Why Jax HRO expansion advocates feel optimistic

Pastors and faith leaders in support of the Jax HRO

Will the third time be the charm for the efforts to expand Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance?

In 2012, a fully inclusive bill fell by a margin of 17 to 2. A modified bill lost by a much-smaller margin of 10 to 9, with a councilman — Johnny Gaffney — saying he’d gotten confused when he voted.

Gaffney now works in the mayor’s office. And his brother, Reggie, who backs expansion of the HRO, is in his old council seat.

A few months back, when the bill was introduced, a flood of lobbyists and interested parties beset the city —everyone from D.C. lobbyists to aggrieved florists from Washington state had their say.

Committee-of-the-whole meetings of the city council were scheduled, and then scuttled, as the bill was withdrawn last winter.

Ahead of that withdrawal, Mayor Lenny Curry expanded employment protections to LGBT employees of the city and employees of city vendors, but said expansion of the HRO wouldn’t be “prudent.”

There were those who believed that approach was dictated, in part, by the Curry administration putting its political capital behind selling the pension-tax referendum … and putting everything else on the back burner.

We’ll soon know if that’s the case. Councilman Tommy Hazouri has vowed to bring his HRO bill back, with hopes for at least 10 co-sponsors.

Is that possible? We’ll soon know.

But there is optimism from the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality, said Legislative Director Jimmy Midyette on Monday.

“We’ve been down this road a couple times,” Midyette said, and “timing is everything.”

“Earlier this year was just not the right time,” he added, in terms of what the city’s politicians can handle.

Midyette was a public supporter of Curry’s chief initiative thus far — the pension-tax referendum — and some wondered if there had been a quid pro quo.

No such thing, said Midyette.

“There’s been no discussion on this issue,” he asserted, saying he believed the referendum was “the right way to solve the unfunded liability.”

“Not only was it the right thing to do,” Midyette added, but “I know that if we didn’t [pass the referendum], we wouldn’t be talking about anything else this year.”

Midyette also is optimistic Council President Lori Boyer will be a good partner, as a “new president who has given an indication that she wants to proceed in a different manner,” a “more traditional” committee process.

Boyer had called for withdrawal of the bill before Hazouri’s move to withdraw it, and Midyette believes that timing — or “temporal element” — was in the best interest of the bill, given threats of a referendum if the measure had passed.

“She was just trying to get it out of the way,” Midyette said, in light of the political pressures toward a pension referendum.

Midyette also is optimistic about the mayor’s dispensation in the end. Curry had called and told Midyette ahead of the executive order what he was going to do.

Midyette believed that to be a “great start,” noting Curry evolved on the issue, “from a leader who said he wasn’t convinced [of the need for legislation], carried through with his campaign promises for community conversations,” and then, didn’t reject the measure outright.

Curry’s assertion that HRO expansion was not “prudent” strikes Midyette as more temporal language.

And Midyette notes Curry’s directive “did the very same thing that corporate CEOs have done — cover employees,” offering “full coverage for the entire LGBT spectrum.”

“The mayor has proven to work across all lines to do big things for Jacksonville,” Midyette said, citing the “unprecedented coalition” that got the pension push across the goal line.

“If we make the case to the council, and get 10 votes, I believe the mayor will sign the bill,” Midyette added.

Regarding council members, many of whom said they supported HRO expansion as candidates, yet were mum once installed in office, Midyette and the JCE will “remind them of commitments they made” during the campaign.

In the larger political culture outside of Northeast Florida, there have been sea changes: same-sex marriage is the unquestioned law of the land, and even the GOP presidential nominee “doesn’t seem like a culture warrior,” Midyette said.

And, even as the return of the HRO debate undoubtedly will raise national interest, Midyette wants a “Jacksonville solution.”

“I really do believe this needs to be decided by local decision makers,” Midyette said, rather than the kind of national scrutiny and input that turns an issue of rights into a “front in the culture wars.”

Midyette believes, as he has for a long time, that time and momentum ultimately is on the side of expansion.

National companies, including some “announced to come here,” have asked how they can lend support.

Also expressing support are 600 local businesses and 150 faith leaders.

Ultimately, though, it will be about 10 votes — and educating those council members.

The education process may include public notice meetings for council members, which would be called by pro-HRO expansion council members and could include, among other things, a representative from the office of general counsel going through the review of anti-discrimination legislation, commissioned by Alvin Brown at the end of the 2015 campaign, and released on his last day in office.

Local politicians may want this issue to go away. But until there is a law protecting the rights of the LGBT community, it simply won’t.