Human rights bill returns, revised

Ulster County legislators are poised to once again consider adopting a human rights law that would, among other things, give the county’s Human Rights Commission the ability to mediate disputes.

But unlike a failed bill last year, the new measure introduced by county Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk would give the commission ability to offer mediation and conciliation, but not levy fines or damages against those found in violation of the law.

Instead, the law creates a mechanism through

which the aggrieved person, if not satisfied with the results of mediation, could request their case be heard by an impartial administrative law judge who would have the ability to assess damages if the claim is upheld.

“Our human rights law

focuses on attempted mediation and conciliation before going to an administrative hearing officer,” said Ronk, R-Wallkill.

Ronk said the proposed law, developed by a task force he created last year, offers far less opportunity than the state law for relief to people who have been discriminated against, but makes it easier to file a complaint than the state law

does.

“There was a concern that individuals who have a complaint are, from time to time, reluctant to make a complaint [with the state] because its daunting,” Ronk said. “You have to go to Albany. There’s a lot of paperwork. There’s investigators. There’s a legal finding. It’s a more complex system than the one we’ve set up locally.

“It’s my hope that people

who have minor complaints use the local option and those who have major human rights complaints go to the state,” the chairman said.

Last year, a local law that would have given the county Human Rights Commission the authority to hear complaints and levy fines become bogged down in partisan bickering, with lawmakers on both sides of

the political aisle accusing the other of using the proposal as a political football.

The measure ultimately died after majority Republicans, who claimed the county needed state authority to change the county law, amended the measure so it would become effective only after the state Legislature authorized the county to act.

Democrats claimed the

GOP effort was intended to quash the measure. Republicans countered that Democrats were using the proposal for political purposes.

The Legislature’s Laws and Rules Committee will consider a resolution at its meeting Monday to schedule a public hearing on the purposed local law in July. If passed there, the full Legislature will vote Tuesday to set the public hearing.