Maureen Powers says axing the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission would consign disabled claimants to a difficult alternative –– Harrisburg.

The YWCA Lancaster executive director knows firsthand. She uses a wheelchair. And she has attended job-related discrimination hearings in Harrisburg before.

It's "infinitely easier" here, she told a pro-HRC rally in Lancaster Square, Saturday.

On an out-of-town journey, a single stair-step can thwart her. Or a handicapped-inaccessible bathroom. No matter how well you plan your trip, she said, you never know "what's facing you on the other end."

Advocates of the HRC are facing a proposal by county Commissioner Scott Martin to dismantle it as a budget-trimming measure.

The last of four meetings to gather public input will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, at Solanco High School, 585 Solanco Road, Quarryville.

On Saturday, about 45 people listened to Powers and other speakers before marching through the downtown, chanting and hoisting signs.

"We're not trying to make it confrontational," Powers said, "but educational."

The ralliers' message, as summarized by Lancaster Human Relations Commission board Chairman Mark Stoner:

•It's folly to dismantle the 46-year-old commission to save each county taxpayer some 93 cents a year.

•The HRC, while often handling cases involving the disabled, safeguards the civil rights of all.

•The department saves money by settling many claims before they get to court; meanwhile, it brings in more than $200,000 of federal Fair Housing Act funds annually.

Not that there couldn't be a compromise.

"I think there's some middle ground," said Powers, noting that the commission has proposed cutting its $470,000 budget to $394,000 in 2011.

It was early this past summer that Martin, a Republican who chairs the commissioners board, suggested disbanding the department by repealing the 1991 ordinance giving it enforcement powers.

Minority Commissioner Craig Lehman has said he opposes abolishing the nine-member commission.

State Rep. Mike Sturla, also a Democrat, told the crowd in the square that it's time for people who "understand the difference between special interests and equality" to get mad.

"We should be mad as hell," Sturla said.

In June, before the furor began, gay-rights activists had asked the commissioners to expand HRC's scope to include discrimination cases based on sexual orientation.

Adanjesus Marin, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Organizing Committee member and coordinator of this weekend's march, continues to question the timing of Martin's move.

Martin has said his proposal was triggered by activists only in the sense they caused him to study HRC regulations anew.

He found that just five of Pennsylvania's 67 counties have their own human relations commissions.

On the other hand, said Jenny Engle, vice president of the HRC board of directors, Allegeheny County created its own department last year. No county in the state has ever cut its HRC.

"No one has said the local commission doesn't do a better job" for residents, said Stoner, the city HRC board chairman, before setting out on the walk with his dog.

The demonstrators marched down Queen Street to Vine, carrying an "All Hands Against Discrimination" banner and chanting words from a traditional labor union song:

"Ain't no sense in looking down. Ain't no justice on the ground."

The group turned north on South Prince and filed past Central Market to its final destination in Binns Park.

There, the Rev. Louis Butcher Jr., pastor of Bright Side Baptist Church, Sunday News columnist and former HRC director, told them to "keep up the fight ... I think we have to contrive to make our voices heard."

Supporting the commission is a departmental initiative as well as a "very personal decision," said Norman Bristol-Colon, executive director of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs.

He told the crowd he was asked to leave a downtown Lancaster restaurant because he was speaking with his mother, who was visiting from Puerto Rico, in Spanish.

If county leaders eliminate the HRC, Bristol-Colon said, "they are perpetuating our worst face as a nation. They are perpetuating discrimination."

A decision on the commission's fate is expected by the end of the year.

Blanding Watson, vice president of the Lancaster branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he sees public support for the HRC building.

That's as it should be, marchers said.

When she became disabled, Powers said, her son told her that she would have to surrender some of her dignity.

"The Human Relations Commission is all about preserving people's dignity."

Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.