HUMAN RELATIONS

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CHAPTER 9

HUMAN RELATIONS

Art. I In General, §§ 9-1--9-25
Secs. 9-1--9-25. Reserved.

ARTICLE I. IN GENERAL

Secs. 9-1--9-25. Reserved.

ARTICLE II. FAIR HOUSING

DIVISION 1. GENERALLY

Sec. 9-26. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

(1) Administrator shall mean city manager.

(2) Age shall mean and unless the context clearly indicates otherwise refer exclusively to persons who are eighteen (18) years of age or older.

(3) Discriminatory housing practice shall mean an act that is unlawful under sections 9-56--9-59.

(4) Family shall mean one (1) or more individuals living on the premises as a single housekeeping unit.

(5) Housing or housing accommodation shall mean any building, structure, or portion thereof, mobile home, trailer or other facility which is occupied as or designed or intended for occupancy as a residence by one (1) or more families, and any vacant land which is offered for sale or lease for the construction or location thereon of any such building, structure, or portion thereof, mobile home, trailer or other facility.

(6) Lending institution shall mean any bank, insurance company, savings and loan association or any other person or organization regularly engaged in the business of lending money, guaranteeing loans or sources of credit information, including but not limited to credit bureaus.

(7) Owner shall mean any person, including but not limited to lessee, sublessee, assignee, manager, or agent, and also including the city and its departments or other subunits, having the right of ownership or possession or the authority to sell or lease any housing accommodation.

(8) Person shall mean one (1) or more individuals, corporations, partnerships, associations, labor organizations, legal representatives, mortgage companies, joint stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations or public corporations, including but not limited to the city or any department or subunit thereof.

(9) Real estate agent shall mean any real estate broker, any real estate salesman, or any other person, employee, agent or otherwise, engaged in the management or operation of any real property.

(10) Real estate broker or salesman shall mean a person, whether licensed or not, who, for or with the expectation of receiving a consideration, lists, sells, purchases, exchanges, rents or leases real property, or who negotiates or attempts to negotiate a loan secured or to be secured by mortgage or other encumbrance upon real property, or who is engaged in the business of listing real property in a publication, or a person employed by or acting on behalf of any of these.

(11) Real estate transaction shall mean and include the sale, purchase, exchange, rental or lease of real property, and any contract pertaining thereto.

(12) Rent shall mean and include lease, sublease, assignment and/or rental, including any contract to do any of the foregoing or otherwise granting for a consideration the right to occupy premises that are not owned by the occupant.

(13) Respondent shall mean any person against whom a complaint is filed pursuant to this article.

(14) Sale shall mean and include any contract to sell, exchange, or to convey, transfer or assign legal or equitable title to, or a beneficial interest in, real property.

(Ord. No. 294, § 1(d), 8-25-80)

Cross reference(s)--Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.

Sec. 9-27. Declaration of policy.

It is the policy of the city to foster the public health, public safety and general welfare, by promoting equal opportunity for all persons, regardless of race, color, creed, national origin or ancestry in obtaining adequate housing, and to that end to eliminate discrimination in housing.

(Ord. No. 294, § 1(b), 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-28. Objectives.

The objective of this article is to provide a positive means to implement the policy stated above by promoting equal housing opportunity and to discourage and eliminate discriminatory practices by timely processing of complaints and by penalties.

(Ord. No. 294, § 1(c), 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-29. Administrator--Authority and responsibility.

The authority and responsibility for administering this article shall be vested in the city manager.

(Ord. No. 294, § 7, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-30. Same--Powers and duties.

The administrator shall administer the provisions of this article and shall have the following powers and duties:

(1) Receive written complaints as hereinafter provided in section 9-31 relative to alleged unlawful acts under this article when a complainant seeks the administrator's offices to conciliate.

(2) Upon receiving a written complaint, make such investigations as the administrator deems appropriate to ascertain facts and issues.

(3) Utilize methods of persuasion, conciliation, and mediation or informal adjustment of grievances.

(4) Establish, administer or review programs at the request of the Mayor or the City Council and make reports on such programs to the Mayor and the City Council.

(5) Bring to the attention of the Mayor items that may require the Mayor or the City Council notice or action to resolve.

(6) Render to the Mayor and the City Council annual written reports of his activities under the provisions of this chapter along with such comments and recommendations as he may choose to make.

(7) Cooperate with and render technical assistance to federal, state, local and other public and private agencies, organizations and institutions which are formulating or carrying on programs to prevent or eliminate the unlawful discriminatory practices covered by provisions of this article.

(Ord. No. 294, § 7, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-31. Complaints--Generally.

(a) A person who claims that another person has committed a discriminatory housing practice against him may report that offense to the administrator by filing an informal complaint within sixty (60) days after the date of the alleged discriminatory housing practice and not later.

