I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books, Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the president of our Honolulu Star Advertiser. He is Dennis Francis, and today we are going Beyond Midweek. Hey, Dennis, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hi, Rusty. Dennis, you've been doing some incredible work throughout the years. I mean, you basically own almost all media and publishings. I mean, it's amazing, but I want to first ask you if you can share a bit about your background. Sure. I was born in Kentucky and I grew up in Ohio, which qualifies me for most, some people will know that Kentucky is known for their college basketball, so I'm a good Kentucky Wildcat basketball fan since I was born in Kentucky and I grew up in Ohio, so I'm an Ohio State football fan. I take the best of both worlds there, and I began my newspaper career in Ohio in a small town in the southern part of Ohio, and then I also worked in newspapers in South Carolina and Washington, D.C., Vermont, and then Honolulu for the last 30-some-plus years. So, Dennis, what got you interested in media and publishing? That's a great question, and the honest answer is it was purely by chance and a little bit by necessity. I was going to a small community college where I was in my hometown area, and I came home one evening from evening class and my mother was sitting at the table, and we were kind of the lower middle class in the economic sector, and she informed me that night that money was tight and we were running the item funds, and I can't afford my education, pay for my education any longer, so I'm going to have to get a job to help pay for the education.  Like the ads that used to say those kinds of things, like if you wanted to work at McDonald's or somewhere, career opportunity. Learn the business from the ground up. So I caught my attention and I went and applied and filled out application and started at the very bottom. I think my title was district manager, although basically what that meant was I was supervising the newspaper carriers, the boys and girls at that time who rode bicycles and delivered papers door to door, and that was really how I got started in the business. So I did that, I was doing that for about going to school at the same time for about six months or so and realized that I love what I, I loved this job, I loved what I was doing and I decided, eventually I dropped out of college and decided to focus on this career opportunity and it ended up being correct. It was my career and that's the, I've never looked back and I've been in newspaper business ever since. Well, I love hearing that, how it all started. And Dennis, I remember the Honolulu Advertiser and the Star Bulletin and you made the decision to merge both newspapers. Why did you decide that? Well, two great, two great newspapers, both well over a hundred years old, it wasn't necessarily totally my decision but I was clearly involved in it and participated in the execution of the merging of those two newspapers. The market for a size of the community of Honolulu just got to the point where it really was difficult to sustain profitably two separate daily newspapers and that was really what really drove the merge, so to speak, it was actually a buying and selling but what actually ended up being is putting the two newspapers together. Well, Dennis, looking back, that was a brilliant decision, right? Well, yeah, it's been very positive for sure. It's allowed one profitable entity to operate in Honolulu and it's still COVID came along and became another issue. But yeah, it's been good for the community and I think good for employees of Oahu Publications. And Dennis, you were honored by that National Magazine editors and publishers magazine as being the national publisher of the year. I mean, and you're on the cover right there and Dennis, you have been such a successful leader for so long and I wanna ask you, what are your thoughts on what are some of the things that the greatest leaders do? Well, number one, I think, and I think it's true for certainly my newspaper, our industry and I think for almost any business in the country is surrounding yourself with good people. You'll quickly realize when you're at the top, it is lonely at the top as they say, but it doesn't have to be that lonely if you have good people around you.  With the collaboration around your team, building a good team is really, I think the most critical point that a leader can contribute, but also secondly, after that is making decisions and be a decision maker and not sit on things forever, not as I say, polish the Apple too long. It's good enough, let's go. So being able to execute decisions that are made and then thirdly, be successful. Yeah, you're not a good leader if you're not successful. So that's, you're gonna put all the effort you want and all the other things aside, if you're failing, you're not a good leader. I mean, that's just, I'm sorry, that's just the way it is and that's how we're all judged. No, I completely agree with you with really good three points there. And Dennis, how would you describe your leadership style? Certainly, I like to listen. I listen a lot to the folks around me. I like to absorb as much data as I can to make good decisions. And then once we get to a point to execute a plan, we move. You know, I always like to say that folks who know me know I've said it many times, but I'm a ready, fire aim type person. You know, I like to, I referred to Polish in the Apple earlier, but I like to get to a point where we have a reasonable plan. We've asked enough questions, we got enough points in our marketing plan or our strategic approach. And then we move, that I'm assuming that we have enough measurement points along the way and that we're paying attention to the project, whatever it may be, to make adjustments on the fly as we go. I feel that gives us an advantage in the market that when you're out, you've left the dock already, there's no going back, but you can fix it if you see that we're moving left of center in one way or another. But it's important to move and to make a decision and get out there. Ready, fire aim, I love that. Yeah. Now, Dennis, what are some of the challenges you face in your business? A lot, as you can imagine, the media business and this particularly in the newspapers, but this is all media, really, all media. And we're certainly not alone in facing challenges, but our challenges has always been, and I'll share a story that when I first started in this business in 1977, don't do the math on me, but back then when you started in the newspaper business or started any business, you were not necessarily given training, you were given a manual.  The manual that I received said welcome to the exciting world of the newspaper business. Our number one challenge, this is 1977, remember, is attracting young readers to read the newspaper. Well, for the last four decades, you've heard the reason newspapers are struggling or newspapers will eventually die one day as it can attract young readers. Well, that's been the case for a long, long, long time. Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, we were able to transition folks from younger readers who might not particularly be into the newspaper eventually into as their life's changed to be a newspaper reader, but now that's even changed. And certainly with the digital era, we try to do it as much as we can digitally and all the digital platforms and we're on all of them and we do that quite well, but it's, the economics of that are quite different from the newspaper side. So it's difficult at times to figure out how we're gonna pay for everything because the revenues are digitally, are significantly different than they are on the print site. Well, that's some interesting insights there, Dennis.  