LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Livonia City Council voted against adopting a nondiscrimination ordinance. The measure would have added age, sex, and sexual orientation protections.
However, many members of the public and council members argued the proposal wasn’t necessary, saying it would just create more legal challenges and waste resources.
In a 5 to 2 vote Monday, the Livonia City Council voted down the NDO. Livonia Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan reacted to the decision.
“Words matter. But in this case, I don’t think that enough members of the council saw that these words matter,” said Miller Brosnan. “They saw them as redundant to something that’s already established in state and federal law. They didn’t see the value in making them part of what we do here in the city, and repeating them once again so that we could repeat our values to the community.”
She said they’re not giving up, despite the defeat.
“Our goal is to get something passed in the city and in the meantime, we’re continuing to not only push for a nondiscrimination ordinance but to make sure that those values that they wish to have promoted in their city are really advanced,” Miller Brosnan said.
When asked if she was willing to go back to the negotiating table with the council members she replied, “Absolutely. We’ve always remained at the table,” says Councilmember Rob Donovic who voted no on the NDO.
“The problem is the mayor refused to work with us. Countless times we expressed concerns about certain things in the proposal and they fell on deaf ears,” said Donovic.
He explained what concerns stood out to him.
“I have a problem when local businesses, private small businesses what they can do in their own procedures. I think that’s a conflict of interest. I think that’s overreaching of government,” Donovic said.
Donvic currently serves in the military and is from a family of Albanian immigrants.
“I also wanted to protect religious liberties. There are different religious organizations within our city that practice all sorts of different religious beliefs. And if the city can now come in and mandate different religious beliefs and follow different beliefs, I have an issue with that,” explained Donovic.
Livonia resident Jay Mackay said he doesn’t agree with councilmembers who say enshrining nondiscrimination isn’t a local issue.
“I think there’s a whole community of people that would disagree with that because they’re not looking to gain anything from national politics. They’re looking to gain something from their day-to-day,” said Mackay.
He said it’s an issue that needs clear language for Livonia.
“People need to be safe in this community. And I think that language can help provide some safety there,” Mackay said.
He believes now is the time.
“If we can update our technology over the past 40 years and update some of the stances we take, we need to be doing that with the NDO as well,” said Mackay.
