Carmel willing to give 1 pass for discrimination

CARMEL — In Carmel, you could get one free pass on discrimination.

That's an amendment a Carmel committee approved Thursday night for the city's proposed anti-discrimination ordinance.

A majority of committee members thought a warning for a first offense would solve most issues. Additional incidents still would be fined up to $500 each day until the act of discrimination was found to be eliminated.

After approving that change, the Carmel finance committee voted to recommend the City Council pass the ordinance, which includes increased protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

The committee also made it clear that complaints should be taken to and handled by the city attorney's office.

Mayor Jim Brainard and City Council President Rick Sharp told The Indianapolis Star they think they have enough votes to pass the ordinance at Monday's meeting of the full council with no major changes.

Carmel delays action on anti-discrimination ordinance

Thursday's committee meeting, though, made it clear the council is divided on the issue. Chairwoman Luci Snyder voted to move the ordinance out of committee but might not support it Monday.

She might join Councilmen Kevin Rider and Eric Seidensticker in urging the council to pass a resolution that Carmel is a welcoming community opposed to discrimination.

Brainard, Sharp and several council members, though, say Carmel needs to take a strong stance in the wake of the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act to show it's a welcoming community that wants to foster economic development.

Councilman Ron Carter said a resolution wouldn't have enough backbone.

Snyder said she had concerns about the legal wording of the ordinance, including whether the city should define gender identity and sexual orientation. She worried the city might not stand on firm legal ground in enforcing an ordinance if those words weren't properly defined.

City attorney Doug Haney, though, said common sense applies to such terns and city ordinances generally don't include legal definitions. The committee decided not to add definitions in this case.

Haney also said he thinks much of the displeasure with the ordinance comes from the misplaced belief that it will force churches to perform same-sex marriages.

"People are really upset not about this law at all," he said. "They are upset about the state (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) law. And they also fear, from what I've gleaned, that somehow this is all subterfuge to require same-sex marriage. It's not. It just isn't. It's not even close."

​Rider said Carmel does not need the ordinance because a business owner "would have to be an idiot" to discriminate. He owns Woody's Library Restaurant.

Haney, though, said he thinks the ordinance could be used and enforced.

"You want to talk about stupid — there are a lot of people who are," Haney said.

The committee also discussed changing the $500 daily fine to a fine per occurrence. Haney, though, said that might not be incentive to stop discriminating. He said a business might simply pay $500 and continue to discriminate.

He said the city fines businesses up to $2,500 per day for some minor infractions, and it sometimes takes multiple fines to force compliance.

"You always get one guy who says it's just the cost of doing business and (in this case) I want to discriminate," he said.

The Carmel ordinance also would include classes such as race and religion, which already are protected under state and federal law. Sexual orientation and gender identity are not.

The City Council heard about three hours of public testimony for and against the ordinance Aug. 17.

Amid heated debate, Carmel won't fast-track LGBT protections

Carmel businesses and community leaders have been organizing support. They have been joined by Freedom Indiana, a grass-roots organization advocating for the law, and Tech for Equality, a group of businesses organized by former Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle. Both groups are pushing for expanded statewide civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers.

Socially conservative groups such as Advance America and the American Family Association of Indiana have been urging the council to change or vote down the law. They say such local ordinances would interfere with the ability of the deeply religious to live by their beliefs. They have been joined by a loose coalition of local churches that have been urging the council to pass the resolution declaring Carmel is a welcoming community.

Columbus, Zionsville, Terre Haute, Hammond and Muncie have added LGBT protections to city ordinances recently, joining long-standing LGBT civil rights protections in about a dozen Indiana communities, including Indianapolis.

But social conservative groups stopped recent efforts to expand nondiscrimination ordinances to include sexual orientation and gender identity in Elkhart and Goshen.

Call Star reporter Chris Sikich at (317) 444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ ChrisSikichand atFacebook/chris.sikich.