(b) The administrator shall treat a complaint referred by the secretary of housing and urban development or the attorney general of the United States under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, Public Law 90-284, as an informal complaint filed under subsection (a) above.

(c) An informal complaint must be in writing, verified or affirmed, on a form to be supplied by the administrator and shall contain the following:

(1) Identity of the respondent.

(2) Date of offense and date of filing the informal complaint.

(3) General statement of facts of the offense including the basis of the discrimination (race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, marital status or age).

(4) Name and signature of complainant.

(d) Each complaint shall be held in confidence by the administrator unless and until the complainant and the respondent consent in writing that it shall be made public.

(e) Within fifteen (15) days after the filing of the informal complaint, the administrator shall transmit a copy of the same to each respondent named therein by the certified mail, return receipt requested. Thereupon the respondent may file a written, verified informal answer to the informal complaint within twenty (20) days of the date of receipt of the informal complaint.

(f) An informal complaint or answer may be amended at any time, and the administrator shall furnish a copy of each amended informal complaint or answer to the respondent or complainant, respectively, as promptly as practicable.

(g) The administrator shall assist complainants or respondents when necessary in the preparation and filing of the informal complaints or answers or any amendments thereto.

(Ord. No. 294, § 8, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-32. Same--Processing.

(a) Within thirty (30) days after the filing of the informal complaint, the administrator shall make such investigation as he deems appropriate to ascertain facts and issues. If the administrator shall deem that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the violation has occurred and can be resolved by conciliation, he shall attempt to conciliate the matter by methods of initial conference and persuasion with all interested parties and such representatives as the parties may choose to assist them. Conciliation conferences shall be informal and nothing said or done in the course of the informal conference with the individuals to resolve the dispute may be made public or used as evidence in a subsequent proceeding by either party without the written consent of both the complainant and the respondent. The administrator or any employee of the administrator who shall make public any information in violation of this provision shall be deemed guilty of a violation of a city ordinance and shall be subject to penalty as set forth in section 1-15.

(b) If the parties desire to conciliate, the terms of the conciliation shall be reduced to writing in the form approved by the administrator and must be signed and verified by the complainant and the respondent and approved by the administrator. The conciliation agreement is for the conciliation purposes only and does not constitute an admission by any party that the law has been violated.

(c) If the administrator deems that there is not probable cause to believe that a particular alleged discriminatory housing practice has been committed, the administrator shall take no further action with respect to the alleged offense.

(d) If the administrator, with respect to any matter which involves a contravention of this article:

(1) Fails to conciliate a complaint after the parties, in good faith, have attempted such conciliation; or

(2) Determines that the violation alleged in the complaint cannot be resolved by conciliation; He shall notify both the complainant and the respondent within thirty (30) days of the failure or the determination.

(Ord. No. 294, § 9, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-33. Additional remedies.

The procedures prescribed by this article do not constitute an administrative prerequisite to another action or remedy available under other law. Further, nothing in this article shall be deemed to modify, impair or otherwise affect any right or remedy conferred by the Constitution or laws of the United States or this state, and the provisions of this article shall be in addition to those provided by such other laws.

(Ord. No. 294, § 10, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-34. Education and public information.

The administrator may conduct educational and public informational activities that are designed to promote the policy of this article.

(Ord. No. 294, § 11, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-35. Untruthful complaints or testimony.

It shall be a violation of this article for any person knowingly and wilfully to make false or untrue statements, accusations or allegations in his complaints or to give false testimony concerning violations of this article.

(Ord. No. 294, § 12, 8-25-80)

Secs. 9-36--9-55. Reserved.

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DIVISION 2. UNLAWFUL PRACTICES

Sec. 9-56. Sale or rental.

Except as provided in section 9-60, it shall be unlawful and a discriminatory housing practice for an owner, any other person engaging in a real estate transaction or a real estate broker, because of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, marital status or age:

(1) To refuse to engage in real estate transaction with a person or otherwise make unavailable or deny housing to any person.

(2) To discriminate against a person in the terms, conditions or privileges or a real estate transaction or in the furnishing of facilities or services in connection therewith, or because of his exercise of his right to free association.

(3) To refuse to receive or fail to transmit a bona fide officer to engage in a real estate transaction from a person.

(4) To refuse to negotiate for a real estate transaction with a person.

(5) To represent to a person that housing is not available for inspection, sale, rental or lease when in fact it is so available, or to fail to bring a property listing to his attention or to refuse to permit him to inspect the housing.

(6) To steer any person away from or to any housing.

