[Vision2020] Moscow legislators want to keep local control

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (June 22, 2013) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Moscow legislators want to keep local control
Moscow officials are hopeful Idaho legislators will have better things to do next session than try to quash antidiscrimination ordinances sprouting up statewide protecting sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Idaho Republican State Central Committee passed a resolution last week to recommend legislators make such municipal laws unenforceable for the six Idaho cities that have passed them, and any more in the future.
Moscow councilors passed the city's antidiscrimination ordinance unanimously April 1, making it a misdemeanor offense to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Mayor Nancy Chaney, who is attending the annual conference of the Association of Idaho Cities in Boise, said she attended a session where the topic of such ordinances was discussed.
"A lead legislator told me this is probably three years out, and it will probably pass the Legislature," she said. "I can tell you there are folks in our Legislature seeing it as whether they prevail in a re-election campaign."
City Council President Walter Steed declined to comment on the issue when reached in Boise on Thursday.
The chairman for the Latah County Republican Party, Steed was censured by a small assembly of precinct committee members in late April after supporting the ordinance they said went against party beliefs.
"He undoubtedly knew he would get some backlash from his party committee, but this is not about a partisan issue," said Chaney, stating it is a civil rights issue. "I do feel there are pockets of people that feel threatened by this momentum at the local level."
Sandpoint was the first city to adopt an ordinance protecting sexual orientation and gender identity rights more than a year ago and was followed later by Boise. Coeur d'Alene, Ketchum and Pocatello also recently passed ordinances, and Idaho Falls is considering adopting its own.
"I'm not pleased with what they're attempting to do, and I find it very contradictory to their support of local control," said Carrie Logan, council president for the city of Sandpoint. "We just think it's within our rights and responsibility to protect our citizens, and I'm glad we did it."
Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said the Legislature convenes in early January, ahead of an election season, so there could be the potential for Republicans to use the issue for political posturing.
"I think they're making a huge mistake in suggesting we should take action legislatively to ban cities from passing these antidiscrimination ordinances," she said of the GOP Central Committee. "I think that's something people clearly at the local level have decided they wanted to do."
With Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke, both Republicans, opposing interfering with local control, Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, said legislators might back off if they know they could face a veto. He added there would also be complications in phrasing such a law encouraging discrimination.
Ringo agreed opposition by state leadership is a good sign for Idaho cities. But if the Legislature decided to go against the will of the people, she said it wouldn't be the first time. Last session, after Idaho voters repealed Students Come First education reforms, the Legislature reinstated several Proposition 1 measures.
"Of course, the Legislature doesn't have a great track record at all with dealing with these issues, which is why the local entities are taking it upon themselves to do such," Ringo said. "When antidiscrimination issues like that have come up so far in the Legislature, I don't think that has ever come out of committee."
Rep. Cindy Agidius, R-Moscow, said while she doesn't care for the city's ordinance, she also doesn't think the Legislature will try to nullify it.
"I think they're going to let cities do their own thing," she said. "I personally don't like laws that separate groups on any level or create specially protected groups. I don't particularly like what the city did but understand where they were going in what they did. ... If somebody is involved in a kind of activity you don't agree with, I don't think you should have to participate in it."

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And then there's Gresham "Boom Boom" Bouma, the Latah County GOP's two-time loser.

Question, V-Peeps:  Who do you think "Boom Boom" will lose to in the next election.  My money's on Rep. Shirley Ringo.

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 

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