opeka City Councilman Jack Woelfel is putting a spin on the saying, "Think globally, act locally."

Woelfel is bringing home a national issue with a resolution before the city council to authorize the city of Topeka to take part in the federal E-Verify program. He discussed the resolution Monday on "Jim Cates@ CJOnline."
Jim Cates: What does E-Verify do, exactly?

Jack Woelfel: Don't confuse it as verifying citizenship. It does not do that, and that's not the intention of it at all. It verifies your legality to work in the U.S.

JC: So you can be here as a guest worker?

JW: Absolutely.

JC: You can be a noncitizen and E-Verify will give you the OK?

JW: Absolutely. All it's intended to do is look for the folks using fraudulent documents to secure employment. The city of Topeka told me in their human resources department that they have training to recognize certain fraudulent aspects of documents that are presented — and that's great — but this E-Verify program is from the federal government for the employers in our country. Anybody can sign up for it, absolutely free.

JC: This will be acted on (tonight)?

JW: Yes, it's a resolution, not an ordinance.

JC: So you're just requesting that the city use E-Verify? There's no teeth to a resolution?

JW: Well, there's baby teeth, I would say. An ordinance also would tie in some legalities as far as compliance. It would give someone the right to file a suit if it wasn't complied with or if it was abused. That's not my intention. I don't want a bunch more lawsuits because of something like this. You take that away when you go to a resolution. But a resolution gives it enough teeth, that it has to be adhered to by the city.

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http://blogs.cjonline.com/index.php?entry=7472