The Rev. Susan Minasian holds Tuesday's newspaper after reading from a story regarding a proposal to disband the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission at a Lancaster County Commissioners meeting Tuesday night in Lancaster Township.
Stephen Alan Glassman, chairman of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, speaks to Lancaster County Commissioners, Tuesday.
More than 100 people packed a meeting of the Lancaster County commissioners Tuesday night to talk about the future of the county's Human Relations Commission.
At the start of the meeting, Commissioner Scott Martin said a public hearing to discuss the possibility of repealing a 1991 ordinance that gave the Human Relations Commission its enforcement powers will be held at 9:15 a.m., July 28, in the county's administration building at 150 N. Queen St.
Repealing that ordinance would effectively pull the commission's teeth.
Former county commissioner Ron Ford told the board in no uncertain terms that the Human Relations Commission needs to continue its work investigating complaints of racial, employment and housing discrimination in the county.
"I view this Human Relations Commission the same as I would view farmland preservation," Ford said. "It's important to our quality of life and I think we feel this would be a definite step backward if we were to eliminate this commission."
City resident Adanjesus Marin led a vocal group that told the commissioners they should not only keep the commission, but they should expand its legal capabilities so it can fight discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation.
The county Human Relations Commission currently doesn't have that power, even though the city's Human Relations Commission does.
"The county Human Relations Commission should be able to fight discrimination of any kind," Marin said. "And we feel the people who live out in the county should have the same protections we have here in the city."
Martin said the commissioners are looking at the possibility of eliminating the county's Human Relations Commission as an efficiency move that could save the county $470,000.
Martin said he wants to determine if the protections provided by the county commission already are provided by the state Human Relations Commission.
Stephen Glassman, chairman of the state commission, attended Tuesday's meeting to assure the commissioners they're better off having a county Human Relations Commission.
"They're the people who know your community," he said.
State investigators already handle four times the number of complaints as the national average for human relations commission staffers, Glassman said.
"Cases, unfortunately, are going to take a much longer time to investigate and adjudicate at the state level than they ever have before," he said. "It will be far easier and quicker to retain cases here in Lancaster County."
The Rev. Susan Minasian, chaplain at Franklin and Marshall College, told the commissioners this is a bad time to consider disbanding a group that fights for people's rights.
"At a time when the economy is bad … we know violence and discrimination rise, and it rises against the most oppressed and least represented in our society," she said. "And since they are also taxpayers, I think you have a right to protect them."
There were speakers who applauded the commissioners for looking at ways to reduce government spending.
And there were speakers who supported keeping the Human Relations Commission, but opposed expanding its powers to cover discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The speakers included Steve Cornell, the senior pastor of Millersville Bible Church and a columnist for The Sunday News.
"I don't want anyone to experience discrimination, but I just don't think there should be special protections under the law for able-bodied people based on their lifestyles," he said.