After a yearslong combat, town plans to rent a civil rights officer. What’s subsequent?

After years of bogged down efforts, the city of Spokane is ready to hire an official to enforce civil rights laws.

Proponents of the position fear that without it, existing laws against housing, employment and other forms of discrimination across Spokane will not be enforced.

City council members who have championed the position for years see it as an overdue step in the right direction. Community advocates for justice and justice agree, but wonder if a single person can bear the burden.

And while there is an obligation to hire a citizens ’rights officer, the job description is not final. The scope of possible responsibilities of the position seems endless, but resources will be limited.

Jac Archer, a member of the Steering Committee for the Spokane Community Against Racism, fears that “it takes one person to do this job to set both that person and this job up for failure.”

“We’d really like to see models more similar to those in other cities where they’re fully staffed and funded,” said Archer, one of several community leaders on a civil rights bureau’s exploratory task force.

Spokane City Council has long pushed for the creation of a civil rights officer, with money allocated for the past three years. However, the role was never filled by former Mayor David Condon, who left it to existing city officials to handle civil rights complaints.

“The government has decided not to fill the position,” said city councilor Lori Kinnear. “The funding was always there.”

The council donated $ 125,000 and won a pledge to fill the position during budget negotiations with first-year mayor Nadine Woodward, who agreed to meet her in exchange for accepting a director of the community and department Occupy economic development through the council.

The emergence of the position dates back to 2017 when Spokane City Council updated its own civil rights laws, said City Council President Breean Beggs.

The update expanded the city’s responsibility for civil rights in three ways. It added refugees as a protected class, made housing discrimination illegal regardless of how many units the landlord owns, and banned employment discrimination regardless of how many employees a company or organization has.

Enforcement by the federal and state governments only applies to landlords and employers who exceed a certain threshold of units or employees, according to Beggs. The city is responsible for enforcing civil rights complaints.

“There’s this loophole in Fed and state law,” Beggs explained. “Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, all these laws apply,’ but they don’t. In the city of Spokane they do that. “

Civil rights are too often viewed in an abstract way, reminiscent of the marches and social movement of decades ago, Archer said.

Civil rights “have to do with all of the freedoms a local person can expect in relation to their social freedom and justice,” Archer said. “It is, ‘Can you do the business of life where you are equal to your roommates?'”

However, protecting civil rights means little without enforcing the law.

First and foremost, Beggs provides that the Ombudsman makes complaints. They would do some kind of triage.

If federal or state laws apply, they would refer the complainant to the appropriate authority. If not, the Ombudsman would investigate the case and seek mediation. If it cannot be resolved, the case could be prosecuted in the district court.

Beggs often said, “It’s just education,” such as letting a landlord know that they are legally required to give a tenant permission to have a service dog

It is unclear how many complaints the officer could receive.

“The first priority is to get the word out that we are doing enforcement,” Beggs said.

Dean Lynch, president of the Spokane County Human Rights Task Force Board, said the extent of abuse alleged against the leaders of the Boy Scouts of America was only shed light when the organization filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of hundreds of lawsuits and a time limit has been set for victims to file a lawsuit for damages.

Though Lynch admitted that the comparison between sexual abuse and civil rights abuses is awkward, his point of view was, “Once it became acceptable to report, we figured out how the Boy Scouts of America found out this year.”

When it comes to civil rights issues in Spokane, “by giving people the opportunity to report, that way we will see the full extent of the problem,” Lynch said.

Dealing with complaints about discrimination is just one facet of what community leaders believe a civil rights office could do. Instead of creating a new office, the city council placed the position of civil rights officer under the auspices of the enforcement of the code.

Archer pointed to the universities and corporations hiring a diversity officer to make that person a “clearing house” for complaints and concerns.

“This job is ultimately utterly impossible because one cannot expect a single person to meet all of the needs of a large segment of the community they serve,” said Archer.

Lynch also believes that an entire office, rather than just one officer, would be more effective. He suggested that the bureau could monitor equity within the city government, for example by examining prejudice against hiring, promotion, and the gender pay scale.

Beggs and others also want the position to have a community outreach component.

“This position would be a person who would work with the community to identify resources, identify issues, work with the community to create resources, create training, and create awareness,” Lynch said.

And in order for it to be really effective, Kurtis Robinson, who campaigned for the position of President of the Spokane Chapter of the NAACP, said it needs to be expanded nationwide. Organizations like his are dealing with “a ridiculous amount of complaints flooding our offices”.

“We have something in motion now that we hope will bear fruit,” said Robinson.