Agenda - 09-09-2004 - 10b - Laserfiche WebLink

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When the Department of Human Rights was created in 1994, it was created in order to enforce the Ordinance and staff the Commissions. In addition, the Department was charged with conducting community education and outreach, advocating for women's needs and providing information and referral about existing community services. During the Department's early years and well into the 21St century, the Department focused primarily.on Civil Rights Ordinance enforcement while prevention efforts took a back seat to reactive interventions. During much of that time, the Department had a backlog of aged employment cases and was building its capacity to receive and investigate housing cases. In November 2000, the Department was enjoined from conducting employment investigations pending a determination on the constitutionality ofthe employment section of the Ordinance. At the time the Department was enjoined, there were approximately 12 employment cases in the Department that were returned to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission for completion. In June 2003 the employment sector of the Civil Rights Ordinance was declared unconstitutional. The Department continued to investigate fair housing cases and increased its efforts towards education on fair housing issues. 2