The Human Rights Commission shall have the following powers and duties:
(A) To create subcommittees and advisory committees as in its judgment will aid in effectuating the purpose of this subchapter.
(B) To issue publications and results of investigation and research as in its judgment will tend to minimize or eliminate discrimination because of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, or disability.
(1) To determine jointly with the Legal Department whether probable cause exists to believe that discrimination has occurred. A probable cause Commissioner shall be assigned to each complaint filed on the date it is filed and shall participate jointly with the Legal Department and assists in the investigation of the complaint. The Legal Department shall make a written recommendation of cause or no cause setting forth relevant facts and applicable legal authority and submit it to the designated probable cause Commissioner.
(2) The Commissioner shall review the Legal Department’s recommended finding, and shall make a written determination of cause or no cause setting forth the relevant facts and applicable law. The probable cause Commissioner shall follow applicable legal standards as set forth by the Legal Department in making the determination.
(C) To schedule complaints for public hearings upon a determination of probable cause.
(1) When the recommendation after the investigation is no probable cause, the complainant shall be furnished a copy of the findings of fact and recommendations and shall be given ten days to make a written request, with the reasons therefore, to the chairperson of the Commission for review of the finding. Upon the receipt of the request for review, the chairperson or their designee shall review the request and the decision of the reviewing Commissioner regarding probable cause shall be final. Whenever a Commissioner reviews a decision at the request of a complainant, the Commissioner shall be disqualified from any further participation in that case, except as a witness at a public hearing on the complaint.
(2) Complaints of discrimination shall be received and investigated by the Legal Department. To be acceptable to the Legal Department, a complaint shall be sufficiently complete so as to reflect properly the name and address of the complainant, the name and address of respondent against whom the complaint is made, the alleged discriminatory practice and a statement of particulars thereof, the date or dates and places of the alleged discriminatory practice, if it is of a continuing nature, the dates between which the continuing acts of discrimination are alleged to have occurred, and a statement as to any other action, civil or criminal, instituted in any other form based upon the same grievance as is alleged in the complaint, together with a statement as to the status or disposition of the other action. No complaint shall be valid unless filed within 180 days from the occurrence of the alleged discriminatory practice, or from the date of the termination of a published and meaningful grievance procedure provided by a respondent employer or labor union, provided, that complaints filed only with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shall be deemed to have been filed simultaneously with the Legal Department for purposes of measuring the 180 day limitation, as long as the complaint is otherwise within the Legal Department's jurisdiction, provided, further, that any person who files a complaint with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission shall have no recourse to the city Legal Department concerning any of the matters alleged in the complaint, provided, further, that any person who files a complaint with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission shall have no recourse to the city Legal Department concerning any of the matters alleged in the complaint, provided; further, that the Legal Department shall have no jurisdiction over the state or any of its agencies. After a complaint is scheduled for a public hearing, the Legal Department shall make reasonable efforts to conciliate all issues raised during investigation of the case.
(D) To prevent any person from discharging, expelling, or otherwise discriminating against any other person because he or she filed a complaint or testified in any hearing before the Commission or in any way assisted in any matter under investigation.
(E) To issue a temporary emergency order against any person requiring the person to do an act preserving the possibility of a remedy for a complaint or to refrain from doing an act damaging the possibility of a remedy during the investigation of the complaint; provided, however:
(1) No temporary emergency order shall be issued unless a time and place for hearing on the temporary emergency order is designated in the order;
(2) The hearing on the temporary emergency order shall be held within ten days following the issuance of the temporary order, unless continued by the Commission at the request of the respondent. At the hearing, the complainant shall show that a failure to continue the temporary order would damage his or her remedy. The Commission shall, thereupon, weigh the comparative hardship to complainant and respondent and issue a decision continuing or terminating the temporary emergency order, pending final disposition of the complaint. The respondent may waive the hearing without prejudice to his or her defense of the matters charged in the complaint, in which case the temporary order shall remain in effect pending final disposition of the complaint; and
(3) The Commission may by rule provide for issuance of its temporary order by a majority of the Commission, and it may compel compliance with any such temporary order by bringing in any circuit or superior court for prohibitory or mandatory injunction upon showing that the person is subject to the court’s jurisdiction, resides or transacts business within the county in which the proceeding is brought, and that the injunction is necessary to protect the complainant’s rights under this chapter until his or her complaint is resolved through conciliation or public hearing.
(F) To reduce the terms of conciliation agreed to by the parties in writing, to be called a consent agreement, which the parties and a majority of the Commissioners shall sign. When so signed, the consent agreement shall have the same effect as a cease and desist order pursuant to division (H) of this section. If the Commission determines that a party to the consent agreement is not complying with it, the Commission may obtain enforcement of the consent agreement in a circuit or superior court upon showing that the party is not complying with the consent agreement, and the party is subject to the Commission's jurisdiction, and resides or transacts business within the county in which the petition for enforcement is brought.
