joe Smith applies for officiating as John Doe.
Joe Smith gets regular W2 from his regular job as Joe Smith.
John Doe's W2 goes ... somewhere. Joe Smith doesn't care, and certainly doesn't include it in his taxes.

Agreed. It's a publicity move, and I don't see how it actually has any benefit. I just don't see any way to verify the identity. The $7 is nominal enough, especially since it's good for three years.

I haven't read any follow up on the situation in Denver, but I'm still wondering how much this would have helped.

The other thing that cracks me up is the offer of amnesty to those who have marked "no" on the felony/misdemeanor question in the past. Those folks should have been honest before, and this would be a good chance to weed them out for integrity issues.

Exactly. I had exactly one 1099 this year, no W2s. Even if Joe Smith claimed all the income on his taxes, he wouldn't need to show the 1099s or W2s to prove anything.

There's an awful lot of "insider" chatter here. Could you please translate and explain for those of us who don't work in Colorado.

MT and TR are the initials of the folks who sent and wrote the memo and email.

The event he's talking about was discussed here on the board, when they arrested an official in the Denver area for allegedly copping a feel with female players during a game. He had a previous arrest that ended up with a simple assault conviction, so the media started portraying it as something that would have been prevented with background checks.

Kinda wondered about that one myself. Notice that it said, you get amnesty now for being dishonest, but don't lie from here on out.


Things that make ya go.....:rolleyes:

First off...neither one is likely to be getting a W-2 for their officiating work. A 1099 is far more likely and only if they get more than $600 from any one source. Joe could even still comply with IRS laws by paying the taxes on the income he really received even if it was not properly attributed to him. He may have violated some IRS regulation here but the IRS mostly cares about whether they got the money or not. If he paid, they're not likely to do much to him if they ever found out.

Secondly, someone could be doing this now. However, unless Joe Smith knows John Doe's SSN, this will get flagged pretty quickly when the organization files their 1099's with the IRS when the provided SSN doesn't match the name that is submitted with it. They might get away with it for one year until the taxes are submitted but that's it. Assuming Joe Smith does know John Doe's SSN, John Doe might face a little grief when the IRS comes looking into why he didn't claim income that an organization said they paid him. But once he proves it wasn't him that received the income, he'll be fine.

This all assumes that an official gets at least $600 from one source. Now, I didn't have a single school pay me $600 last year, but I still got a 1099 from refpay since several schools use it to pay.

The requirement to use refpay puts a bit of a crimp in the plan if someone wants to create a fake identity to officiate; but I'm sure it could be worked around by an ambitiously twisted individual.

I'm surprised they didn't go with the fingerprint plan first. It wouldn't eliminate fraud but it would make it much more difficult. Plus there's no need to submit anything about your background. If you've been arrested, it'll come up.

NYC started fingerprinting officials in the 2008-09 school year (it's a requiement for anyone doing regular business with the NYC public schools). A lot of people objected but as my BV assignor said, "You don't have to get fingerprinted but you also don't have to work." Let's just say our officiating ranks took a hit at the start of that season. My only objection was we had to pay the $115 for the process.

Also, a bit tangentially but since it came up, organizations are required to send you a 1099 if you provide over $600 of services, but they're by no means prohibited from sending you a 1099 for less than $600.

The IRS has been pushing for more and more reporting of independent contractor pay for a few years now and leaning on easily identifiable organizations like schools to do so. I got two 1099s this year for less than $600. One school district did it for one game - a 1099 for a single $40 game. I think this will be more and more prevalent in the future.

I think (but am not sure) that the schools report it all to the IRS, but only need send it to you if > $600.

Doesn't matter to me either way -- I report it all whether I get cash, a check for < $600 or a check(s) for > $600.

We get 1099 from our associations. Our associations have a separate form they are supposed to maintain to document the $$$ coming in from the schools, but I forget the form number.

I would once have said "who cares?" to background checks, except that I got burned on a very poor job of background checking on myself. A couple years ago our assigner sent out an email to contact one of the local YMCAs if you wanted to work their leagues and so I did. They did a routine background check and since I have a very common name, someone with the same name who was arrested for a felony in Baltimore (where I've never been in my life) came back and so they flagged me as that person and refused to allow me to ref their games. I had to prove I wasn't that guy. Shockingly, it was very difficult to prove I wasn't that guy. It was a very uncomfortable and irritating reality check. Ultimately I proved I wasn't that guy, but the experience left such a bitter taste in my mouth I wanted nothing to do with them. Turns out, when you leave these things in the hands of amateurs, you can get burned.

Good point. If you're using a fake name, I guess paying taxes properly is pretty low on your list of priorities.

Two years ago, the NCHSAA contracted with a company in Raleigh to begin performing background checks on all officials, employees and other individuals interested in working with the association. The database is run every night so they will discover as soon as possible if any official is convicted of a sex offense or a felony.

Until I saw this thread, I had truly forgotten all about it. I guess one reason is I don't have to do a thing. They handle everything. I think our annual dues went up $10.