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With social distancing requirements in effect at Statesboro City Hall, officials were working out how to accommodate more people for a Tuesday morning hearing on the proposed Nondiscrimination and Equity Ordinance.

This story was written Monday, when it remained to be seen whether there would be any actual crowd for City Councils 9 a.m. Tuesday meeting. The nondiscrimination package was the first of four proposed new ordinances on the agenda for their official first hearings and potential council votes. If a first reading is approved, a second hearing and council vote would be required at a later date for the new city law to take effect.

I really dont know, City Manager Charles Penny said when asked if a larger number of hearing speakers than usual would attend. There have been some social media posts out there, and some may have been specifically about the meeting. But we are trying to anticipate that there might be some folks to come and speak about the ordinance. Statesboro City Manager Charles Penny

With the six-foot spacing, usually only 16 chairs are set up in the public area inside the council chambers, and three of those are reserved for news media. Outside the chambers, another eight seats will be provided in two alcoves along the hallway on City Halls second floor. When those are full, anyone else will have to remain downstairs, Penny said.

But its a public hearing, so anyone that wants to speak has to be given the opportunity to speak, he said.

So if others are waiting outside to do so, speakers would have to leave the room after their turn to let someone else come in, Penny said.

As of midday Monday he had received one call, his administrative assistant another call and the city clerk two calls from people interested in the Nondiscrimination and Equity Ordinance hearing, Penny said. These were from people on both sides of the issue, and council members may have received additional calls, he noted.

The nondiscrimination ordinance would prohibit businesses, landlords and to some extent nonprofit organizations in Statesboro from discriminating on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or military status. These protections would apply in hiring and employment, in housing and the sale or rental of real estate in general and in public accommodations.

As proposed, the ordinance states that complaints will be referred first to a mediator for non-binding mediation and, if not settled there, to a hearing officer. The hearing officer could apply a civil penalty of up to $500 for a first violation or a fine of up to $1,000 or suspension or loss of a business occupational tax certificate, informally known as a business license, for subsequent violations.

License revocations could be appealed to the mayor and council.

The proposal includes some exemptions for religious organizations and private clubs.

But on two previous appearances before the mayor and council, Reid Derr, a retired East Georgia State College history professor speaking as a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church, voiced an objection that the exemption for religious organizations, as proposed, does not go far enough.

Conscientious objection has a long and venerated history in the United States, and thats really in a sense what Im addressing today, Derr said during the Sept. 15 work session.

Although usually associated with refusals of wartime military service, conscientious objection really means the objection of people to cooperating with, encouraging or advancing social and political and religious doctrines or positions that they in good conscience oppose, he said.

As you expand nondiscrimination legislation, you tend then to press or disadvantage other aspects of the rights of people, Derr said. For example, in particular Im concerned with the First Amendment freedom of speech and the right to freely practice ones religion.

He presented council two requested changes to the proposed ordinance.

The first would add that nothing in it shall prevent a religious believer or person with other conscientious objection from refusing based on religious faith or personal conscience to cooperate in, encourage, propagate or advance social, political and religious doctrines, positions or actions or statements that the person in good conscience objects to, Derr said.

U.S. courts have shown a tendency to expand the interpretation of laws, leading to too much opportunity to use law aggressively against people that we disagree with, he said.

Derr cited the case of Kelvin Cochran, the otherwise distinguished former Atlanta fire chief fired by the city of Atlanta in 2015 after he published a book through his church describing homosexuality as a sin. Cochran sued, and after a complex ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in 2017, the city of Atlanta agreed to pay him and his attorneys $1.2 million to settle the suit.

In other words, City Council would want to avoid people using this ordinance to attack people they dont like and attack their views, and thats why I proposed that one, Derr said of his amendment proposal.

Among other lawsuits he noted were the Masterpiece Cakeshop case from Colorado and the Arlenes Flowers case in Washington state. Both involved business owners who refused to provide services for same-sex weddings.

There are these cases where the aggressive use of statute has really hurt especially small business that doesnt have a bevy of lawyers on staff to be able to defend itself, Derr said.

He said he would not want to see anyone who disagreed with (him) persecuted or disadvantaged in any way but also does not want individuals who take what he understands as the biblical view of marriage to face lawsuits that could force them into bankruptcy.

The other suggested amendment he presented was actually from the Rev. Roland Barnes, Trinity Presbyterians senior pastor, Derr said.

As currently drafted, a subsection of the proposed city law states in part, Nothing in this ordinance shall prohibit a religious organization to employ an individual of a particular religion to perform work connected with the performance of religious activities by the religious organization.

Barnes, through Derr, proposed more specific language to allow a religious organization to restrict hiring to people who are in agreement and complying with the founding principles and beliefs of the organization, as expressed in doctrinal statements and confessions of faith.

Noting the limitation on fines and the absence of restrictions on speech, Statesboro City Attorney Cain Smith suggested that the kind of legal battles Derr talked about were unlikely to result from Statesboros ordinance.

Other jurisdictions in the state that have adopted antidiscrimination ordinances have had the exact same language that we have set out in (the religious exemption clause), and that is in line with what the federal law has said so far, Smith said. Mayor Jonathan McCollar

Mayor Jonathan McCollar said city officials appreciated Derrs input and were willing to listen further. But McCollar asserted that the citys proposal reflects established federal law and that a more detailed religious exemption could invite legal challenges instead of preventing them.

Were not going beyond anything at the federal level, he told Derr. So I think what youre asking us to do would get us into trouble.

The nondiscrimination and equity package, drafted by Smith and the One Boro Commission with input from council members, contains other provisions that have been previously reported.

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Nondiscrimination ordinance may draw further public input - Statesboro Herald