NOREEN: Human relations commission - back to the future
It’s been 15 years since Colorado Springs had a human relations commission and it’s time to bring it back.
For the uninitiated, the City Council eliminated Human Relations Commission in 1995 because its members insisted sexual orientation and gender issues should be included. The issue emerged before 1995; even before 1992, when Colorado voters approved Amendment 2, which permitted discrimination against gays.
Amendment 2 never became law, because the Colorado Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court essentially told Coloradans they couldn’t listen to the darker angels on their shoulders. The legal landscape has changed further since then. In the last few years the Colorado General Assembly has added sexual orientation to the anti-discrimination list.
But City Hall has fostered an anti-gay atmosphere by refusing to acknowledge an annual gay pride festival.
“Most large cities have human relations commissions,” said the Pride Center’s Ryan Acker, “to provide a voice for those who don’t feel they have one.”
Acker is a member of a group that has been working on an ordinance by the council May 24. (to read about different models, see my blog). Joe Barrera, who was a paid staffer for the former commission here, City Councilwoman Jan Martin and Barb Van Hoy, director of Citizens Project also are on board.
Barrera envisions an organization answerable to City Hall which does not use tax dollars. A nine-member panel would be “an advocacy group to give voice to the poor and the marginalized, a mediation and reconciliation effort.”
Unlike human relations agencies elsewhere, the proposed model wouldn’t be a clearinghouse for discrimination complaints, which would be referred to the state.
Why do we need a human relations commission? Why not simply take a complaint to the City Council?
“A lot of low-income people are intimidated,” Barrera said, “and are not knowledgeable about how to approach City Council.”
Barrera and Martin said city budget cuts have fallen disproportionately on the poor. Looking at what’s happened to parks and mass transit, it’s hard to argue.
The increasing gap between the haves and have-nots will create tensions a human relations commission is designed to address.
“It will represent the neighborhoods,” Barrera said. “It will be about equitable delivery of city services.”
Considering the city’s recent inability to operate light switches, ensuring a level playing field for neighborhoods is a legitimate concern. Some inequities are perceived, some are real.
Martin said, “We know there’s going to be opposition to this. But there’s no reason not to have something like this.”
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