Every chair in the room was filled as local residents raised their concerns about anti-discrimination ordinance 7906 at Monday night’s city council meeting.
Ordinance 7906 on the November election ballot pertains to anti-discrimination laws in terms of employment, education and public accommodation.
Resident Bill Herald voiced his concerns about the ordinance’s effect on the BG Christian Academy.
“I had brought up my concern at the last city council meeting about BG Christian Academy not being exempt from the ordinance,” Herald said. “There are many attorneys’ opinions on whether or not they believe that BG Christian Academy is exempt from the ordinance. This contrary opinion does not surprise me because the wording in the ordinance is unclear.”
Herald said he believes it would be foolish to pass an ordinance and then rework it to eliminate flaws.
“This ordinance has become more murky within the last few months, and I don’t believe that people know what they are voting on,” Herald said.
Council member Terry Dunn said he wanted residents to understand that the council is entering new grounds with this ordinance.
“If there is any way that you [concerned residents] think you can rework the wording in the ordinance and craft it in a way that you believe would be less murky that has reasonable changes made and is ready to be voted on in two weeks, then please feel free to do so,” Dunn said.
Council member Robert McComber said there has been hardly any litigation in the past several years with nearby towns that have added similar ordinances.
“This is new territory for us council members, and the wording of this ordinance can be changed once it is passed,” McComber said. “The council had good intention to make sure it was clear that BG Christian Academy be exempted in the ordinance. The right intentions were there and once it is voted on and assuming it will pass, we can make amendments to it.”
Herald questioned both council members as well as council President John Zanfardino on how he and the rest of the community are to have faith that the ordinance will be amended in the future, if passed. There is a question of trust.
“Are the residents in BG voting on the intention of council or the current wording of the ordinance?” he said.
Resident Marry Balmer also raised her concerns with ordinance 7906.
“I don’t like that I was not included in any of the talks that took place during the creation of this law last year,” Balmer said. “When the ordinance was taken back to committee to be talked about and re-arranged, I wasn’t welcomed in those discussions either.”
Former city council member Larry Sorrels spoke to those in attendance at the meeting. He said when the ordinance was first presented to council, he had his concerns.
“I remember we were given this ordinance back when I was on council and we all had some pretty reasonable concerns about whether it was unclear,” Sorrels said. “We knew if it was too vague it was going to cause some issues.”
Herald said he proposes that the council “start over and create a better ordinance that takes into account what we learned about this one.”
