Minneapolis City Council members showed unanimous support for an effort to add height, weight, housing status and past criminal convictions to the city’s Civil Rights Ordinance. 

Minneapolis residents gave testimonies Wednesday in support of amending the Minneapolis Civil Rights Ordinance before a Minneapolis City Council committee meeting that ended with unanimous approval and a push to schedule the issue for a full city council vote next Thursday.

Kaela McConnon Diarra, the deputy director of the Civil Rights Department, said the amendment would give greater protections to people in education, employment and housing. 

If approved, the ordinance would allow residents who feel discriminated against in education or employment to file a complaint with the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights, McConnon Diarra said. 

The ordinance would ban discrimination against people with prior criminal records in jobs if the conviction is unrelated to the job. 

“If someone had a working DWI conviction from 10 years ago and is trying to work as a receptionist, the employer would have a tough time demonstrating to the department that the conviction relates to the job,” McConnon Diarra said. 

City Council Member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) said the ordinance was made last year with the help of Council Member Jason Chavez (Ward 9), American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, Justice Impacted Individuals Voting Effectively and other advocacy organizations. 

Community members, inspired by similar legislation in Atlanta, pushed for Wonsley to introduce the policy for Minneapolis, Wonsley said in a statement. 

“We had a dialogue about the need for a policy like this in Minneapolis to help ensure that justice-impacted residents were not experiencing discrimination,” Wonsley said in a statement. “At the same time, Council Member Chavez and staff from the Civil Rights Department had identified other ways we could improve and strengthen our Civil Rights Ordinances.” 

American Civil Liberties Union organizer Paul Sullivan said protections like this ensure that people with a prior criminal record can successfully reintegrate into society. 

“Our big focus is on due process, on constitutional rights, and we believe that individuals who have been convicted through due process by a court of law in the state of Minnesota should only suffer the sanctions that were handed down to them by that process, not extracurricular sanctions that are imposed societally,” Sullivan said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, people with a prior criminal conviction spoke about the difficulties of trying to rebuild their lives after prison. 

Maurice Ward, CEO of Justice Impacted Individuals Voting Effectively, a nonprofit organization that helps protect the right to vote for people with prior convictions, said he faced job discrimination based on his criminal record.

“Being as old as I am, I have to explain to my wife that I can’t find employment, it makes me less of a provider for my family,” Ward said. 

Cheron Elliott, who is a mother of three children and has a previous criminal record, said this ordinance could help her support her family. She added that her previous criminal record has made her lose five jobs. 

“I’ve explained my background, received the job, started the job, then asked to clear my desk because upper management decided they didn’t want to go further,” Elliott said. “As a mother, I’d like to feed my children well and take care of them. We make bad decisions, but people grow from that, and to be smacked in the face with your bad decision 24 hours prior is not a good feeling and it’s not a good example for your children.”

After the public comment, City Council President Elliott Payne (Ward 1) praised the proposal and said it was a proactive way to secure people’s rights. 

“This is just extremely timely, we’re in an era when our federal government is moving to strip rights away and it’s our job at the local level to build those rights up,” Payne said.