Deliberations continue as Commissioner the Jack Donovan tries to persuade local government to add disadvantaged children as a protected class under the city code of ordinances.
If passed, the city of Gainesville would be the first in the country to have disadvantaged children as a protected class.
"We don't have a bigger group that's discriminated against than that group," Donovan said in Wednesday's Equal Opportunity Committee meeting.
Donovan gave examples of how socioeconomically disadvantaged children don't get the proper start in life.
"A disadvantaged child hears three negative words for every positive word," Donovan said in the meeting, "and that is the opposite for middle-class children."
Donovan suggested that adding disadvantaged children as a protected class would promote more city involvement and funding of programs and organizations geared toward at-risk children, such as early learning programs and Partnership for Strong Families, a local organization that offers child welfare services.
"Social change will only work if [efforts] are supported and backed by a government," he said.
"We need to hold ourselves accountable in a way we haven't held ourselves accountable before," he told the committee.
Jimmie Williams, Office of Equal Opportunity director, said he supported the idea absolutely, but that there would be some major roadblocks.
One of the biggest roadblocks might be from a legal standpoint.
Charlie Hauck, senior assistant city attorney, said that it would be hard to prove whether a potential ordinance violator knew of a person's socioeconomic status.
"Say the criteria for discrimination is having a household income under $20,000," Hauck said. "People don't have signs on their chests that say 'I have a household income of 20K.'"
"You can see if someone is African-American or a woman, but [income level] is not an obvious characteristic," Hauck said.
Because of the unknown legal implications the change in the discrimination section of city ordinances may possess, city legal staff will have to further research the issue before presenting it to the City Commission.
In the meantime, Commissioner Craig Lowe said the community needs to prioritize education to be "just as desirable as scoring a touchdown on Friday nights."
