It was last summer that Lyonel Lagrone, a resident of Grand Rapids decided to rewrite the City of Grand Rapids Human Rights Ordinance and present it to city officials.
“The current ordinance know what employment discrimination is and what it means and when you have something like that that is so incredibly broad that its weak.”
In response to the concerns Lagrone brought forward, the Community Relations Commission spend the last five months rewriting its current policy.
“This would not be happening if the CRC wasn’t always advocating for resident voices to come forward.”
That is Tommy Allen, chair of the CRC, during the presentation of the human rights ordinance to the City Commission.
“The uniqueness about this ordinance is, quite frankly, that we have not done an ordinance update of this scale since 1994 when we added LGBT protections in our city.”
Unlike the old ordinance, this one outlines specifically what discriminatory employment and housing practices entail; and provides a process for residents to file a complaint.
“One of the things that this commission really wanted to make sure was a hallmark of anything we do was to simplify the process for people.”
According to Allen, the human rights ordinance provides an opportunity for remediation.
“Our city has to have ways for people who are experiencing pain to have that pain relieved. An ordinance helps protect individuals, but also helps remove some of the pain and the sting of society by saying this is what we believe, this is how we will operate in this community.”
The general public will be able to give their opinion regarding the ordinance at the next city commission meeting on April 23 at 7pm at Grand Rapids City Hall.
Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News.