How was that day? How was that experience like? That was surreal at best and nerve-wracking. It was, again, purely by chance. I received a call from, at that time, the tournament was called the Mercedes Championships. I received a call from one of our advertisers that said a dealer from Georgia was snowed in somewhere and couldn't make his flight and do you wanna play in the tournament? Pro-am, and I said, well, sure, love to. And he said, well, the draw party, you don't know who you're playing with, of course, but when you get over there, they'll fill you in. Well, I find out when I get there, that I'm playing with Tiger Woods. And back then, he was running his prime, and of course, he was the number one player in the world. So you can imagine I'm on the first tee and normally when I've played a lot of the programs and you have your friends and family around you, maybe some strangers, maybe 50, 60 people walking around. Well, I'm standing there and there's thousands because they wanna see Tiger Woods, of course. And they announced, ladies and gentlemen, now on the number one tee, the number one player in the world and winner of all these tournaments. And they pause and they say, Tiger Woods. And then it just gave me chills to know that I'm on the same tee box with Tiger Woods. But not exactly the same tee, but he was way further back. But he was a gentleman to play with. He was super helpful, friendly. I couldn't have been more thrilled to play with him. And it was very nerve-wracking because I'm an average best golfer. And some of the guys I play with probably wouldn't even describe it as that. But to play with someone of that ability and worrying about, I'm gonna hit somebody here, just being just totally nervous about it. It was quite the experience.  And Dennis, you also met President and Michelle Obama. I mean, that is amazing. What kind of questions did they ask you? Well, that was a fun experience, too. I wasn't even told that we were meeting the president. And I was part of the planning committee for APEC. And a few of the business community leaders were involved to be there for an event. So I'm in the room waiting, basically I think we were having a cocktail. And then you see some people scurrying around in their suits and they got the wires in their ears and those kinds of things. And I was curious. And then you hear ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, and he walked into there and I was totally stunned because we weren't told that we were gonna meet the president. And so it was supposed to be a few seconds of meet and greet and shake a hand and then to get a photo and move on. And for most folks that that was what was happening. So I get up and I'm rushing up to, I shake his hand and greet Michelle. And then I'm ready to move. And then he asked me a question. And he could see my profile, I guess. And he said, oh, you're the publisher for the newspapers. And he said, now when I lived here, there were two newspapers. And so now they have merged. And I said, yes, that's correct. And he says, well, how's it going? Well, that's a broad question. Like, how's it going? Okay, well, and I see everyone waving at me to the folks around him like, move on, your turn's over. And so I started to tell him about how it's going. And then once I, and I realized that I had to be brief. So he then asked me after I gave him the answer, he then asked me what basically what you just asked. What are the challenges of today's in the newspaper world? Well, again, another broad question for not an easy answer. And I can see people anxiously trying to get me to move on. Well, he's the president of the United States. He's asking me questions. What am I supposed to do? So that was fun though. It was a really good experience. Wow, that's amazing, Dennis. And Dennis, you're also the owner of Midweek. I was so honored that you guys had featured me on your cover. And that was in 2010. Our team had won 17 consecutive state championships at that time. And Midweek, I absolutely love it. Why is Midweek such a popular publication? Well, it's an easy answer. Midweek has mailed, directly mailed to every mailbox on the island of Oahu. So roughly 280,000 households are receiving it. And it's family friendly. It's not a lot of hard hitting journalism, but it's a publication for everyone. And it has delivered to every household on the island. And so that helps make it very popular. And Dennis, you have both of my books and you know that I talk so much about creating that superior culture of excellence. And that's exactly what you've done with your businesses throughout the years. What are some things that stood out to you in the books? Well, I have one particular one that I was one of my favorites was, and I don't know if I quote it correctly or exactly or not, but it was basically making big victories and big out of all the small victories. A lot of small success stories will eventually turn into big ones. And I really took that to heart because I think that's exactly true and especially true in our business today because we put a lot of small victories together called revenue with a lot of small, much smaller advertisers than we were perhaps doing about 10 years ago. The days of the Sears and JC Penney and Circuit City and Toys R Us and even back in the day with Liberty House and all those, the major big conglomerates are gone. So those were the big accounts that are now replaced by much, much smaller local accounts. So to have those types of small victories, if you have a lot of them, they turn into big success. And I also part of that story that you described in your book was talking about attitude. And the attitude is incredibly important. And even for me, it still reminds me of the times that I start to worry about too many things and I start to get a pessimistic negative attitude. And I think you made the point in your book that if you change your attitude, you can change potentially the result and at least how you approach things. And it's true, it's easy to say, hard to do, but your attitude is incredibly important.  But it is an attitude and the attitude is very, very important. No, I like that you brought up little victories and attitude because positivity is a choice and I'm trying to inspire everybody to choose better choices and hopefully they can inspire their team members to do the same. And Dennis, you are also the owner of one of my favorite magazines, High Luxury Magazine. I mean, it's absolutely classy. I mean, I look forward to every issue. Why is High Luxury such a popular magazine? Well, first thing, thank you for that. First, that was our first magazine that we launched and now it's over 15 years old. As a newspaper industry here in Honolulu, we decided to look for our other revenue streams and we began to look at some of the community-based magazines. High Luxury was our first that we have many, many others since then focused on lots of different targets. But High Luxury, we targeted basically Mainland High Luxury luxury type retail stores that you'll see mostly at Alamon Amal or some in Waikiki and some of those places. But there wasn't, a lot of times when you make decisions like this, you're basically doing it because there isn't anyone else doing it. And we thought that was an opportunity for us to get a potential, a type of advertiser that we don't normally would get into the newspapers, a different audience, different market, different demographic. But interestingly, we have several advertisers that came out of the High Luxury magazine that you'll see in our newspaper, Amaze and Harry Winston and Rolax and some of the others. That there's probably not a newspaper in the country our size that would get those type of ads. And we're getting them because we had the relationship with High Luxury magazine. And Dennis, you've helped our community in so many ways throughout these years. I mean, you've donated to the Arthritis Foundation. You've also helped the Ronald McDonald House, I know. And can you tell me about what you did to help the Ronald McDonald House? Yeah, that's an interesting story. And it goes back quite a ways. When I first moved to Hawaii, I was the vice president of circulation for the White Newspaper Agency. And that was in the early 1990, 1991. And I decided to launch a program with McDonald's through their drive-thrus where we would sell newspapers through their drive-thrus. And then we give part of the proceeds, a good part of the proceeds back to the local Ronald McDonald House. That ended up being so successful. We were selling thousands and thousands of newspapers a day through all the drive-thrus.  