(G) To hold hearings, subpoena witnesses, compel their attendance, administer oaths, take testimony of any matter under investigation or in question before the Commission. The Commission may make rules governing the issuance of subpoenas by individual Commissioners. Contumacy or refusal to obey a subpoena or temporary emergency order issued pursuant to this section shall be a breach of this subchapter and the person shall be liable to a penalty therefore, if adjudged by the circuit or superior court, of the payment of a penalty not to exceed $300. Each penalty shall be deposited in the General Fund of the city, provided, however, that the payment of the penalty by a party shall not impair the Commission's ability to grant affirmative relief and compensatory damages to the complainant, should justice so require.
(H) To state its findings of fact after hearing which statement shall be made in a written opinion containing both the findings of fact and the principles of law applied. All written opinions shall be compiled and maintained as public record and, in making decisions, the Commission shall give due consideration to its prior decisions which may be applicable. If a majority of the Commissioners who hear the case finds that a person has engaged in unlawful discriminatory practice, the Commission shall cause to be served on the person and order requiring the person to cease and desist from the unlawful discriminatory practice and requiring the person to take further affirmative action necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section.
(1) If unlawful discrimination is found in the area of employment, an order shall be issued requiring the respondent to take such affirmative action including but not limited to hiring, reinstatement, and upgrading of employers or people deprived of employment, with or without compensatory damages to which the complainants would have been entitled had they not been deprived of equal opportunity, provided, that this division shall not be construed to require any employer to modify physical accommodations or administrative procedures to accommodate a person with a disability.
(2) If unlawful discrimination is found in the area of housing or acquisition of real property, an order may be issued requiring a respondent to take affirmative action, including but not limited to renting, selling, or leasing to a person deprived of equal opportunity. Compensation for the denial of equal opportunity shall be allowed within the discretion of the Commission.
(3) If unlawful discrimination is found in the area of public accommodation, an order shall be issued requiring a respondent to take affirmative action, including but not limited to providing services, goods, or access to property, instatement to membership, reinstatement to membership, posting of notice that a facility is a public accommodation, with or without compensatory damages for a complainant's being denied equal opportunity.
(4) If unlawful discrimination is found in the area of education, an order may issued requiring a respondent to take affirmative action, including, but not limited to, a review and revision of school boundaries, revision of teaching aids, and materials, human relations training for personnel recruitment of minority people for professional staff, with or without compensatory damages to which the complainant would have been entitled except for the denial of equal opportunity.
(5) If upon all the evidence, the Commission finds that a person has not engaged in any unlawful practice or violation of this section, the Commission shall state its findings of fact and shall issue and cause to be served on the complainant an order dismissing the complaint as to the person.
(6) Judicial review of the cease and desist order, or other final order, or other affirmative action or damages as referred to in this subchapter may be obtained by filing in the county circuit or superior courts. The scope of review shall be in accordance with the provisions set out in I.C. 4-21.5-1 et seq. If no proceeding to obtain judicial review is instituted within 30 days from the receipt of notice by a person that the order has been made by the Commission, the Commission, if it determines that the person upon whom the cease and desist order has been served is not complying or is making no effort to comply, may obtain a decree of a court for the enforcement of the order in circuit or superior court upon showing that the person is subject to the Commissions jurisdiction and resides or transacts business within the county in which petition for enforcement is brought, or may request the City Attorney, Commission attorney, or attorney representing the complainant to seek enforcement.
(7) Affirmative action by city contractors. All contractors doing business with the city, except those specifically exempted by regulations promulgated by the Human Rights Commission and approved by the Common Council shall take affirmative action to insure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment in a manner which provides equal employment opportunity and tends to eliminate inequality based upon religion, race, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, or disability. Affirmative action shall include but not be limited to the issuance of a statement of policy regarding equal employment and its communication to all personnel involved in recruitment, hiring, training, assignment, and promotion, notification of all employment sources of company policy and active efforts to review the qualifications of all applicants regardless of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, or disability, recruiting in the minority group community for employees; and establishing an internal system of reporting concerning equal employment, recruiting, hiring, training, upgrading and the like.
(a) Each contractor shall submit to the Human Rights Commission a written proposal concerning the affirmative action it proposes to take, which proposal must be approved prior to its entering a contract with the city. The proposal shall be limited to measures similar to those which the city is required to take in its affirmative action with regard to its own employees, as established by the Mayor's office and as specified by resolution of the Common Council.
(b) All contracting agencies of the city or any department thereof shall include in all contracts hereafter negotiated or renegotiated by them a provision obligating the contractor to take affirmative action to insure that the applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment in a manner which provide equal employment opportunity and tends to eliminate inequality based upon race, religion, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, or disability.
(c) The contracts shall provide further that breach of the obligation to take affirmative action shall be a material breach of the contract for which the city shall be entitled at its option:
1. To cancel, terminate, or suspend the contract in whole or in part;
2. To declare the contractor or vendor ineligible for further city contracts;
3. To recover liquidated damages of a specified sum.
(Ord. G-74-524, passed 1-7-1974; Ord. G-12-15, passed 7-19-2012)