The city council of a city of the metropolitan class shall employ a chief of the fire department and all other officers, firefighters, and assistants as may be proper and necessary for the effective service of the fire department to the extent and limit that the funds provided by the city council for that purpose will allow. Each fire department applicant shall, as a condition of employment, submit to the city a full set of his or her fingerprints along with written permission authorizing the city to forward the set of fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, through either the Nebraska State Patrol or the city police department, to facilitate a check of his or her criminal history record information by the Identification Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fingerprint check provided for in this section shall be solely for the purpose of confirming information provided by the fire department applicant.