And we promoted it as buy your newspaper there because you're helping Ronald McDonald House and we ended up donating literally hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years through the proceeds. What was interesting about that is that the program is that it won a national award. And then you started seeing McDonald's all across the country, all across the mainland with the same, you could be in California, Arizona or Ohio or Georgia. You go through a McDonald's drive-thru and the local newspaper there would have the same ability to sell their newspapers and give back to their local Ronald McDonald House as we did. And so I don't even know what the total would be for the country, but it went on for decades. And it still is today, but it's obviously a little bit different in the digital world than it was when it was on newspapers. Wow, that's majorly impactful, Denison. I know that you were also the chairman of our Chamber of Commerce. Was that for two years and you were honored by them? Yes, I was a chair for supposed to be one year, but our CEO, Sherri McNamara, decided that we're gonna change the board, change the bylaws to make it a two-year chairmanship. So I was on board for two years and then certainly love participating with local business and brainstorming ways to help them and also work with our board at the Chamber to try to improve things as much as we can for the community in Hawaii. Wow, that's impressive, Denison. Dennis, professionally or personally, what's a big adversity you experienced that you overcame? We're still trying to overcome it, but I think the quick answer to that is the COVID experience. It was, for our company, it was quite devastating. We lost about $30 million in the first eight months of COVID with all the shutdowns and restrictions and those type of things. All of those businesses that were affected by that were my advertisers. And so when the supply chain as a fallout after all that came disrupted and folks didn't know what kind of inventory they might have, so they couldn't advertise something that they might not have or might not receive. So it was pretty impactful. Certainly I wasn't alone in that. Other media certainly in town had the same problem, but all businesses were impacted by that greatly and still to this day, I think there's obviously still some of a fallout, but trying to offset as much as you're one of your responsibilities as a leader is that you lose $30 million of top-line revenue that you need to adjust costs in some way to minimize the damage to that, to your bottom line and to how you manage your company. So we did all the things that you hate to do with furloughs and four-day work weeks and part of that fallout for us was when we went digital only on Saturday and eliminated the print edition on Saturday because there were significant cost savings to that, but that was the damage from COVID was significant. And I say, I think we did overcome it mainly because we're still profitable despite losing that kind of top-line revenue, but it certainly made us a much different company than we were since back in 2010 when we first merged. Dennis, I want to ask you one more question before we wrap up. What's the best advice you ever received? A couple of things. And there was both when I was much younger, but those things kind of stick with you. The first one is, and it was funny because I approached them both differently how I handled the advice. The first one I received was when I first made, received my first promotion. And I was now from one of the guys to the department head. So I was managing the folks that I was, they were my peers. And we'd go to lunch during the day, during the week, and we'd do things over the weekends together and those kinds of things for the month, first month or two, I received the promotion. And then one day my, the publisher, the newspaper calls me into his office and he asked me how it's going and I tell him good things.  And I said, and what about the weekends? Did you, I said, yeah, I didn't know. I was answering the question. Yeah, we spend a lot of time on the weekends together and do things and he looks at me and he says, he starts nodding his head. He was, and he says, if you, let me tell you something. He says, if you ever want to leave the band, you first got to turn your back to the crowd. And he's nodding his head and looking at me and I give him a blank stare and basically I could tell that I wasn't getting it. What does that mean? And he basically explained it as it's okay to be friends and have a good relationship with your employees, but you can't be one of the guys anymore. You have to lead them. You can't be their best friend and their best bud. So I evolved over the last, you know, some decades later of, you know, that certainly to that extreme that we can't be friends or we can't do things together and those kinds of things, but I did get this point that if you're going to lead folks, you've got to separate yourself from the crowd. The second point that I, advice I received was a really interesting one. And it was also when I was fairly young, I was, I think I was 23 or 24 years old and I was in South Carolina and I was a middle manager at the time striving to be the department head, but I received my performance review and it was a glowing review. It was fantastic. It was really good. And then my boss is telling me that the publisher and the general manager, the newspaper both signed off on it. They both had high marks, remarks on my performance review. And I could see my boss getting a little uncomfortable and he says, but I do want to share one remark that came from our publisher and he did make a note on your review about it. And I said, okay.  And he said, so dress for success. And I mean, my immediate reaction was, was defensive as well.  I mean, they make a lot more money than I do. And I, you know, I don't have that ability. And he nods and he says, he goes, I understand that. He says, but you can shine your shoes, right? And I looked down at my shoes and they were scuffed. They were, they were not, they were not shiny by any means and, and they stuck with me. And, and I never forgot it that many people will comment sometimes of, you know, of what I wear or what I'm why I, the shoes I have under those kinds of things is generally because of that comment that goes back a long time ago about being successful and dressing for success. Dennis, I love those pieces of advice. And Dennis, I want to thank you for really all the publications that you've been, I mean, because all of us in Hawaii have been impacted positively by you through your publications somehow in one way or the other. And I really want to thank you for sharing your insights on the show today. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Dennis and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


a formerly incarcerated Californian. I have been free from prisons and jails going on 10 years now and I am honored to do this work and I am excited to be able to bring this important knowledge to the community. This is very important to me um so yeah yeah with that let me go ahead and get my screen share going screen share I'm gonna go here to present so today employment rights for people with conviction histories um I usually do this in partnership with excuse me in conjunction with Stacey we usually do this as a team but unfortunately she won't be able to join us today so that's who you also see up there and today what we are going to talk about specifically is the California Fair Chance and Employment Act. This law is a product of organizing and it's really done by all of us and none in partnership with the host of you know community friends and advocates that really helped us to drive this this idea into law that it is today this is almost 20 years of work of organizing a dedication of relationship building you know at the state level and also across this country um Banner Box laws has um is now in over 150 municipalities spanning at least 35 states so and that's at various different level whether it's at the state level and local ordinances and and through housing as well so this has definitely been a long fight a long push and we are excited where we are today with this the California Fair Chance Act. This was established