Legislation might be on a road to nowhere
KINGSTON, N.Y. » After nearly a year of debate, Ulster County lawmakers have agreed to hold public hearings on a series of proposals that sponsors say would protect transgender people from discrimination and create a county Human Rights Commission that has some teeth.
Democrats, though, say last-minute changes to the measures made by the Legislature’s majority Republicans virtually assure the measures will never become reality. Republicans responded by accusing Democrats — who proposed the local laws — of intentionally delaying action on the measures.
Lawmakers voted unanimously during the Legislature’s meeting Tuesday to hold public hearings July 11 on proposed local laws that would change the county charter to amend the powers and duties of the Human Rights Commission and prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Legislators also voted unanimously to seek state approval to make the changes to the powers of the Human Rights Commission.
The proposed transgender protection law defines a transgender person as someone “whose gender and self-image does not fully accord with the legal sex assigned at birth” and says the intent of the legislation is to encourage the “use of single-sex facilities, such as bathrooms, in a manner that is consistent with an individual’s gender regardless of sex assigned at birth, anatomy, medical history, appearance or the sex indicated on one’s identification.”
The proposed changes to the human rights law would, among other things, give the Ulster County Human Rights Commission the right to levy fines for violations. The commission currently is tasked with reviewing complaints of discrimination in employment, public accommodations, commercial space and land transactions, and issuing credit.
Legislators have debated the proposals for months, focusing on both their merits and whether the county has the authority take any of the proposed actions.
Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk, R-Wallkill, said after the Legislature’s attorney declared the county didn’t have the authority to unilaterally enact the local laws, he recommended Democrats seek permission from the state Legislature through a mechanism called a “home-rule request.” Democrats dispute that state permission is needed for the county to pass the local laws, but introduced the home-rule request to move the measures forward.
On Tuesday, Repubicans amended the proposed local laws to set an effective date that would come after approval of the state legislation.
But with the state legislative session slated to end Wednesday, Democrats said the move was simply intended to kill the measures.
“You have so eloquently eviscerated this legislation, and you have done so in one fell swoop,” said county Legislature Minority Leader Hector Rodriguez, D-New Paltz. “We witness the power of the majority.”
“Every time that we so-call kick the can own the road or remove from ourselves the power to do something, we’re taking away our power,” said Legislator Jennifer SwartzBerky, D-Kingston.
Ronk said if the county passed laws it had no authority to enact, it would be providing county residents with a sense of “fake protection.”