(7) To make, bring, publish, circulate, post or mail, or cause to be made, printed, published or circulated, any notice, statement, advertisement or sign, or to use a form of application or photograph for a real estate transaction or, except in connection with a written affirmative action plan, to make a record or oral or written inquiry in connection with a prospective real estate transaction, which indicates directly or indirectly an intent to make a limitation, specification or discrimination with respect thereto.

(8) To offer, solicit, accept, use or retain a listing of housing with the understanding that a person may be discriminated against in a real estate transaction or in the furnishing of facilities or services in connection therewith.

(9) To induce or attempt to induce any person to transfer an interest in any housing by representations regarding the exiting or potential proximity of housing owned, used or occupied by any person protected by the terms of this article.

(10) To make any misrepresentations concerning the listing for sale or rental, or the anticipated listing for sale or rental, or the sale or rental of any housing in any area in the city for the purpose of inducing or attempting to induce any such listing or any of the above transactions.

(11) To retaliate or discriminate in any manner against any person because of his opposing a practice declared unlawful by this article, or because he has filed a complaint, testified, assisted or participated in any manner in any investigation, proceeding or conference under this article.

(12) To aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce any person to engage in any of the practices prohibited by the provisions of this article, or to obstruct or prevent any person from complying with the provisions of this article, or any conciliation agreement entered into hereunder.

(13) By canvassing to compel any unlawful practices prohibited by the provisions of this article.

(14) Otherwise to deny to, or withhold, any housing accommodations from a person.

(15) To promote, induce, influence or attempt to promote, induce or influence by the use of postal cards, letters, circulars, telephone, visitation or any other means, directly or indirectly, a property owner, occupant or tenant to list for sale, sell, remove from, lease, assign, transfer or otherwise dispose of any housing by referring, as a part of a process or pattern of inciting neighborhood unrest, community tension or fear of racial, color, religious, nationality or ethnic change in any street, block, neighborhood or any other area, to the race, color, religion or national origin of actual or anticipated neighbors, tenants or other prospective buyers of any housing.

(16) To cause to be made any untrue or intentionally misleading statement or advertisement, or, in any other manner, attempt as part of a process or pattern of inciting neighborhood unrest, community tension or fear of racial, color, religious, nationality or ethnic change in any street, block, neighborhood or any other area, to obtain a listing of any housing for sale, rental, assignment, transfer or other disposition, where such statement, advertisement or other representation is false or materially misleading, or where there is insufficient basis to judge its truth or falsity to warrant making the statement, or to make any other material misrepresentations in order to obtain such listing, sale, removal from, lease, assignment, transfer or other disposition of such housing.

(17) To place a sign or display any other device either purporting to offer for sale, lease, assignment, transfer or other disposition or tending to lead to the belief that a bona fide offer is being made to sell, lease, assign, transfer or otherwise dispose of any housing that is not in fact available or offered for sale, lease, assignment, transfer or other disposition.

(Ord. No. 294, § 2, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-57. Block busting.

It shall be unlawful and a discriminatory housing practice for a person, for the purpose of inducing a real estate transaction for benefit financially:

(1) To represent that a change has occurred or will or may occur in the composition, with the respect to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, marital status or age, of the owners or occupants in the block, neighborhood or area in which the housing accommodation is located.

(2) To represent that this change will or may result in the lowering of property values, an increase in criminal or anti-social behavior or a decline in the quality of school in the block, neighborhood or area in which the housing accommodation is located.

(3) To make, as part of a process or pattern of discouraging the purchase, rental, occupancy or otherwise of any housing in a particular block, neighborhood or area, any representation to a person known to be a prospective purchaser, that such block, neighborhood or area may undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a change with respect to racial, color, religious, nationality or ethnic composition of such block or neighborhood or area.

(4) To engage in, or hire to be done, or to conspire with others to commit actions or activities of any nature, the purpose of which is to coerce, cause panic, incite unrest or create or play upon fear, with the purpose of either discouraging or inducing, or attempting to induce, the sale, purchase, rental or lease or the listing for any of the above, of any housing accommodation.

(5) For profit, to induce or attempt to induce any person to sell or not sell or rent or not rent any housing by representations regarding the entry or prospective entry into the neighborhood of a person or persons protected by the provisions of this article.

(Ord. No. 294, § 3, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-58. Financing.

It shall be unlawful and a discriminatory housing practice for any lending institution to deny a loan or other financial assistance to a person applying therefor for the purpose of purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing or maintaining housing, or to discriminate against him in the fixing of the amount, interest rate, duration or other terms or conditions of such loan or other financial assistance, because of the race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, marital status or age of such person or of any person associated with him in connection with such loan or other financial assistance, or of the present or prospective owners, lessees, tenants or occupants of the housing in relation to which such loan or other financial assistance is to be made or given; nothing contained in this section shall impair the scope or effectiveness of the exceptions contained in this chapter.

