At its May 27 business session, the City Council voted 6-5 to direct staff to stop working on a non-discrimination ordinance (NDO) and to place the directive on the next regular business session for a vote if required for the purposes of public input or comment.  The initiative was placed on the June 9 business session agenda because the initiative was created after the public comment session on non-agenda items for May 27 was closed, and, based on the volume of comments received by the City Council, this item is of significant interest to the public.

The City Council approved at its Jan. 27 business session an initiative directing staff to (1) Review and revise the section of city code related to the Human Relations Commission, incorporating the expanded anti-discrimination language presented by Walt Dungas (Human Relations Commission Chair) at a previous work session by adding “veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, mental or physical disability, political beliefs, obesity or any other protected characteristic as may be defined by applicable law.” (2) Review and revise the City employment anti-discrimination administrative orders; (3) Review the Illegal Discrimination Ordinances from the cities of Missoula, Butte-Silver Bow and Helena for the purposes of drafting an Illegal Discrimination Ordinance for the City of Billings; and (4) Bring these documents the City Council for discussion at a future work session after completion of the budget.

A work session on the item has been scheduled for June 16, the first meeting after the end of the scheduled discussion of Fiscal Year 2015 budget.  The staff has reviewed the illegal discrimination ordinances of Missoula, Helena, Butte-Silver Bow and Bozeman, which had adopted such an ordinance since the Jan. 27 initiative was approved.

In addition to the NDO, staff seeks Council direction on the portion of the initiative to revise City employment administrative orders, since any actions would be difficult to enforce without the NDO.

The City Council must hold the advertised public hearing and then may:

• Vote 'Yes' to rescind the initiative to create an NDO and to rescind a revision of the City employment anti-discrimination administrative orders.  This would have the effect of permanently tabling these items unless a future initiative  re-institutes the matter;
• Postpone consideration of these items to a specific date, perhaps after the 2015 Montana Legislature session is over, to see if possible anti-discrimination ordinance is addressed.  The City passed medical marijuana laws a few years ago, only to have the State subsequently pass legislation that rendered most of the City's ordinance moot; or
• Vote 'No' and proceed to the June 16th work session for review and possible future action on the ordinance and City employment anti-discrimination administrative orders.

Other than staff time spent in preparation of materials on this issue, it would be difficult to estimate the total cost of such an initiative until an ordinance is adopted and its specific requirements are known.  For example, Missoula's ordinance calls for enforcement of criminal charges in cases involving more than a certain number of civil violations of its illegal discrimination ordinance; other cities have civil cases only.  A criminal case would involve investigations by police and possible prosecution, using the time of police, public prosecutors and the Municipal Court.

In accordance with the Council's May 27th initiative, staff recommends the Council vote to rescind the initiative to create an NDO and to rescind a revision of the City employment anti-discrimination administrative orders.