Craig Lowe – Member of the Blue Ribbon Committee
The equal opportunity office was originally formed in the late 1970’s to
investigate and resolve cases of alleged discrimination in city government.
In 1992, police raided the Equal Opportunity Department office and
confiscated records in
response to complaints from City Attorney Marion Radson and then-acting City
Manager Karen
Johnson that conversations were being illegally taped at the EOD.
Three former
investigators for the EOD filed federal lawsuits claiming racism,
retaliation and denial of
due process. Even though none of the cases were successful, the department was
dismantled in
1995.
After city attorney Wayne Bowers proposed reorganizing the EOD, a new
director of the equal
opportunity office was hired in 1998 and charged with designing an
affirmative action plan
and finding a way to restore the EOD. In the spring of 1999, after these
efforts to renew
the EOD had failed, more than 200 people attended the city commission
meeting to demand a
more effective means to combat discrimination. They demanded the
creation of an
independent equal opportunity officer with charter status to protect him
from interference
by other charter officers, such as the city manager.
A blue ribbon committee
was appointed
to recommend to the city how to deal with discrimination complaints.
The idea of an equal opportunity office is a relatively new concept. Only a
few other cities
have established such offices.
A charter office would be empowered under the city constitution to answer to
the city
commission.
The city had previously entered into a contract with the county to oversee
enforcement of discrimination
cases in the private sector. All of the city’s discrimination regulations
were therefore
repealed except discrimination on account of sexual orientation which the
county’s
regulations did not cover. The blue ribbon committee recommended that the
city reinstate
the regulations and establish a charter office to oversee enforcement. The
city commission
voted 4-1 to establish a charter office, with only Paula DeLaney voting
“no.”
The charter
office can be established by one of three different routes: either through
action of the
legislative delegation, through city-wide ballot, or by collecting
signatures on a petition.
The simplest route to establish the office is through action of the
legislative delegation.
However, some of the legislators, including Rod Smith, Ed Jennings, Jr., and
Perry McGriff, who
had previously promised to support the measure, have balked because proposal
for the charter
office includes wording prohibiting discrimination on account of sexual
orientation.
Currently, efforts are underway to have the issue placed on a city-wide ballot.