“The result is more than 70 million people in the United States face significant barriers when seeking to work,” she said.

Jerry Hoalt, who has worked as a hiring manager, said he has had to “argue past the box” to hire the most qualified applicants when they had a criminal past.

“We have a slippery slope going on in this country right now that is preventing the right people from getting hired to do the right jobs,” he added.

While Klein said she supported removing the criminal history box from job applications, she said it was dishonest to prevent employers from talking about it during the interview process.

Jacobs, Schmitt and some members of the public said they believed the ordinance violates a state law preventing cities from adopting rules “that exceed or conflict with federal or state law related to … hiring practices.”

“We know once we pass this we will be defending this ordinance in court,” Jacobs said. “We can’t just violate a state code and get away with that.”

The ordinance doesn’t take effect until it is published, a process that takes several weeks. But Juon said a group of people who have been meeting to review the regulations are expecting to make changes before then.