Portage gets first look at human rights proposal – Chicago Tribune

City officials got their first look at a detailed human rights ordinance Monday that supporters said will show Portage can be home to all kinds of residents.

The City Council's three-member ordinance committee John Cannon, R-4th, Sue Lynch, D-At large, and committee chair Pat Clem, D-2nd had plenty of questions and concerns about the lengthy and tabled the measure, but all agreed the spirit of the ordinance was important.

"We totally support the rights for our city for all human beings who live in our city," Lynch said.

Clerk-Treasurer Chris Stidham, who drafted the ordinance with Portage resident Beto Barerra, a retired civil rights organizer, and the Rev. Michael Cooper, who pastors Metropolitan Community Church Illiana, a church open to LGBTQ members, said the ordinance would send "the right message."

"This ordinance says we're an open for business city, that we're an open and welcoming city," Stidham said.

The committee members said they had not had enough time to read the seven-and-a-half page ordinance, which, as written, is meant to ensure "equal rights" and "equal treatment without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, familial status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status."

The ordinance calls on the city to appoint a nine-member Human Rights Committee, made up of members selected by each of the city's nine elected officials, to ensure equal access to public accommodations, even extending fairness to private interactions, such as banks granting loans or landlords treating tenants and potential tenants fairly and handling a wide range of potential complaints.

The ordinance committee spent considerable time wrestling with the ordinance's appointment of a Human Rights Coordinator to do extensive community education and outreach and to serve as the point person for any civil rights complaints.

Cannon had the most questions on the coordinator position, peppering ordinance supporters with questions on how a coordinator would be selected and paid and suggesting many of the alleged wrongs the ordinance would address already are covered by state and federal law.

Another sticking point was how deeply the human rights committee and coordinator can go into addressing complaints of alleged discrimination, especially if those complaints are aimed at local businesses. Everyone from landlords to bankers to colleges and private employers and labor unions could face an investigation and mediation if the committee and coordinator find they discriminated against any of the protected groups in the legislation, the plan says.

As long as the council members agree with "the spirit of the ordinance," there's room for dialog and explanations that could make the ordinance more palatable, Barrera said.

"If they're against some of the content, then we can deal with that," Barrera said. "At least all three said they're not against the ordinance itself. I think if they, in good faith, would sit down and read the ordinance and try to understand it better, then we can eliminate some of the language, no problem."

Portage would not be alone locally or statewide in adopting a human rights ordinance, Cooper said. Statewide, 17 other municipalities have such local legislation and, with Portage, he ordinances would cover about two million Hoosiers, he said.

Munster and Valparaiso adopted similar ordinances last year, and Portage supporters used Valparaiso's model, Stidham said.

Heath Carter, a Valparaiso University assistant history professor and chair of the mayor's Advisory Human Relations council, said his city still is working on how to educate the public on its ordinance and on hiring a citywide community relations director to serve as the point person on discrimination issues.

"It's just a process, and we're still at the beginning of the process of helping the residents of Valpo understand what I think is a pretty extraordinary law," Carter said. "It offers you a local, accessible, free recourse should you experience some discrimination in a protected status.

"It's our word and deed," he said. "It's our commitment to being a place that can be a home for anybody and everybody. It's a way of living into the values this community has expressed, no matter who you are, you can feel right at home here."

Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

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Portage gets first look at human rights proposal - Chicago Tribune