and went into law in 2018 so we are coming up on three years three and a half years now and what this law did was it created three parts with a criminal record to have you know a fair chance in employment so the first part is going to be banning the box and that's where you get the banner box term from you'll hear me refer to it as banner box instead of the Fair Chance Act and really there's no difference the difference to me is like I explained it banner box is the movement piece to what all of us and none has created and started doing this work as far as formerly incarcerated people being in a position to stand up for themselves in demand access to various different rights so banner box is the movement piece in the Fair Chance part that's just the policies that come out of the movement piece so that's the relationship I like to spell out to folks so banner box it cannot ask about a criminal history before a contingent job offer is made and we'll take a look at what that means it also created a fair chance process that is a notice and an opportunity to respond we'll take a look at that as well and what it also did was establish certain information as off limits and that's criminal histories that cannot be considered at all even if employers do get access to that information okay so banner box piece um so like we said they are not allowed to run they're not allowed to ask on the application and throughout the interview process and that's most employers okay they cannot ask about your conviction history and they cannot run that background check on you before they offer you a job offer and it's going to be worded like a contingent upon a job offer or a contingent upon a background check that's when they can get your permission to go ahead and authorize that background check on you so banner box cover you do the application and the interview stage of the law and you can see right here how it's worded just all kind of different ways on a various different applications and I have to say yes the law is three years old now three plus years old now yes we do still see this violation on some job applications okay folks yes we do still see it okay here's a quick pop quiz so we'll have one or two of these who's are all the presentation um and you guys just go ahead and put your answers in the chat okay um and you as you can see the question up there um when can a potential employer ask about a criminal record and this will be based off what you think you may have already know about fair chance laws and also what we're covering up until this point um so go ahead and put your answers in the chat a b c or d i can't see the chat right now because i got my screen on full but for folks that puts d after offering someone a job you are correct remember they cannot run that background check on you until they offer you a job or ask about your criminal record okay the fair chance process so what is the fair chance process um so it includes several different components and the first component is going to be the individual evaluation and so the fair chance process is initiated once you give that employer permission to run that background check that's and let's say they find something they run a 70 year background check and they find that I have um you know some robbery and gun possession convictions that's when a fair chance process gets triggered so now they can they cannot just throw my application away or automatically deny me because you found some robbery and some um um you know possession of whatever it was a gun drugs whatever now that company must look at me as an individual and evaluate you know one whether my specific convictions are directly related to the job duties of which i'm applying for and also how much time has passed since those convictions you know so again whether the specific convictions are directly related to the job and how much time has passed so they found some robbery and gun possession charges that was five years old okay and they have to look to see will Katie's applying for a forklift operating position there's not really a direct correlation there you know what i'm saying so they have to look that up and then how much time has passed what's been five years i've been home i've been working i've been you know doing all these great things in the community i haven't been in any trouble that was five years ago that's neck that's that's that's pretty closely relevant you know five years later so that's the first part the second part is the initial written notification go ahead and do the evaluation and look at all that stuff and they decide that they want to take the job offer back they must then identify the specific convictions that they have a problem with and they'll and they must also provide you with a copy of the background check that they received and what they use to make their evaluation and so identify the specific conviction so again what convictions are you concerned about if i'm applying for the forklift job you see the robbery and the gun possession which one of those convictions is disqualifying me for the job the employer has to point that out respond now i have an opportunity to respond um it's a minimum of five business days to respond and be told that the response can include evidence of a background check errors rehabilitation and circumstances of crimes and current things in your life so this is my opportunity to say hey look you know i see what you guys found again that was five years ago i've been working in a community at that time in my life i was whatever it was i had a a substance abuse problem i may have been poured down on my look in a desperate situation you know this is your time to respond and take responsibility and show that you have moved on okay so that respond piece is really really important um for me that's my position look for a job okay next is the reevaluation so after i respond with what we have been with evidence of rehabilitation talking about those mitigating circumstances now that company must reevaluate me with the new information they must say well hey kady has been home for five years you know she has been working we don't see anything else they have to they have to take this stuff into consideration and then if they want to go ahead and still take that off her back they must provide me with another final written notice explaining to me the final decision in my rights to file a complaint with the the government about their decision and we'll take a look at who is in charge of fielding those complaints as well okay and for your preliminary notice so we talked about that employer sending that initial notice it'll look something like this the parts that's highlighted in yellow is really the the guts of what this preliminary notice should be telling you that you have five business days to respond to this company you know you may include information of act inaccuracies and criminal register again and we talked about showing rehabilitation the mitigating circumstances um and it must also include that notice must include that copy we talked about that of their report and the notice um you know should give you examples of what you can include to respond um and so most want you know not most want they look all kind of ways but this is just an example of what you want to be looking out for as your corresponding with that potential employer off-limits information okay um this is the last piece so you know here in the state of california you know we have there's a lot of work going on with the criminal justice reform stuff i think most folks are familiar with prop 47 where you know the voters said yes we want to allow people to get their records cleaned up we want to allow people to go to through expungement clinics and and get things off their records serve diversion programs and all that kind of stuff so what this law did was officially legally established once you have went through these diversion programs and expungement clinics and stuff like that that's information is now off limits even if it does show up somewhere somehow employers are not supposed to be taking that stuff into consideration and some of that stuff is a rest that did not result in convictions unless you have an open case so if you're out on bill