Human Rights Dept. Charged With Inaction On Discrimination

Ann Arbor has a reputation as an open and tolerant community. People often point to the city's Human Rights Ordinance as a sign of this tolerance. The ordinance, one of the most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation on the books anywhere, bans discrimination in employment, housing and public accomodations on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual preference (heterosexual or homosexual), educational association (student, non-student) and marital status. The city has a Human Rights Department (HRD) charged with implementation of the ordinance, and a citizen board, the Human Rights Commission (HRC), which advises the department and the City Council on how to increase the effectiveness of the city's antidiscrimination effort.

This may look good on paper, but there is strong feeling in many quarters that Ann Arbor's human rights program isn't working. In its own investigation, the SUN uncovered numerous cases of discrimination clearly in violation of the ordinance.

CRITICS CHARGE ORDINANCE NOT ENFORCED

"The situation is really deplorable," HRP City Councilwoman Kathy Kozachen ko told the SUN. "Enforcement of the ordinance is practically non-existent. There is virtually no aggressive action on the part of the Human Rights Department to see that the law is observed."

According to U-M Gay Advocate Jackie Bailey, "The Human Rights Department, as far as gay people are concerned, we have very little good to say about it. It sounds nice to say Ann Arbor has a Human Rights Ordinance and a Human Rights Department, but it stops right there - there's no enforcement."

Much of the criticism aimed at the Human Rights Department centers on claims that it has placed a low priority on enforcement of the sex, sexual preference, marital and educational status provisions of the law.

"Our Human Rights Director, James Slaughter, does not feel that these sections of the law are as important as the racial problem," according to Colleen McGee, Democratic City Councilwoman and member of the Human Rights Commission. This might be mitigated, she stated, by a strong effort in the area of racial discrimination, but, "I don't feel he's effective in dealing with minorities either."

In addition, the department has been criticized for what has been called a "wait-and-see" approach to discrimination. "The Department is almost totally passive. It doesn't publicize itself," David Cahill, HRP representative on the Human Rights Commission told the SUN. Cahill said that this results in-the department seeing only "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of locally occurring discrimination.

According to the HRD's annual report tbr 1973-74, the last twelve month period for which statistics are available, the department handled 86 discrimination cases under the local ordinance (in addition to about an equal number of cases which it forwarded to the Michigan State Civil Rights Commission). Over half of these cases dealt with racial discrimination, 24 with sex discrimination, nine with sexual preference and 3 with marital status and educational association. This amounted to a little less than two cases a week for the department, which had three investigators, a director and assistant director, and one clerical.

ANN ARBOR NEWS

MAIN CULPRIT

In order to find out to what extent employers and landlords violate provisions of the Human Rights Ordinance, the SUN checked over a two-week period classified ads appearing in the Ann Arbor News, The Michigan Daily, Good Morning Michigan, and, to be equitable, the Ann Arbor SUN as well. Under the law, a publication which carries a discriminatory ad is responsible as well as the person placing the ad. The results of the survey were as follows:

Every publication, including the SUN, at one time or another carried a discriminatory ad. With the exception of the Ann Arbor News, such ads appeared only sporadically.

The News, on the other hand, consistently carried anywhere from 16 up to 36 discriminatory ads each day. Part of this can be attributed to the larger classified ad volume that it carries, but there is also an apparent failure by the News to screen ads for discriminatory content.

Looking at Ann Arbor News classifieds for Thursday, June 12, there were a total of 28 discriminatory ads, 22 in housing and 6 in employment. Marital status was the most common basis for discrimination in rental ads. Typical was an ad which read: "FOR WORKING COUPLE- 3 room furnished apt.." placed by Markeson. Zahn and Rogers, realtors. A number of ads stipulated that working people and graduate students, but not undergrads, were sought as tenants.

In the employment category, 3 ads specified the sex of the applicant, 2 called for married couples, and 1 asked for a "grad student."

Colleen McGee recounted her experience of two years ago when she sought to get the News to voluntarily institute screening procedures for their classified ads: "When we raised the subject (to one of the News editors) he said, 'You can't Train the girls to get all the information straight and do this kind of screening as well."

The SUN also surveyed local night spots and theaters, finding that all but ofte had no publically-stated discriminalory admission policies. "Chances Are," which for several months had a regular Wednesday evening "Ladies Night" during which women were admitted free, discontinued the program shortly before being contacted by the SUN.

"They (the HRD) indicated that they'd rather not have us do it," Dave Rogers stated, "so we stopped it."

Clearly, what we were able to uncover in these surveys were only the most overt and blatant kinds of discriinination. More subtle forms of bias are more difficult to probe, and are therefore all the more insidious. The serious question raised by this survey is, if obvious discrimination is ignored by the city, how well can it be expected to perform against covert discrimination?

SLAUGHTER ANSWERS CRITICS

I quizzed Human Rights Director James Slaughter on his views of the effectiveness of his department and raised some of the criticisms that have been made regarding his performance.

"I think that the fact that we had a 66% increase in complaints filed in 73-74 tells us that at least we're getting somewhere. People continue to view the department as viable," he stated.

On the charge that his department doesn't seek adequate publicity, Slaughter responded, "I don't know if that's true. We ought to be able to get publicity by the cases we bring to hearing and by the cases we take to Circuit Court."

"It's true that I could, as people have suggested, give weekly press conferences, send out press releases - that would bring in more cases, but it wouldn't change the way we can do things, given our budget constraints." Slaughter pointed out that three positions have been cut from the Human Rights Department over the last four years.

"If I go at this point into a big PR route, given our staffing for 1974-75, we would get a worse image for lack of performance. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't."

'I'm afraid, he's got things backwards," responded David Cabul. "If he'd been doing anything over the years, he wouldn't have had his budget cut in the first place."

Slaughter is not without his supporters, however. "People there (in the HRD) are well qualified to do a job," according to black Republican and Human Rights Commission Chairperson David Byrd. "The job is so large, so vast. thal they can't do il with the limiled stalt they have."

NEW COUNCIL TO BRING CHANGES TO HRD

Nonetheless, the winds of political change that swept (however gently) Jim Stephenson and his Republican administration out of City Hall will probably be bringing some major changes to the Human Rights Department and Commission. City Council Democrats are on record as seeking a new Department of Human Services which would incorporate the functions of the HRD as well as deal with social service needs. The dissatislaction with Slaughter's performance expresscd by Democratic and HRP members of Council, who now constitute a majority of that body, bodes ill for his tenure in office if the department is reorganized.

Recently-elected Democratic Mayor Albert Wheeler will also be looking for a replacement for Republican David Byrd as chairperson of the 'Human Rights Commission when Byrd's one-year term expires this summer. Either David Cahill or Colleen McGee, the two main activists on the Commission, could get the nod, but the odds are that t will go to Cahill, since McGee might be stretched a little thin as both a member of Council and head of the HRC.

"Our human rights effort has to be more forward, aggressive and outspoken," Cahill told the SUN. He may wcll have a chance to put liis ideas to the test.

"The Human Rights Department is almost totally passive. It sees only the tip of the iceberg." -David Cahill, Human Rights Commission member "

"I think the fact we had a 66% increase in com plaints filed in '73-'74 tells us _ we're getting some, where. People continue to view the department as viable."- James Slaughter, Director, HRD