An ordinance bill to establish a Human Rights Commission was on its way to passage during Monday night’s Town Council meeting—until it wasn’t.
The ordinance will now go to a committee of council members to resolve textual inconsistencies between the Resolution Against Racism and the Ordinance Establishing a Human Rights Commission.
The Resolution Against Racism was revised before its passage on September 7 to extract the sentence “The Human Rights Commission will be empowered to investigate and resolve allegations of discrimination in employment, housing, by town agencies and by businesses.” It was removed to clarify that the Commission was not designed to function as an investigative or punitive mechanism.
However, Ward 2 Councilman Tom Herz pointed out that the same text appears in the language of the current ordinance and needed to be removed to be in concert with the final resolution’s language.
Merz also wants the Council to consider widening protections against discrimination of all kinds. While fighting systemic racism was fundamental to writing anti-discrimination policy, Herz said that he wanted the ordinance to be more inclusive and consider adding “age, race, religion, color, sex, ancestry, country of origin, marital status, disability, and sexual orientation” to the list of protected right.
Additionally, Herz offered a motion to amend Ordinance 02020 in committee and resubmit it to the Council for passage. Mayor Cerino seconded the motion to move the ordinance into committee to address changes, additions and edits to the text.
That meeting, open to the public, will be held on Monday November 9 from 7pm-9pm.
Commenting to the Spy today, Herz said that the Council needed to be sensitive to getting the ordinance right.
This video is approximately nine minutes in length.
Paula Reeder says
Referral to “Committee” is clearly a move intended to emasculate the proposed Commission. By the time the “Committe is done rewriting proposed Commission authorization language the Commission will be powerless to do anything – which is just what the Mayor and Mr. Herz want. This political posturing and maneuvering is disgraceful – truly a page out of Chestertown’s uncomfortable racist past.
Tom Herz says
As a clarification to Chestertown Spy readers: the Purpose and Mission statements that I read as a proposed amendment to ordinance 07-2020 are sourced from the bylaws of the Kent County Human Relations Commission (Article 2 and Article 3 respectively). I’m not sure if that was clear in my presentation, but full sourcing of all proposed changes not original to me will be provided at the public committee meeting to discuss the ordinance.
As I mentioned earlier in the Town council meeting last night, I feel strongly that both the Chestertown Human Rights Commission and the now defunct Kent County Human Relations commissions should be aligned and that the town should be actively working toward the goal of reestablishing the County Commission for the benefit of all residents County or town.
Paula Reeder says
If Mr. Herz is sincere in his desire that the proposed Chestertown Human Rights Commission “benefit all residents County or Town”, then both he and Mr. Cerino need to respect and accept the views and recommendations of ALL area residents who advocate adoption of the Commission authorization resolution – regardless of whether or not they live in or own property in downtown Chestertown.
Andy Scott says
Respectfully, you are attacking people who are allies in the cause of racial justice. The Mayor and Council are elected by the residents of Chestertown to do the right things in the right way. The Mayor is part time and the council members are volunteers. They have been tasked with setting up a commission typical of those found in towns many times our size. I would suggest this is getting done at warp speed. How do you think this process would be faring with the County where it belongs?