right now then yeah an employer can take that into consideration pre-trial and post-trial diversion programs okay a lot of folks are familiar with those um project 20 you know there's all kind of programs out there where you can go through a diversion program judicially dismissed convictions again you went through a clean slate clinic you got some stuff dismissed off your record certificates rehabilitation you know you apply to the state for that thing that's a great thing um judicially sealed convictions that's the same thing is dismissed in certain situations partings you know if you had a part in of course everybody's going to know about that juvenile court history has been off limits you know that's juvenile record that stuff is supposed to be sealed um at the age 18 um I love this one minor marijuana convictions that's more than two years old um our folks at code for America has a great marijuana expungement tool that is definitely a resource and is available for everyone to take advantage of to get your record cleared up and in San Francisco they have a local ordinance that says tad bit stronger than what the state has uh in conviction that's more than seven years old unless the position being considered supervised minors dependent adults um or or folks with disabilities and that's going to be a common thing when it comes to the vulnerable population so yes that stuff is off limits you know and that's very important because I know for me personally it took a year for me to go through the whole clean slate process I had to um put in a paperwork to get some stuff reclassified and then once I got that stuff reclassified from a felony to a misdemeanor I then turned around to put in a next step was to get those misdemeanors expunge or dismissed off the records and so that took me a year um for some folks it's not free um there are a lot of free expungement clinics you can find nowadays they're they're picking up they're all over the place but yeah so after a year and spending money and doing all this stuff it's very important that that the law recognizes that that information is off limits now okay here's another pop quiz okay folks get your chats ready all right you guys see the question can an employer run a background check on me yes or no go ahead and put your answer in the chat but yes if you think it's yes no if you think it's no yes but only after a job offer has been made okay second question can an employer ask me about pass arrests yes or no put your answer in the chat no unless the case is currently open remember I said if you're out on bill right now then yes an employer can ask about that can an employer ask me about dismissed convictions yes or no what we thinking no that stuff is off limits information now um so this right here is just more information to make sure that you know you you you know your rights and your understanding what's going on okay so remember first we got the banner box please what's the box the box is the box on that job application that asks whether you've been convicted most employers cannot ask that question throughout the application interview process the fair chance process sets up a system where you can communicate with an employer and talk about if whatever they may have a problem with in your background and that's where you're getting that fair chance at a right to work any off limits information you know it's very important for folks to seek out expungement clinics and clean slate clinics and and take that to the process to get your records cleared up there's a lot of laws and stuff changing right now there's automatic clearance laws there's new laws going working its way through the legislation now to even speed up those automatic clearances and and and and set up systems where da's are on a proactive track to get these books cleared up and allow people to be able to access this stuff so that stuff is very critical okay so navigating the fair chance process we're just going to spend a couple of time minutes talking about that part when you're responding to an employer notice that they may be trying to take that job back so we're going to spend some time and look at how to respond what to do who to talk to the most important thing that i want to stress in any other folks that you come in contact with that's helping you get your life back on track is to get ready now and when you sign up and attend know your rights training such as this one this other one checker does them uh our folks at arc does them you want that's all a part of getting ready now we're teaching you how to do this stuff now crafting your personal statement we'll take a look at your personal statement that's that part when you're telling the employer hey look back in 2012 i was homeless you know what i'm saying unfortunately i made some bad decisions and and and since then i've been able to you know take x y z steps to do this that and the other and blah blah blah so we'll take a look at how to draft the personal statement let us support what's the letter of support where to get it from how it could look and criminal court documents such as your background check and things like that okay getting a copy of your records this is going to be super important that way you kind of know what you got going on you know i'm saying what you can be able to take steps towards and work towards getting dismissed and record cleared up and stuff like that you want to also just kind of maybe be ahead of the game when it comes to what an employer may be looking at it's not going to be a rap sheet okay it's going to be that background check that they received from those third party companies those are two different things you can always request a copy of your own records from the state okay Xavier but but Sarah is no longer our attorney general as you all know he has been tapped for a federal position um we have robots are coming in now you know so you want to go ahead and go on this website to request your own records a background check a background check is what the employer will be looking at to make their decision and that's why it's important for you to ask for a copy because you want to be looking out for errors if you can get a free background report from these employers in the state of California when they when you authorize that employer to run that background check there's also another box that says would you like a copy of this report and in the state of California it is free so every company that runs a background check on you you check that box it's free every time for you to also receive a copy so you can be able to see exactly what they're looking at and you definitely want to be looking for errors right that's going to be one of your main line of defense when we're talking about these background check reports they're using third party companies they're getting this information off google who knows where else you know some unregulated internet business and they're often wrong you know sometimes they're incomplete if they're ran on in in rainy days you know if you're supposed to be running a seven year background check maybe you ran an eight year background check that's wrong and that's incomplete and that's violation so you want to know what you're looking for in these background checks rehabilitation evidence or rehabilitation you want to include any and everything that you can i'm serious i'm serious i'm never gonna sell myself short when it comes to what i want to include as evidence or rehabilitation okay a right to work ready to work bootcamp certificate you taking any type of job readiness training programs called tenderloin has some fantastic ones the library has fantastic resources that they can help folks out with we have an anger management certificate right there absolutely your high school diploma yes that shows that you're continuing your personal enrichment for yourself personal professional development community service volunteer absolutely that shows that you are a team player and you're willing to go above and beyond for the community not just yourself okay residential drug tripping programs absolutely again back in 2012 i might have was homeless i may have had a substance abuse problem since then i have graduated from whatever the programs