Board agrees on nondiscrimination ordinance

Tuesday’s Wake Forest Town Board’s work session started with a presentation by Danya Perry, the director for diversity, equity & inclusion for Wake County, and that led to an hour’s discussion and a request for a Wake Forest ordinance that mirrors the county’s agreement.

In 2021, Wake County began talking about a way to fight discrimination at the local county level. The federal and state nondiscrimination laws are for corporations or businesses larger than 15 employees. In February of 2022 the Wake County nondiscrimination ordinance went into effect, and shortly afterward the county began urging Wake County’s towns and cities to adopt its ordinance.

Today the only towns who have not joined are Fuquay-Varina and Wake Forest. When the request was on a Wake Forest agenda last year, Mayor Vivian Jones said it would not be acceptable to local businesses and the town board moved on to the next item.

The ordinance says that the county and its towns welcome all people and recognize the importance of diversity and the importance of being free from discrimination based on race, natural hair or hairstyles, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin or ancestry, pregnancy, National Guard or veteran status, religious beliefs or non-belief, age or disability.

Commissioner Ben Clapsaddle led the discussion at the beginning and at different points during the hour, and Perry fielded questions. The ordinance covers businesses of any size, local government and anything open to the general public.

When someone files a complaint about discrimination and it is found to have merit it goes to the Restorative Law Center at Campbell University which mediates the claim between the two parties. Otherwise, the person discriminated against and the offending business or party would each have to hire a lawyer to file a claim in the appropriate court — and there would be lawyer fees and court costs who someone would have to pay.

“It starts to save money for our businesses,” Commissioner Keith Shackleford, who is a lawyer, said with a smile. “They talk to each other and come to a conversation. They have a better understanding of each other and that’s a good thing.”

Questions ranged from whether anyone would be compelled to attend conciliation efforts to whether the ordinance would be applicable in the area of Franklin County which is in Wake Forest.

The commissioners settled on having town staff draw up an antidiscrimination ordinance like the county model. There was a small kerfuffle about public comment, but the mayor pointed out they have a public comment section in each of their agendas and meetings.

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