SAGINAW, MI — More than 120 people crammed into the Saginaw City Council chambers and an attached hallway on Monday, April 21.

Inside the chambers, men and women stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the walls and jockeyed for spots. Saginaw Fire Marshal Ralph Martin counted as each person entered and exited the room in order to make sure its occupancy limit was not exceeded.

Most were there to speak or to listen to others speak on a proposed ordinance that would create a citywide ban on a certain type of discrimination. In particular, the ordinance would ban any discrimination in "employment" or "public accommodations" based on an individual's "real or perceived" sexual orientation or gender identity.

About four hours into the meeting, when members of City Council finally began debating the issue, most of those people had left.

In the end, city leaders voted 7-2 to postpone consideration of the proposed "Human Rights ordinance" indefinitely.

Mayor Pro Tem Amos O'Neal proposed the motion, saying city leaders should take the time to meet with landlords, business leaders and leaders of the faith-based community. That group, O'Neal said, should get a chance to meet behind closed doors and hash out a compromise acceptable to all parties.

"This is a very important issue to the community," he said. "I think it would be premature to do it without allowing ample opportunity to bring these parties together."

City Councilwoman Annie Boensch, who led the effort to bring the ordinance to the table, fought vigorously against postponement.

"I cannot vote in support of postponing this any longer," Boensch said. "I do not know what we were supposed to be doing the last two weeks."

City Council voted in favor of introducing the ordinance during its April 7 meeting. Under provisions in Saginaw's city charter, that ordinance must be held over for at least two weeks before being approved. The city administration decided, since there was enough time for city attorneys to address a handful of questions from members of City Council, the issue should be placed back on the agenda Monday.

Mayor Dennis Browning said the answers to his questions just spawned more questions. Browning said he would support O'Neal's proposal to discuss the issue further, but thought city leaders should set some sort of time limit to ensure the issue is brought back to the Council table.

"I am not comfortable with an indefinite tabling or postponement," he said.

Boensch said she was concerned that postponing could be an attempt to stop the progress of the proposed ordinance, pointing out that city attorneys were there Monday to answer any questions posed by members of City Council.



"We have the people sitting here that can answer those questions," she said. "But by making the motion you shut down that conversation."

Of the 38 individuals signed up to make public comments Monday night, 29 addressed the proposed ordinance. The majority of those were vocal supporters, though some critics, including a few local pastors, spoke out against the ordinance.

Alvernis Johnson said he would like to see religious exemptions more clearly spelled out in the ordinance, to protect the actions of religious organizations like his.

"We need to be assured that we do not have to jeopardize our beliefs to accommodate the ordinance," Johnson said. "I believe in rights for everybody. Everybody means me too. I do not want to think about being dragged into court or fined because I do not accommodate what I do not believe."

The following members of City Council voted in favor of O'Neal's motion to postpone indefinitely:

The follow members of City Council voted against the motion:

Mark Tower covers local government for MLive/The Saginaw News. Contact him at 989-284-4807, by email at mtower@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.