Photo by Jesse Chambers
Eva Kendrick (L) and Rachelle Burrow (R) outside Birmingham City Hall, Tues., Sept. 27, 2017. Both women work with the Human Rights Campaign in Birmingham and supported a non-discrimination ordinance the City Council had just passed 7-0.
The Birmingham City Council has passed a sweeping non-discrimination ordinance and a companion ordinance meant to eliminate discrimination in awarding city contracts.
The Council – at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Sept. 26 – voted 7-0 to pass the NDO, which states that it is meant to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person’s real or perceived race, color, religion, national original, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or familiar status.”
The companion measure, which also passed on a 7-0 vote, amends the city code to state that “nondiscrimination provisions... be included in municipal contracts.”
The NDO also provides for enforcement and creates a Human Rights Commission, which is to act “in an advisory role to the Mayor and Council on matters relating to eliminating discriminatory practices within the city.”
A public hearing was held before the vote. There were about a dozen speakers, many from the Birmingham LGBT community and virtually all speaking in favor of the ordinance.
One of the speakers, while expressing sympathy with the aims of the NDO, was concerned with the “unclear guidelines” regarding how the new Human Rights Commission would work and was worried that the HRC would be an “extra-judicial body” that could levy penalties rather than having the discrimination charges be handled in municipal court.
Julie Barnard, one of the city's attorneys, stressed that the HRC would have “no enforcement power” and would function in a purely advisory role.
The body “does not have the ability to issue fines or penalties,” Bernard said.
Before the vote on the NDO, Barnard told members she had amended the language of the law to clarify these enforcement provisions.
The council voted to accept the amended version of the NDO before holding the final vote to make it law.
The ordinance calls for fines, up to a maximum of $500, for someone convicted of a discrimination change in a bench trial in Birmingham Municipal Court.
“The city would impose a fine on someone for having discriminated against someone else,” said Bernard, who added that the money from the fine would go to the city.
If found guilty in Municipal Court, a defendant could appeal the conviction and receive a jury trail in Circuit Court, according to Barnard
And even if someone is convicted of discrimination, the person who brought the change against them would still have to pursue other means – such as a civil case or a claim through a federal agency – to achieve a full redress of their grievances, Barnard said.
State Rep. Patricia Todd – Alabama’s first openly gay elected official – expressed support for the NDO during the public hearing and stressed its benefits for, among others, the LGBTQ community.
“We are everywhere,” she said. “We are your brothers, your sisters, your friends. You interact with us every day. We just want to be projected from discrimination.”
She also said that Birmingham had the opportunity to be the first city in Alabama to pass such an ordinance and argued that the passage would aid the city in recruiting new businesses.
“We simply want to be equal – not special, but equal,” said Marcus Cummings, also a member of the LGBTQ community
One young woman, Tatiana Turner, said that the new ordinance could help other young people in city avoid discrimination in seeking employment.
“The youth did not want to be involved in crime,” she said. “They feel like they are forced to. This would help change that.”
Councilor Patricia Abbott and others pointed out that the lack of home rule under the Alabama state constitution restricts what the city could do in crafting the NDO, including the size of the fines.
Still, she said, the NDO represents progress.
“I believe this is a step,” she said. “That’s all it is. But we are going up.”
CORRECTION: 9/26/17 11:15 p.m.: The spelling of Julie Barnard's name was corrected.