i was in i'm going to a and that's no longer a problem in my life you know what i'm saying that these are things that you want to include when it comes to responding to an employer i know it sounds scary it sounds like we put in our business all out there no on the contrary i'm stepping up for myself and speaking up for myself because the business is already out there okay when they run an east third party background check companies the information is all over the place is out of control so you're stepping up for yourself and you're speaking up for yourself absolutely never selling our self short a personal statement what could the personal statement look like you know what i'm saying it could be a little intimidating you want to you know you're talking to somebody about a very vulnerable you know scary moment that has in our lives that has been used against us you know to shame us or whatever so when you try to step up and defend yourself and talk about you know a situation it's hard to know how to start to put the language together to do this you know what i'm saying and so that's why we came up with a template you know you want to discuss the conviction just the facts briefly what and when you want to immediately take responsibility showing remorse in your letter you want to talk about mitigating factors what the situation has taught me discuss your accomplishments we just talked about that social and community ties progress completed inside and outside employment and education is going to be important okay again you want to always be able to represent the show what you've been doing and show that you're a team player and you want to close what relatable skills restate your quality share values and relevant work skills commitment to working family settle through community service personal strengths and let them know why you are good candidate and let them know that you're back there's nothing in your background that will prevent you from being a star player at this company whatever that company is folks and we're going to take a quick look at a small sample letter right here and again when we just talked about the template we got the three little sections we talked about no three page essay that's not what we're talking about we talk about something real quick a small little paragraph that you're going to attach with your little packet of your certificates okay no one's going to be telling their life story here with no three four pages that is not what we got going on we're going to have something short just like right here i'm not going to read the whole thing i'll just breeze through it a little you know from the time i was 18 until i was 25 i struggled with some i struggled with drugs um that i regret that period of my life you know after my most recent conviction in 2014 i entered the residential program for 18 months i successfully completed that proud to say that i have not used drugs for the past five years obtain my high school diploma and now volunteer at an organization that mentors people who was in similar situations i love this that's sure sweet simple to the point here's another one in 2012 i was convicted of grand theft auto did three years in prison during that time i realized that i had a overcome urge for instant gratification real i took some time for self-reflection self-improvement and now i'm out here taking all the available classes for computers and engineering and i just love how he ended with i've worked for the past 18 months as a mechanic and i was promoted after year hard work and i'm excited about this opportunity to work for you again when we talk about that template what happened discuss the accomplishments close with the relatable skills we not talking about no three page paragraph we talked about something short sweet to the point you know what i'm saying no one wants to be dragging themselves through old trauma again short sweet to the point these are some sample letters when we talked about getting letters from letters of support these are going to be in our toolkit that we will also share with um the library folks to help send that around to our participants that has joined us today um this is a hands-on toolkit that we developed that we think is critical it's interactive you can download it online for folks that want a physical copy we can have those mailed to you we can have in most of the library they can be picked up there um but this is a sample support letter that you know hey you can go ask from your probation and parole officer yes i did ask my p.o when i was going through my clean slate clinic to for a letter and i want to mention that too all this stuff we talking about the the letters of support and getting ready now and evidence rehabilitation not only do you want to use that when you're applying for jobs and responding to employers this is the same transfer of information that you can use when you're applying to your clean slate clinics when you're going for record expungement when you're going for promotions you may be going for a professional license on a professional note i mean on a personal note i'm always open to sharing my personal struggle still today i applied for a tweet card i hold a commercial driver's license and a tweet card for anyone that's not for me really quick it's a transportation workers identification card that will allow me to enter like sensitive areas if i was doing deliveries like the ports airports if i had to deliver critical supplies to like a military base um and so you need to have a special clearance for that i was recently denied that i have been home and going through all my clean slate clinics it's been 10 years now folks and i'm still being denied opportunities and you know what i did the same packet that i used for my original clean slate clinic in 2017 i pulled that same information out wrote a template letter and sent all that stuff in as a as when i responded to the tweet card i got a preliminary denial already it's packed together all i did was pull that stuff right off my wall typed up the letter photocopied it and sent that back in this is critical the stuff we're talking about now this is not just for jobs like i said this for promotions professional licenses um you may be applying to run for office somewhere yes i said it run for office somewhere we're eligible and we're qualified for that too we've worked hard so these templates and spoilers is really important vital even as we move on and continue to progress in our lives a letter from a healthcare provider absolutely you know what i'm saying these are templates that you can just you know have somebody plug in you know their name and title and stuff like that it makes it easier one more support letters from service providers job training education volunteering this is a template letter for that type of stuff make it easier for you to pursue your clean slate clinics to help you respond to an employer within that five days that's another thing about getting this stuff ready at a time man you only got five days to respond to these employers i can really barely get through my emails in five days let alone trying to get folks to write these letters and go print it out somewhere in pdfs and all that stuff so getting ready now and having a ready made package i'm telling you are so critical when i got that tweet card denial i was able to turn that right around in one day and get my stuff submitted in for my response so i i use my personal example to say i still use my same package not only for jobs everything is very important okay common um common violations yes three and a half years later folks unfortunately these things are still happening and that's why it's important for not only us at legal aid at work for everybody that's doing this work to help educate whether it's rural rebound i hope folks is familiar with rebound i love them native bomb um east bay community law center you want to get with them for your clean slate clinics they're the bomb you know everybody that's doing this work that's why it's important for us to get the word out there and educate people on how to navigate the process what to look for because it is the law is still being violated and some of the main ones are going to be asking about