Thread by @queencitynerve

The first #CLTCC Business Meeting in two months is now underway. You can watch live here:

On the agenda tonight, a vote on the new nondiscrimination ordinance. Also, the Charlotte Equitable Development Commission, emergency rental and utility relief, federal HOME Program funding, Alternatives to Violence, and more. Agenda is here: charlottenc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&…

.@DimpleAjmera is back for the first time since the birth of her new baby, whom she just introduced virtually to her colleagues on council. #CLTCC

Council will hear public comment on the new NDO before the vote. Following that, each council member will have a chance to voice their questions or concerns. There will then be a motion to approve the NDO, during the discussion of which substitute motions can be introduced.

City attorney Patrick Baker is currently making a presentation on the NDO, similar to what he presented last week.

A look at what’s being added to the city’s existing NDO

Biggest change to last week’s draft says this ordinance applies to ALL employers. The first draft only applied to those with 14 employees or less, as federal and state protections apply to larger employers. New draft creates chance for city to enforce if fed/state won’t.

Jenny Gunn is the first to speak, and she is in support of the new NDO as a trans woman. "I ask and implore and demand as a voter that you support my community tonight."

Bethany Corrigan with Transcend Charlotte says NDO is a chance for the city to take action as the second deadliest city in U.S. for trans people. Rev. Debra Hopkins with There's Still Hope says trans community still experiences discrimination "way too often" and wants NDO passed.

.@RebbyKern with @equalitync points out that the unemployment rate for Black trans people is 4x as high as cisgender people, experience homelessness 5x more, and experience poverty 8x more.

"Because of this I call on the great city of Charlotte to pass our NDO as a baby step to change the narrative for my community." - @RebbyKern

Jill Coward w/ Concerned Women for America says she doesn't want to see "these people we are opposing" discriminated against, but sees this as a religious liberty issue. "When someone else's rights collide with someone else's, sometimes someone else's will be lost in the fray."

Evangelical extremist Philip Benham now addressing council. Says this ordinance will prevent freedom of religion and free speech. Says the ordinance is being used as a "bludgeon to silence Christianity." He says, "For me to be with you tonight is like scuba diving in a sewer."

Next speaker says his brother took his own life 50 years ago due to "unwanted same sex attraction" and that he himself experienced same sex attraction at some point but was saved by Jesus. He believes this ordinance will aid and abet Satan in enslaving more people.

It's starting to sound like Latrobe Drive in this meeting.

Gladece Knights with Charlotte Black Pride says there are people who have spoken tonight who believe people are less than due to whom they love, and the local LGBTQ community cannot afford to wait for those people to decide their future.

.@BillyMaddalon acknowledges that the NDO will not do much for him, because as a white guy with money, people don't mess with him much, but what is done tonight "will protect those who can't protect themselves."

Maddalon says that the power and privilege in the room can be used tonight ever so slightly to help "the least, the lost, the last and the left out in our community."

.@KyleLuebkeCLT with the local @LogCabinGOP says he has come to call for the passage of the NDO and to call for council to go further.

.@KyleLuebkeCLT says the ordinance does not protect LGBTQ people in housing. Says fixing loophole that has limited housing protections would mean including sexual orientation in existing definition of sex discrimination, as NDO draft he helped write with Young Republicans did.

Steve Widows begins his speech with "It's not a sin for a Negro to be Black." You can imagine how the rest of that went.

.@TheMattComer begins by reminding those watching at home who may be triggered by the hateful speech being heard tonight, "Please know that God loves you."

Jane Cornell (sp?) with the @meckgop said she would like to see political affiliation and political expression added to the NDO before its adoption.

Public comment is over. @JulieEiselt introduces a motion to adopt the new NDO. Council will discuss down the line before a vote is held.

.@JulieEiselt says this is the most important and consequential vote she's participated in during her six-year tenure because it follows through on a promise she made to help pass such an ordinance when she was first elected to office.

"I live my spiritual life every day," @JulieEiselt says, as she was called out specifically by at least one evangelical tonight. She ends her comment with a Bible quote, "So whatever you do to the least of my brethren, that's what you do unto me."

.@BraxtonWinston recalls the way he first came into the spotlight during protests in CLT in 2016. He was known as a protest leader, but he points out that he was not a leader, he followed young, Black trans femmes who were the most well-equipped to stand against oppressive power.

.@FinTechInnov8r thanks the Young Republicans who helped create one draft of an NDO that ensured no individual liberties were infringed upon. "What we are poised to pass tonight is not only what I think should have passed a while back," but is a product of the Young GOP efforts.

Bokhari makes counter motion to include political affiliation into protected class and political expression into the protected action. He says if he walks into a coffee shop with Republican cufflinks, it's OK for them not to serve him. "Discrimination against anyone is not OK."

.@EdDriggsD7 says he wants to say upfront that he does not believe any member of the LGBTQ community should be discriminated against or mistreated. Says Bokhari's counter motion is pertinent now in an especially divided nation. "Why not protect against that discrimination too?"

