Salt Lake may codify anti-bias rule

Whoever replaces Rocky Anderson as Salt Lake City's mayor next year could do away with a rule that bans discrimination in city government employment.

One of those would-be replacements wants to make sure that doesn't happen.

City Councilwoman Nancy Saxton, who is running for mayor, is proposing the council approve an ordinance that would codify Anderson's 2000 executive order prohibiting discrimination against city employees or applicants based on "race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or disability."

But Anderson and others are calling it nothing more than a political stunt.

The policy was approved by the council in late 1997, but the incoming council in 1998 repealed it and replaced it with a more generic ordinance, one that did not list specific classifications for protection, particularly the contentious "sexual orientation" item. The new ordinance banned discrimination based on anything other than "work-related" or "performance-related" criteria.

Then-Mayor Deedee Corradini stayed out of that debate as much as possible. But in 2000, a newly elected Anderson reinstated the policy, bypassing the council by issuing an executive order.

Executive orders, however, only last as long as the mayor wants them to. If a future mayor doesn't like the policy, he or she can do away with it.

"This has been an issue that has been important to me. When it came up the first time I was very interested in debating it and having a discussion about it and passing it, but the mayor didn't want it in an ordinance form," Saxton said. "Now that it's an election year it's definitely a possibility that it could be rescinded by the next administration."

Saxton was not on the 1998 council that replaced the nondiscrimination ordinance. But two people who were — Carlton Christensen and Keith Christensen — figure into the debate today. Both voted to repeal the original ordinance and replace it with the nonspecific one.

Carlton Christensen, still on the council, said Wednesday he will not support Saxton's ordinance. Keith Christensen is no longer on the council but is running for mayor. He said Wednesday he would not rescind Anderson's executive order if elected. He said he supports Saxton's idea, as long as it does not dilute Anderson's order. Saxton said she has no plans to change the wording of Anderson's policy.