On February 8, 2011, Manhattan became just the second city in Kansas — the other Lawrence — to add sexual orientation to it’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
Then in May of the same year, the Manhattan city commission repealed the change after April elections altered the commission’s makeup.
Tuesday night — and almost into Wednesday morning — the issue was revisited to a certain degree.
At the very end of a long night, Mayor Karen McCulloh made a motion to add sexual orientation as a protected class to the city’s anti-discrimination hiring policy.
McCulloh cited the recent gay marriage ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which legalized same-sex unions in all 50 states, as the motivation for the motion, which passed 4-0.
Commissioner Wynn Butler — who supported the repeal of the more far-reaching anti-discrimination ordinance concerning sexual orientation in 2011 — abstained from the vote because he felt it was up to City Manager Ron Fehr, anyway.
“I’ve always felt like A, that was his decision anyway, because it fits under his prerogative,” Butler said. “And I’ve said that before, that the city manager’s job is to handle that, not mine. So, I’m not going to direct him to do anything, but I’ll support whatever he does, one way or the other.
“I’m not going to micro-manage the city manager, so I will not vote on a motion on that.”
Commissioner Mike Dodson asked McCulloh what the recent gay marriage ruling had to do with the policy.
“I don’t mind supporting it,” he said. “I just don’t think it has anything to do with the Supreme Court decision.”
McCulloh said the high court’s ruling had implications.
“It did extend marital rights to people throughout the whole 50 states, and in turn various other things have fallen,” she responded.
“But you’re talking about LGBT, right?” Dodson asked.
“Yes,” McCulloh answered.
“My personal thinking is that all people she be treated equally,” commissioner Linda Morse commented.
“I think it’s high time we did it,” commissioner Usha Reddi added before the vote.
In other items, commissioners moved to accept the Engineer’s Opinion of Probable Cost in the amount of $2,004,291.50 for athletic field base construction and $760,360 for athletic field synthetic construction at Anneberg Park, though they also authorized city administration to negotiate a contract with Bayer Construction Company, Inc., of Manhattan. in order to achieve project cost reductions.
Commissioners also indicated to Public Works Director Rob Ott that improvements to West Anderson and the proposed “Scenic Crossing” project include a roundabout at the intersection of Anderson and Kimball.
