The pullback of two bills about possible expansion of the city’s human rights ordinance will eliminate the third scheduled public meeting.
Council President Greg Anderson said Wednesday he is scheduling a special meeting to immediately follow Thursday’s planned session. The latter is the second of three committees-of-the-whole meetings on who should decide whether lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities are protected by city ordinance.
The new meeting would formalize the withdrawals of bills by Bill Gulliford and Tommy Hazouri and mean the March 3 would no longer be needed.
Three meetings were initially planned on the two bills — Hazouri’s would keep a decision with elected officials, Gulliford’s would put it on the ballot.
However, Hazouri announced Saturday he intends to withdraw his bill to allow more time to build more support. Gulliford has long said he’d pull his measure if Hazouri’s was off the table.
If the bills aren’t withdrawn or something else happens, Anderson said, the third meeting could remain.
Initially, that meeting was scheduled to hear opinions from all 19 council members on their stances for the Hazouri and Gulliford bills. Anderson said time will be built in Thursday to allow that.
The Thursday meeting also will have an update on Mayor Lenny Curry’s executive order issued in late January that would align city employment protections with those of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which protects the LGBT community on the basis of sex discrimination.
Public comment will still be allowed.
The committee-of-the-whole begins at 3 p.m., with the special council meeting to follow immediately after.
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