Mayor Ivy R. Taylor is cutting it close. On May 9, she is running for reelection and may end up in a runoff against one of her opponents or she may be voted out altogether. On May 13, she will finally present to the City Council her proposal to increase the effectiveness of the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance.

The two-part proposal seeks to create a Department of Diversity and Inclusion and to appoint a human relations liaison who, according to the mayor, will “provide a single point of contact” for complainants and “not only receive and review all written complaints from the website but will also provide responsive attention by phone and in person to facilitate conciliation between the individual who believes they have been discriminated against and the business, landlord, or agency involved.”

An email to Out In SA from Leilah Powell, the mayor’s chief of policy, explains the proposal will be presented at the City Council’s B Session on May 13 during the discussion of mid-year budget adjustments.

The email suggests that anyone wishing to advocate for the mayor’s proposal should attend the meeting and speak during the Citizens to be Heard session.

The proposal will be put to a vote as part of the budget during the City Council’s A Session on May 14. At this meeting, a Citizens to be Heard session will precede the council vote.

There are no assurances that the mayor’s proposal will be accepted by the City Council. There is the possibility that there’s not enough money in the budget to implement it. The proposal could get tabled until a later date or individual council members could object to it and seek to remove it from the budget process altogether.

Then, there’s the optics of Taylor trying to put forward a proposal to improve an ordinance she voted against, all taking place against the backdrop of the mayoral runoff election.

Last October, the mayor appointed an LGBT advisory committee to advise her on developing a process and structure for addressing complaints filed under the nondiscrimination ordinance. It was not until April 21 when Taylor finally met with them to discuss the proposal she is bringing to the City Council.

On April 22, Taylor apologized to the advisory committee for statements she’s made during her reelection campaign disparaging the NDO.

The mayor’s office offered the following description of her proposal.