EDITORIAL: Scaling back work cards

The mob’s influence lives on downtown. Unfortunately, the evidence of that influence isn’t limited to the Mob Museum. It plays out frequently in City Hall, where folks who just want to make an honest living must plead for permission.

They want work cards, which were created decades ago to keep organized crime figures out of jobs they could use to victimize customers. When authorities finally got rid of the mob, they should have booted work cards, too. Yet today, if someone wants to work at a convenience store or restaurant and fails a Las Vegas police background check, he or she must appeal in person, in public, before the council.

Councilman Bob Beers wants to change that. His bill, scheduled to go before the council’s recommending committee Tuesday, would cut the number of job categories that require a work card from 16 to eight. And it would shift appeals for denials from the council to an appointed, administrative panel. We’d like to see even fewer job categories fall under work card mandates, but Mr. Beers’ plan is a good start.

“Life is hard,” Mr. Beers told the Review-Journal’s Benjamin Spillman. “Life is harder if you are in a recovery mode and in a lower wage job. It just makes no sense for the city to add another layer of difficulty to your life.”

Amen. The council should approve the plan.