S.L. trying to agree on how Human Rights Commission will work

Salt Lake City leaders are poised to create a first-of-its-kind Human Rights Commission for Utah's capital, but there is some disagreement about how that commission will take shape.

Dueling opinions will take stage at Tuesday's City Council meeting as council members and Mayor Rocky Anderson's administration discuss the new commission, which is the subject of a legislative action from City Council members Jill Remington Love and Eric Jergensen.

One the one side is Mayor Rocky Anderson's administration, which sees the commission functioning much like the city's existing Police Civilian Review Board.

Ty McCartney, the mayoral staffer who oversees the police board and will likely oversee the new Human Rights Commission, envisions the commission as a place where citizens could take discrimination complaints for an independent review. The commission would then investigate the complaints — likely based on race, religion, age, sexual orientation and other categories — and make a determination about whether discrimination occurred. That determination would be sent on the mayor and city council, which could take punitive action.

The commission would look at housing issues and examine cases where people feel they have been kept from gaining an apartment because of their status as a minority class, McCartney said. The commission would also examine claims of discrimination from people dealing with various city departments or any claims of workplace discrimination, McCartney said.

"I know there are people interested in seeing this put in place," he said.

City Council members, however, may see the commission working a little differently. Love said the commission would review the city's existing policies and procedures and find ways in which those policies could discriminate against certain groups.

The commission would then make recommendations to the city on how it could adopt better polices and practices.

"What we envision is more in terms of the commission looking at specific cases in the city where within the permit desk or zoning desk there are claims of discrimination," Jergensen said.

McCartney said the disagreement over the commission's role may lead to problems at City Hall.

"This seems like a political hot potato," he said. "I'm going to stay out of the middle of the mayor's office and City Council."

But council members are convinced whatever disagreements exist can be worked out. The council's legislative action will only instruct the mayor's office to establish the commission. The mayor's office will be able to craft the commission in the way it sees fit before taking it back to the council for approval.