KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Ulster County lawmakers adopted a human rights law Tuesday that would for the first time enable county residents to seek local settlement of discrimination complaints.
The local law, which has been lauded by members of the LGBTQ community and human rights advocates across the county, gives the Ulster County Human Rights Commission new power to offer mediation and conciliation.
Supporters say the commission now has the potential to settle many disputes locally. The law, they say, also creates a way for complainants unsatisfied with the results of mediation to take a case to an administrative law judge who could assess damages if the claim is upheld.
The law, which was passed unanimously by the county Legislature, now goes to County Executive Michael Hein for consideration. Hein must hold a public hearing on the legislation before deciding whether to approve or veto the bill.
Jeff Rindler, the executive director of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center, in Kingston, and a member of the task force that developed the law, said the bill protects all county residents from discrimination.
“It protects all,” he said. “It doesn’t segment people out. There’s a time that we need to do that, but this law protects everyone.”
The county law mirrors state law in that it prohibits discrimination, including discrimination in employment, public accommodations, resort and amusements, housing accommodations, commercial space and land transactions and discrimination in the issuing of credit based on a person’s race, color, religion, ethnicity, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, familial status, gender – including gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgender status, or group identity, or marital status sexual orientation or disability.
Rindler said people who have faced discrimination now must travel to Albany to have their cases heard by the state Human Rights Commission, a process he said can be daunting, and one that often people don’t follow through on.
The county law, he said, “allows us to take care of us here.”
The county law does not take away an individual’s right to file a complaint with the state.
Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk called the law a “positive step for our community” and said it shows what can be accomplished by bringing stakeholders together on an issue.
Last year, a local law that would have given the county Human Rights Commission the authority to hear complaints and levy fines became bogged down in partisan disagreement, with lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle accusing the other of using the proposal as a political football.
That law would have, among other things, given the Ulster County Human Rights Commission the right to levy fines for violations.
