Thursday, May 20, 1999
Council rejects change to intimidation law
Proposal added disability, gender, sexual orientation
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council on Wednesday rejected amending its ethnic intimidation ordinance to include offenses against people for their disability, gender or sexual orientation.
The vote was 6-3, with Councilmen Tyrone Yates and Todd Portune and Mayor Roxanne Qualls favoring the amendment.
Lycette Nelson, executive director of Stonewall Cincinnati, the city's major gay-rights organization, said the vote was very disappointing but not unexpected.
“All (council) was being asked to do today is deal with biases equally,” she said, predicting the issue will return after a new council is seated next fall.
In other action, council:
• Agreed to lend $7 million to the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) to redevelop the West End's Laurel Homes, one of the city's largest subsidized housing complexes. An additional $2 million will be spent by the city for a park and commercial space in the new buildings, City Manager John Shirey said.
Council added five conditions to the loan, including that CMHA assist people displaced by the demolition and press Hamilton County commissioners to fund affordable housing outside Cincinnati.
• Published a motion signed by seven council members asking Mr. Shirey to reopen discussion of a juvenile jail with county officials. Council decided not to consider the motion Wednesday because the meeting ran late.
In the motion, the city planning department listed nine alternative sites to the former children's psychiatric hospital in Bond Hill. A common pleas judge ruled last week that the city had the right to reject that site, though the county wanted to build the jail there and sued the city over the issue.
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