Fiscal Note
The Department of Civil Rights anticipates that there will likely be a minimal fiscal impact, with current staff resources sufficient to administer the new provisions. No additional resources or appropriation are required.
Title
Amending Secs. 9.49 and 39.03 of the Madison General Ordinances to clarify judicial review and revise the Equal Opportunities Ordinance.
Body
DRAFTER'S ANALYSIS: These revisions can be divided into two categories: those that are largely housekeeping and have minimal, if any, substantive impact and those that have substantive impact. The housekeeping changes involve eliminating the credit protections that were overruled many years ago by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the case of Anchor Savings & Loan Assn. v. Equal Opportunities Commission, 120 Wis.2d 391, 355 N.W.2d 234 (1984). Additionally, these housekeeping changes include creating a new definition called “protected class membership” to eliminate the repetitious listing of each of the various protected classes each time the ordinance sets forth requirements related to all of these protected classes. These housekeeping changes also include modifying the definition of a victim of domestic violence so that our ordinance mirrors the language adopted by the State of Wisconsin. A final housekeeping change amends the language on court review of MEOC decisions to eliminate any ambiguity over the applicable procedures for initiating such review. Under this revision, the time period for initiating such review would remain at the current thirty days, however, the review would be initiated by the certiorari procedures set forth in Wis. Stat. §68.13. A technical amendment to Sec. 9.49 is also made to clarify this appeal process.
The substantive changes include a broader definition of the term “sexual orientation”, expansion on social security number protections, and the creation of new protected class - “genetic identity”. The broadened definition of sexual orientation would re...
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