(Ord. No. 294, § 4, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-59. Brokerage services.

It shall be unlawful and discriminatory housing practices to deny any person access to or membership or participation in any multiple listing service, real estate brokers' organization or other service, organization or facility related to the business of selling or renting housing, or to discriminate against such person in the terms or conditions of such access, membership or participation because of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, marital status or age.

(Ord. No. 294, § 5, 8-25-80)

Sec. 9-60. Exemptions and exceptions.

(a) Nothing in section 9-56 shall prohibit a religious organization, association, or society or any nonprofit charitable or educational institution or organization operated, supervised or controlled by or in conjunction with a religious organization, association or society, from limiting or from advertising the sale, rental or occupancy of housing which is owned or operated for other than a commercial purpose to persons of the same religion, or from giving preference to such persons. Nor shall anything in this article prohibit a private club not in fact open to the public, which as an incident to its primary purpose or purposes provides lodgings which it owns or operates for other than a commercial purpose, from limiting the rental or occupancy of such lodgings to its members or giving preference to its members.

(b) Nothing in section 9-56(5), other than section 9-56(7), shall apply to:

(1) Any single-family house sold or rented by an owner, provided that:

(i) Such private individual owner does not own more than three (3) such single-family houses at any one (1) time.

(ii) In the case of the sale of any such single-family house by a private individual owner not residing in such house at the time of such sale or who was not the most recent resident of such house prior to such sale, the exemption granted by this section shall apply only with respect to one (1) such sale within any twenty-four-month period.

(iii) Such bona fide private individual owner does not own any interest in, nor is there owned or reserved on his behalf, under any express or voluntary agreement, title to or any rights to all or a portion of the proceeds from the sale or rental of more than three (3) such single-family houses at any one (1) time.

(iv) The owner sells or rents such housing without the use in any manner of the sales rental facilities or the sales or rental services of any real estate broker, agent or salesperson, or of such facilities or services of any person in the business of selling or renting housing, or of any employee or agency of any such broker, agent, salesperson, or person, and without the publication, posting or mailing, after notice, of any advertisement or written notice in violation of section 9-56(5) and section 9-56(7).

Nothing in this provision shall prohibit the use of attorneys, escrow agents, abstractors, title companies, and other such professional assistance as necessary to perfect or transfer the title.

(2) Rooms or units in housing containing living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than four (4) families living independently of each other, if the owner actually maintains and occupies one (1) of such living quarters as his residence, provided, that the owner sells or rents such rooms or units:

(i) Without the use in any manner of the sales or rental services of any real estate broker, agent or salesperson, or of such facilities or services of any person in the business of selling or renting housing, or of any employee or agency of any such broker, agent, salesperson, or person; and

(ii) Without the publication, posting or mailing, after notice, of any advertisement or written notice in violation of section 9-56(7).

Nothing in this provision shall prohibit the use of attorneys, escrow agents, abstractors, title companies, and other such professional assistance as necessary to perfect or transfer the title.

(c) For the purposes of section 9-56, a person shall be deemed to be in the business of selling or renting housing if:

(1) He has, within the preceding twelve (12) months, participated as principal other than in the sale of his own personal residence, in providing sales or rental facilities or sales or rental services in three (3) or more transactions involving the sale or rental of any housing or any interest therein;

(2) He has within the preceding twelve (12) months participated as agent, other than to the sale of his own personal residence, in providing sales or rental facilities or sales or rental services in two (2) or more transactions involving the sale or rental of any housing or any interest therein; or

(3) He is the owner of any housing designed or intended for occupancy by, or occupied by, five (5) or more families.

(d) Nothing in section 9-56(5) shall be construed to:

(1) Bar any person from restricting sales, rentals, leases, occupancy or from giving preference to persons of a given age for bona fide housing intended solely for the elderly or bona fide housing intended solely for minors.

(2) Make it an unlawful act to require that a person have legal capacity to enter into a contract or lease.

(3) Bar any person from advertising or from refusing to sell or rent any housing which is planned exclusively for, and occupied exclusively by individuals of one sex, to any individual of the opposite sex.

(4) Bar any person from selling, renting or advertising any housing which is planned exclusively for, and occupied exclusively by, unmarried individuals to unmarried individuals only.

(5) Bar any person from advertising or from refusing to sell or rent any housing which is planned exclusively for married couples without children or from segregating families with children to special units of housing.

(6) Bar any person from refusing to sell or rent any housing to unmarried individuals cohabiting contrary to law.

(7) Bar any person from refusing a loan or other financial assistance to any person whose life expectancy, according to generally accepted mortality tables, is less than the term for which the loan is requested.

(Ord. No. 294, § 6, 8-25-80)

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