convictions on job application i mentioned that earlier yes we do still see it folks conducting a background check before the condition job was made employers do still i want to say make that mistake i'm giving the benefit of doubt stating that no individuals with convictions will be hired you do still see that language on craigslist and i don't know about linkedin and stuff because i don't use that stuff considering off limits information like convictions that have been dismissed unfortunately folks are human you might be dealing with a regular old Karen or a Becky that works in hr they have no training on the law so when they see a third party then release some off limits information illegally Karen or Becky going to still judge that information because they have not been through an employer facing training like this we do employer facing trainings like this checker folks are familiar checker their background check company that's my folks we love them over there they're really heavy in trying to educate employers on the importance of this law you know why folks like us on an employee employee rights because we're a worker rights organization we're doing our part in helping to you know job applicants understand wrong process or no process at all for telling applicants that they're taking a job back so the second piece we call that ghosting i've been ghosting before i was applying for a weed delivery company to drive once they got a copy of my background they ghosted me i never heard from again and also it was an incomplete background check as well and yeah i never heard from them again so i've been through that the employer does not provide a copy of the background check a lot of people missed that step you know and given the applicant less than five business days to review and respond um so that means you will get an email monday say hey miss dixon uh you know we flagged your record for what did i say earlier some robbery and the gun possession we flagged your record i'll get that email monday and then wednesday i'll get the final decision saying hey we're gonna take it off back that's less than five business days that's against the law so you want to be looking out for all that stuff folks okay it's very important to document these potential violations right now you know everything is digital everything is online so it's makes it really easy to document this stuff you want to be taking screenshots photos you want to be scanning stuff you know if you're using a um what what am i looking for here a one-stop shop if you're at like a career center you want to make sure that if you know not only are you putting whatever their little return scan or fax address your own so you want to scan stuff to your personal email as well um you know the emails are easy to say these days you can star them you can create a personal folder for communication with these different employers another thing take notes of the type of communications who did you talk to was it Karen or Becky at hr was it a phone call would date and what time was it all primarily through email did it seem like it was an automated response take notes of the type of communication because that can prove to be critical again maybe Karen and Becky is telling you oh we don't hire felons when that's not even company policy that's just Karen or Becky not understanding company policy okay last but not least hold on let me get some water excuse me folks so stand enough for your rights last but not least prepare prepare prepare clean slate programs get your records draft letters we just talked about all that stuff document what's happening we just talked about all that stuff respond to the employer that's very critical we talked about what that response could look like filing a complaint with the department of fair employment and housing that's the state agency that's tasked with fielding excuse me fielding these complaints and responses and turn it to your community like all of us and none like I mentioned ruling rebound east bay community lost in a legal way at work that's going to be critical when it comes to standing up for your rights we don't really have let me see what time is it no we don't really have too much time for the role play but that's okay that's okay one thing I want people to know you know if a potential employer ask about your criminal history on the application be truthful you know there's no way one right way to answer these questions or not only on the application let's say if during the interview process and it seemed like it's going good and an employer asks is there anything that they may know about there's no one right way to answer this question be truthful but here are some things to think about you know if an employer later runs a background check on you and you said no or lied or something like that that can come back to bite you but no you're right you don't have to tell them everything you know and for most and for most parts this is probably an illegal question so folks have come up with some crafty ways to respond to this potential question you know what I'm saying you know if you're in the interview and they ask you know you let them know hey isn't there a new law that just passed that says that that question has to wait until after offer is made there's all kind of ways to answer that question when I'll get caught up and feeling insecure and stumbling all over your words and stuff like that so be truthful but know your rights and going through a training like this will help with that um read the question carefully you know when you're when you're when you're filling out and platform job what does it say have you ever been convicted in the last seven years have you ever been convicted in the last three years have you know read the question carefully and that'll help you really figure out how you should answer it think about your conviction history you know always remember you have options take legal action and on the second pace right here I just want to say practice practice practice practice your responses when I first came when I got out of Lansing street yes I was standing in the mirror practicing my responses when I feel like I was um you know if I was just my second interview I really want this job yes I was in the mirror practicing my responses of what I would say if I would get asked certain questions because I really want this job and I really want to you don't make sure I'm prepared for what could happen so there's nothing wrong with that and take it serious and there's all kind of support groups out here that help folks with the job skills and the job training some of this stuff if you're if you're dealing with the right career center they'll have practice sessions for you this is kind of what the intake form looks like when you want to report a violation um about an employer who you think have violated her rights it's really not a hard form it says it's 11 pages but really only the first three pages and all you need to fill out all that other information is optional now we like to tell people to stand up for their rights because absolutely it's important but we want to let folks know some of the potential benefits of standing up for your rights um so not only are you going to be standing up for your rights you can hold that employer accountable you know you may get an explanation of why you didn't get that job back I mean why you didn't get that job and that will help you prepare as you go forward and move on to the next uh potential where you want to apply to and speak with and engage with you can't possibly get that job back I know I know a lot of folks that has stood up for their rights and said hey man you know I've been doing this to any other and employers have said well yeah you're right you know you have been in and we'll give you a chance you know so definitely you can get that job back back paying other monetary compensation depends on what the situation is again you're going for a promotion and you've been done out of promotion for a year because of your background you never know what kind of back pair of monetary compensation could be there change the company practice you know you could have you could change this company that's training for those Karen's and