Subcommittee considering K’zoo human rights ordinance set to give its thumbs up

KALAMAZOO — A member of a Kalamazoo City Commission subcommittee charged with making a recommendation to the full commission regarding a controversial human rights ordinance does not want the original purpose of the legislation to be carved away.

“We will definitely pass an ordinance,” said six-term Commissioner Don Cooney, a well-known progressive on the body. “The issue is: Is it possible to amend the ordinance to reflect the concerns some people in the community have? The jury’s out on that.”

Added Cooney: “Maybe we pass the same ordinance.”

After voting 7-0 to pass the ordinance in December — protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents of the city from discrimination in housing, public accommodations and employment — and joining 16 other Michigan municipalities that have passed similar legislation, the commission repealed the law a month later amid fierce opposition from a group of local residents supported by the American Family Association of Michigan.

“If they come back with the same thing people will cry foul,” said Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema, who is advising the opposition group. “They will have egg on their faces.”

With a vote on the issue possibly weeks away, at least one more commissioner plans to vote for an ordinance as well.

“In all likelihood the ordinance could be similar” to the one that was repealed, said one commissioner, who asked not to be named because the subcommittee hasn’t made a recommendation yet. “Hopefully both sides can come to the same middle ground. I don’t get a sense that we’ll pass the exact same thing, but I don’t want the core values of the ordinance diminished.”

Cooney said the city has received “a phone book’s worth of comments on the issue” during a public comment period that ended late last month.

Kalamazoo Citizens Voting No to Special Rights Discrimination, the local group opposed to the ordinance, is vowing to possibly organize a petition drive to put the issue before voters in November if the commission passes an ordinance that does not give voice to their concerns. November will also be the end of each commissioner’s two-year term, and several of them are expected to run for re-election.

“[The subcommittee] said they would work diligently with both parties. I don’t know if that’s happened, though,” said Balkema, a commission member from 2001-2007 who was known as a conservative voice on the non-partisan body. “It seems very disorganized. We haven’t been in the loop at all. It’s frightening how this hasn’t been in the light of day.”

Balkema said she doesn’t know if the issue would go down if put before voters, but pointed to the 1,600 signatures the group collected in just a few days to suspend the ordinance — a move which prompted the commission to rescind the ordinance — as well as voters in the city of Hamtramck defeating a similar ordinance there, a city that President Obama carried easily, as signs that there is considerable opposition to the ordinance in Kalamazoo and that cities that are Democratic strongholds don’t always agree with such legislation.

“There is a way to set good policy and a way to set disastrous policy,” she said. “This is the way to set disastrous policy.”