MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Morgantown City Council will hear from the public Tuesday as they prepare to vote on the second reading of their amended Human Rights Commission ordinance.
“This ordinance is nothing new in that we already have a Human Rights Commission,” Councilman Ryan Wallace said Monday on Morgantown AM. “What we are doing is revising it and expanding it to create some teeth, I would say — to give this Commission a little more authority in supervising infractions of people’s rights and specifically discrimination for various protected classes.”
The revised language includes veterans, family status, gender, and sexual orientation.
“It gives the Commission some authority to investigate claims of discrimination, and then to render judgment, for lack of a word,” Wallace said. “Give an opinion based on the facts before the Commission as to whether or not discrimination has occurred and whether or not that discrimination is in violation of Section 153 of the Morgantown City Code.”
Wallace said the Commission will provide that opinion, but explained further that the ordinance does not provide the body with the ability to levy fines, fees, or other monetary penalties or damages.
“The Commission is not a court itself,” he said. “You’re not going to have a jury in there, but it will provide basis for an aggrieved party to go to court and argue their case for whatever kind of relief or damages they are pursuing.”
He specifically mentioned issues relating to discriminatory hiring and firing practices as a potential place where the Commission could provide a guiding opinion. That guiding opinion, he said, is nothing more than that — an opinion.
“The Commission itself can not, does not award punitive damages such as you might find in a Court,” he said.
The Commission can also request to hear from those who are allegedly engaging in discriminatory practices and from alleged witnesses, but does not have subpoena power.
“The Commission does not have legal authority to subpoena somebody to compel them to force them to come into ‘court’ as it were — because it’s not a court,” he said. “They will issue requests. They will issue written statements, but I do not think they have the legal authority to haul somebody into the Commission and compel them to either testify or defend themselves or anything like that.”
Wallace, a law student at WVU, said specific legal questions should be referred to the Morgantown City Attorney Ryan Simonton.
The public hearing on the Human Rights Commission will be held before the vote, Tuesday. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.