How do I exclude the 'Please Select One' option in this rich data column?

I have a back-end method that ADDS the 'Please Select One' for another part of the application.

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public List<SelectItem> getEcometryItemStatusCodes() {
    List<SelectItem> retVal = new ArrayList<SelectItem>();

    try {
        retVal.add(new SelectItem(null, "Please Select One"));
        List<EcometryItemStatusCode> results = (List<EcometryItemStatusCode>) commonCodeService
                .getCodeList(CommonCodeTypeEnum.ECOMETRY_ITEM_STATUS_CODE);

        for (EcometryItemStatusCode v : results) {
            retVal.add(new SelectItem(v.getEcometryCode(), v
                    .getEcometryCode()
                    + " " + v.getDescription()));
        }

    } catch (Exception cgcEx) {
        log.error("Could not get EcometryTaxExemptCode SelectItems", cgcEx);
    }

    return retVal;
}

I do not want it in my rich:extend开发者_C百科edDataTable column. Is there any way to eliminate it from the list which populates fine using:

                    <rich:inplaceSelect id="col6b" value="#{_item.estatus}">
                    <f:selectItems id="selectItems" value="#{mconsoleContext.ecometryItemStatusCodes}" />
                    <a:support event="onviewactivated" reRender="col6b"/>
                </rich:inplaceSelect>

You could remove the option using JS. The more recent versions of RichFaces ships with jQuery, so here's a jQuery targeted example which you're supposed to run during document ready or window load:

$('#someSelector').find('option:first').remove();