Fayetteville's recently overturned civil rights ordinance could not be made into law again under Senate Bill 202, a bill introduced Monday by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs.
"On one hand we normally support local control, but the state should determine the major game changers," Hester said of legislators. "In my opinion this issue is so impactful, it should be determined by the state."
Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan disagreed. "I believe that communities should be able to decide the types of laws that need to be passed within their own communities," Jordan said Monday.
The Fayetteville City Council passed the Civil Rights Administration ordinance last year. Chapter 119 within the ordinance would have prohibited local acts of discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation, gender identity or similar characteristics. Opponents successfully pressed for a recall election. Supporters then sought to rewrite the measure and eliminate objections to the way the protections were worded. The ordinance was eventually repealed in a December referendum but backers announced plans to submit a revised measure later.
As written, SB 202 would prohibit a city from making an ordinance or regulation that creates "a protected classification or prohibits discrimination on a basis not contained in state law."
Civil rights is not a local issue, Hester said. "If everything was under local control, Benton County could outlaw abortions," said Hester, an anti-abortion lawmaker. "This rises to that level."
Eighteen states and nearly 300 municipalities have passed laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, a national advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. Fayetteville would have been the first in Arkansas.
Alderman Matthew Petty, the ordinance sponsor, and City Attorney Kit Williams had each drafted proposals for new or amended versions of the anti-discrimination law after the repeal election. Petty favored revising the ordinance while Williams advocated a new one based on language contained in the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993. That would grant gay and lesbian residents in Fayetteville the same rights other protected classes have under state and federal law. Neither proposal has been presented yet to the City Council.
Williams said Hester's bill title, the "Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act," is a misnomer. "It's really a protection for discrimination," Williams said. "It's unfortunate. The vast majority of the citizens of the United States and eventually even the state of Arkansas, I think, do not believe it's right to discriminate against gay and lesbian people."
The state should not impede local efforts to expand freedom and protections of those freedoms, said Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas. She also said that the state should respect the concept of local control unless that local control is used to inflict or permit, not remove, discrimination.
"Arkansas has a long and rich tradition of local control," Sklar said. The repeal of the ordinance by local voters was a fair exercise of both local control and the democratic process, she said.
"These types of laws hurt Arkansas by making us look less inviting to companies or talented people who might want to move here," Sklar said of Hester's bill. "They make Arkansas look like an intolerant state."
The Fayetteville City Council passed the first version of the ordinance in a 6-2 vote on Aug. 20 after nearly 10 hours of debate. The ordinance was put on hold, however, after opponents submitted 4,200 signatures calling for a vote. The repeal effort won with 52 percent of the vote in a Dec. 9 special election.
Organizers of Repeal 119, the group that campaigned to overturn the ordinance, argued that civil rights issues are best addressed with federal or state legislation.
"One of the confusing things about this law -- Chapter 119 -- was that people coming from out of town wouldn't know that it existed," Duncan Campbell, president of Repeal 119, said Monday. "Business owners in Springdale wouldn't know how it applied to them if they had a division or employees in Fayetteville."
"This is the kind of issue that would be better left to state or federal government," Campbell added. "We definitely agree with the bill. I hope it settles things, not just for Fayetteville, but for all the other cities throughout the state."
Hester's bill was assigned to the Senate Committee on City, County, and Local Affairs. Hester is one of the seven members of that committee.
Doug Thompson can be reached by email at dthompson@nwadg.com and on Twitter @NWADoug. Joel Walsh can be reached by email at jwalsh@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAJoel.
NW News on 02/03/2015