A second Jacksonville City Council committee adjourned this month without voting on legislation that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The lack of finality fueled some frustration.
“I’m really concerned that we have been through so much on these committees, and now we start over with a new committee,” said Councilwoman Kimberly Daniels, a member of the Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety Committee.
A new version of the bill (2012-296) was introduced earlier this month to the council’s Rules Committee, which also didn’t vote on the bill.
Recreation Chairman Bill Gulliford said he hadn’t reviewed the new version. He noted the lack of rules action and said voting July 19 seemed premature.
Both versions of the bill would bar sexual orientation as a reason for discrimination in employment, housing or access to public accommodations like hotels and restaurants.
The audience was smaller than earlier hearings but still numbered in the dozens with substantial contingents waiting to argue both sides of the bill. Arguments by both supporters and critics were more pointed, however.