Becky's that work in HR that don't really know what's going on here in the state of California and the times and laws have changed when it comes to how to read and process someone's criminal background um so yeah absolutely absolutely those are some of the potential benefits of you know following with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing record clearing resources I spoke about some of this stuff throughout the presentation your local public defender office I know for me at the time it was definitely San Francisco so SFPublicDefender.org.services that's why did my clean slate process it was really effortless other than me having to chase folks down to get the letters that's really what took the longest and then the court dates being spread out but other than that it was really effortless I went through a clean slate clinic that was in partnership with the CAS San Francisco Public Defenders Department provided access to you know public defenders kind of look at your case tell you what you can do they had the live scan already there and then they did the rest of the work the public defenders took that packet of paperwork and processed it so absolutely you want to try San Francisco Public Defender those were my favorite I've met your rule and rebrand several times throughout this love love love them they hold clean slate clinics pretty often now they have clean slate helplines hotlines all kind of stuff folks I just cannot under speak the great work room rebound us clear my record.org that's my folks that I that I mentioned earlier called for America that's their clear my record option for the marijuana convictions they have a great program that actually was piloted out of San Francisco when they had um DA gas scone in there and you know it was really groundbreaking at the time to really allow San Francisco to proactively look at old marijuana related convictions and proactively get the ones that is eligible to be you know reclassified now that marijuana has been made recreational so clear my record.org that's a fantastic record clearing resource and that is again done by my folks uh called for America I just love love love those people uh and legalated at work that's us uh that's me and Stacy you know you want to look at your perspective area like we have a small map there because we do do statewide work so you know if you're in Oakland Bay area you know or San Francisco you want to you know just find your region and we do employment right so if you feel you've been discriminated against the job because of your background but we do other services to wage theft if you feel you've been being underpaid you know we do um we do a lot of work okay here's some more resources again so the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that's going to be the state agency that's tasked with um you know fielding these complaints Goodwill SF they do a lot of work as far as employment related services same thing as the library you know they have a lot of work options and in career training programs that can become involved with I've mentioned rule read by several times all of us are none um I'm proud to be a member of all of us are none that's at prisonerswithchildren.org they do a fantastic year long policy fellowship for formerly incarcerated people like myself it's paid it's full time with benefits vacation everything and it's a real intense 12 month program to really teach you public policy at the state level with the criminal justice reform focus and it really changed my life folks um and it really opened up a different for me and that's really how I got to where I am today to be able to be on not just a statewide platform a nationwide platform I've been invited to do these presentations speak and weigh in on policies and all kind of stuff because of some of the things that all of us are none expose me to you know what I'm saying because a lot of us get bogged down with thinking we're not worthy we can't you know we we can't hold up in certain arenas and stuff like that I used to think all that stuff too that stuff is just not true all you gotta do is tap in with your community learn about these fantastic resources and take advantage of them that's really all you gotta do your life and be changed in the year or two I promise I've seen it happen again we got the San Francisco Public Library at your website you guys know we got y'all on there we love you guys I love the San Francisco Public Library um out there looking for work and I needed to keep my resumes and stuff updated looking for jobs that's where I will go you know what I'm saying when I was out there homeless looking for resources I needed somewhere to charge my phone to get off my feet I will go to the library I love the San Francisco Public Library they do a lot for re-entry folks and you could be re-entering to whatever level of society again it doesn't have to be from prisons and jails it could be from homelessness that's a real community out there that really face a lot of discrimination I was homeless a lot of folks don't want to give you a job if you don't have a real address so I love the San Francisco Public Library and they just hold it down you know what I'm saying they they do it all and I just I can't undercut the library at all I really appreciate it and now to be able to do these presentations in partnership with a library you guys this just means the world to me I'm serious and I'm here to support anybody that need any help to find opportunities or whatever it is you want to do it don't have to be public policy you want to get your commercial license I hope you figure out what's the best pathway for free for free we don't want you paying them driving schools five ten thousand dollars that stuff takes six seven months we don't got time for that we're going to find something different you know they have my folks at the crop organization I'm sorry they're not up here but they have a new program that they just started you know that they were they're taking 18 people to give a thousand dollar a month stipends or providing you with a laptop and they're also providing you with on technical training skilling folks up to go after these tech careers these code careers and all that kind of great old stuff tech sales whatever it is you want to do I know folks are familiar with code tenderloin I love what they're doing teaching formula incarcerated people how to be coders my girl Shelly winner that my that work for Microsoft now she's a top salesman she's a top saleswoman over there so the options for us folks there's no miss these days and I want to encourage everybody to shoot shoot shoot for shoot for go shoot for the stars because we can do this um and that's the end of the presentation folks um sorry I just I always like to end it with these you know little sermons because for real man we it's a lot of stuff that we talk ourselves out of we don't know how to get there we don't know how to make a career change we so scared we caught up thinking you know one thing and it's you know it's just it's a lot of good stuff going on right now in the state of california for formerly incarcerated people and I want to help all all of us find whatever is next and best so with that is the end of the presentation we definitely wanted to leave some Q&A so I'll just go ahead and stop my little screen share and yeah we got any questions folks if there's you know


Self-pleasure is amazing. It is healthy. It is normal. We should all be doing it. There are so many benefits from it. Hold up. Wait a minute.  But this is why I want to warn you against it. It goes in direct opposition to God's design for sexuality. Our sexuality was designed to be expressed in the covenant union of marriage. Therefore, man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And beyond that, masturbation isn't a solution to the problem. Once becomes, weekly becomes daily. It doesn't leave you satisfied for long and leaves you in a state of guilt and shame. Friend, God's design is so much better. How can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word? With all my heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Saturate your life with Scripture. Confess quickly when you fail.  Through Christ you can find victory.