Driggs says he plans to support the NDO, but he thinks some critiques are valid. He is concerned about employment protections that some smaller businesses may shy away from hiring LGBTQ people for fear they will be accused of discrimination if things don't work out.

.@Larken says in the not-so-distant past it would have been unfathomable that every member of council agreed on the need for these protections, with just minor differences in opinion on how they are implemented.

"It still amazes me that here we are in 2021 and someone could hate you for the color of your skin or won't hire you because of your natural hairstyle." -@SenatorMGraham, whose sister Cynthia was killed in the Charleston church shooting, says discrimination is personal to him.

Graham says he has seen how ignoring discrimination can turn deadly, though he acknowledges an ordinance like this doesn't solve the larger issue, which is systemic. He references recent widespread GOP efforts to block people of color from voting, among other examples.

Renee Johnson says, "This is easy and obvious for me." She says she is going to support it, but "what shocked me was the hate and the vitriol that was expressed here tonight in the name of Jesus."

Johnson says this ordinance is also personal to her, as she had a child who was kicked out of Catholic school because of his braids.

.@Watlington4CLT says she was also taken aback by some of the comments made tonight, but she was pleased to look at the speaking list and see that the most egregious comments were made by people who don't even live in Charlotte. "That to me is progress."

.@DimpleAjmera says as a new mother she is humbled to be a part o this discussion tonight. She says she is often asked what will be her legacy after serving on city council. "Well, this is it … This provides protection and fairness for all of our residents."

"When historians look back 30-40 years from now they will say, Charlotte would not have been the same without this city council," says @DimpleAjmera.

Greg Phipps was on council the last time this was passed before being shot down by HB2, and he believes the conversation around this ordinance was more substantive than the previous one because it was not hijacked by talk around one issue (referring to bathrooms, I presume).

That's the end of discussion on original motion. Council will discuss @FinTechInnov8r's substitute motion to include political affiliation and expression in NDO.

Ed Driggs says he supports this and doesn't understand why anyone would not support it, as it protects people of all political stripes so is bipartisan in nature in that regard.

.@Larken says he would need to see more specificity around what is deemed as political expression before he would support this sub motion, because otherwise that idea could open up a can of worms in that anything could be called political expression.

.@JulieEiselt says these protections are based on history and discrimination that has repeatedly occurred over time. "If this becomes an issue, and based on the way this country is going it might," she would be happy to discuss it, but she won't support it tonight.

.@Watlington4CLT says she's open to having the conversation moving forward, but these protections are based on identity, emphasizing that you could be a Republican today and an independent tomorrow and a Democrat next week.

That substitute motion fails with Driggs and Bokhari casting the only Yes votes.

Preparing to start vote on original motion, @CLTMayor says she wishes she was on council tonight so she could cast her third vote in support of a new NDO.

The new nondiscrimination ordinance passes unanimously, to applause. There will be a 10-minute recess.

The meeting has resumed, and council will hear from Haley Gentry, aviation director at @CLTAirport, about the Carolinas Aviation Museum. Will lead to an agenda item come September.

In 2019, the CAM was moved from its hangar to accommodate the Honeywell fleet. All of CAM's 40 or so aircraft, including the one from the Miracle on the Hudson, have been in storage since.

CAM will repurpose the hangar currently being used for storage in the NW corner of the airport into the actual museum. The estimated budget for the new facility is approx $22.5 million, $5 million of which would come from the city.

Moving on: City manager Marcus Jones says the original plan was for #CLTCC to have already returned to the chamber, but have decided to remain in the room they've been meeting in on the second floor out of an abundance of caution regarding the Delta variant.

Council establishes the Charlotte Equitable Development Commission (charlottenc.granicus.com/boards/w/3905b…) and the Neighborhood Equity and STabilization (NEST) Commission (charlottenc.granicus.com/boards/w/3905b…), both of which were approved through adoption of the CLT Future 2040 Comp Plan. Apply in links.

Council adopts a budget ordinance appropriating $28,841,640.10 from the U.S. Department of
Treasury for Emergency Rental and Utility Assistance.

Council adopts a budget ordinance appropriating $11,566,784 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the American Rescue Plan Act Fund.

Council accepts a grant in the amount of $200,000 from Lowe’s Home Improvement for the construction of an open space in Historic Washington Heights neighborhood, located at the corner of Beatties Ford Road and Tate Street.

Council accepts a grant in the amount of $1,200,000 from the GreenLight Fund Charlotte to support the
implementation of the Alternatives to Violence Program in Charlotte. Here's our latest on that: qcnerve.com/atv-violence-i…

Council approves the annexation of 167 acres that make up River District Phase 1 around Dixie River Road and Garrison Road in far west Charlotte. This land will be assigned to the adjacent City Council District 3.

That's a wrap. Adjournment. -FIN-