Enforcement of Fayetteville's new civil rights ordinance will get close scrutiny.
Adopted by the City Council last month, the ordinance is intended to prohibit discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic background and other characteristics.
Council members approved the ordinance on Aug. 20 and it will be effective Sept. 20; but there is a lot to be done before then, mostly by the mayor and others in his administration.
In a span of just the last few days, Mayor Lioneld Jordan named and assembled members of an advisory panel made up of religious and business leaders and others.
And, on Thursday, the mayor selected Kit Williams, the city attorney, to administer the controversial ordinance.
The administrative post was created as part of the ordinance. The advisory panel came about after its passage.
Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter to the mayor citing concerns from the business community about implementation of the ordinance. He requested the creation of the panel to help hammer out details of enforcement.
Clark and Jordan, who were political opponents in the 2008 mayoral race, have been strong allies since. Clark finished third in the six-man primary and endorsed Jordan in the runoff.
So Clark certainly could have made the request less formally, but his letter served the additional purpose of alerting everyone in the public and the business community that the chamber is involved.
In relaying the concerns of local business people last week, Clark suggested a 10-member group to advise the mayor on how best to implement and enforce the newly adopted ordinance.
The mayor, who has used advisory groups before, made it a 15-member panel and had them meeting for the first time on Thursday.
"We're going to keep it on the topic of how to administer the ordinance -- not changing the ordinance," Jordan emphasized last week.
The goal was to include representatives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, faith leaders, retail and real estate businessmen, civil rights lawyers, Hispanics and military members.
The mayor wanted diversity and he has it among the appointees:
• Maria Baez de Hicks, president, Arkansas Federation of Democratic Women
• Kate Bartow, representative, NWA Center for Equality
• Bill Bradley, president and CEO, Washington Regional Medical Center
• Kim Coats, attorney, Littler Mendelson law firm
• The Rev. Lowell Grisham, rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church
• Laura Hampton, disabled resident
• The Rev. Jim Huffman, pastor, Christ's Church of Fayetteville
• Sue Madison, former Arkansas senator and state representative
• Mark Martin, attorney, Martin Law Firm
• Anne Mourney, general counsel, Lindsey Management Co.
• James Rector, board president, NWA Center for Equality
• Anne Shelley, executive director, Northwest Arkansas Rape Crisis Center
• The Rev. Curtiss Smith, senior pastor, St. James Missionary Baptist Church
• Tony Uth, tax partner, Hogan Taylor accounting
• Danielle Wood, director, University of Arkansas Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office.
Again, those people will be advising the mayor, not taking the place of the administrator. That will be Williams' job.
The long-serving city attorney, who also met with the advisory committee on Thursday, has been the one answering questions about the proposed ordinance during its development and since. Williams' new responsibilities will include fielding discrimination-related complaints raised by Fayetteville citizens, investigating them and perhaps mediating any issues between the parties involved.
Any further response would come from the city prosecutor, who could bring charges under the ordinance that could result in fines.
There's a little fly in the ointment because Williams, as city attorney, supervises the city prosecutor, Casey Jones. Williams has said he will not be involved in the prosecutor's investigation of civil rights discrimination-based complaints.
The advisory panel will weigh in on questions like tracking complaints and compliance, including the timeliness of the city response. And, despite the mayor's suggestion to the contrary, they'll likely talk about tweaking it once the ordinance is in effect.
If that isn't enough oversight, the mayor said last week he is seriously considering creation of a civil rights commission to work with Williams in mediating complaints, at least for cases that aren't easily resolved.
One of the mayors' new advisers pegged the challenge.
"It's so vital that we get this right," said Anne Shelley, who encouraged the creation of a commission.
That is the goal.
Everyone involved in this debate, friend and foe alike, wants the city to get it right. The problem, of course, is that they don't all agree on what is right.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
Commentary on 09/07/2014