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Allegheny County Council communications are all a buzz this Monday morning! And, my guess is that an onslaught of phone calls are coming in from opponents to the proposed Allegheny County nondiscrimination ordinance which is likely to be voted upon on Wednesday. My guess in that regards is based, completely unscientifically, on the fact that the only council members for whom I could actually leave a voice messages are those who are on record as being opposed to the ordinance. I spoke however, to Jennifer Liptak, and she said she would make sure that all voice mail boxes were cleared so that anyone trying to leave a message is able. If you tried to call and were unable to get through to a council person, I’d encourage you to try again later.

I called, to get my name on the list for speaking at the meeting, and first spoke to Matt who then transferred me to Jennifer. After leaving a brief voice message, She returned my call, quickly and was very helpful. I don’t have a strong sense of how important it is to have people speak at the meeting during the comments section. At this moment, my sense is that it is more important to:

1. Lobby the 3 council members who added the last amendment , to amend it further to remove the ability for religious organizations who wis to discriminate from receiving county funds. I’m all for religious liberties, but if that liberty is to discriminate against me, then it shouldn’t be with my tax dollars or other resources. The 3 council members who wrote the amendment are Robinson, Burn and Macey.
2. Lobby your council person and the 2 at-large council members to amend the ordinance to remove the objectionable language from the existing amendment. If you are unsure of what that language is, check out the letter to Dan Onorato that was published here on my blog earlier today
3. Lobby your council person and the 2 at-large council members to vote for this ordinance.

What can you do now?

Contact your County Council person and let them know that this amendment is a bad deal and should be stripped from the legislation before it passes. The Pittsburgh ordinance has worked fine for over 20 years- there is no reason to make these types of changes!

Contact:

County Executive Dan Onorato
Phone: (412) 350-6500 Fax: (412) 350-6512
executive@alleghenycounty.us

Your Council person.
http://eqfed.org/ct/A7S5cbE10412/

Council at-large members: John Defazio, Chuck McCullough

Ask them to remove the language from the proposed Human
Relations Ordinance that allows organizations that receive
County funding to discriminate.

Attend the meeting on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 @ 5PM (but come
early the room will be packed)

436 Grant Street
4th floor – Gold Room (room may be changed to accommodate large
numbers)
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
If you wish, you may speak at the meeting on Wednesday. (You
must call ahead and put your name on a list to speak -
412.350.6490)