Editors note: E-City Beat has requested and received permission to copy and paste Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s reports from his public commissioner’s Facebook page, ‘Rick Tryon for a Greater Great Falls’.
COMMISSIONER TRYON’S GREAT FALLS CITY COMMISSION REPORT
“Here is the link to the video of the special work session the city commission held on Tuesday to hear public comment on the proposed nondiscrimination ordinance.
It is very informative and interesting and I would urge interested citizens to give it a look or listen.
It starts with a presentation from the Great Falls city attorney and her legal analysis of the NDO and then a presentation from representatives of the Great Falls LGBTQ+ Center.
Then there’s a couple of hours of public comment both for and against, one hour given to each side, and finally comments from each of the commissioners on the issue.
Commissioners Kelly, Moe, Robinson and myself agreed in determining that an NDO is not necessary, primarily due to the recent SCOTUS Bostock vs Clayton County decision.
In addition, my opinion that we should not go forward with the NDO is also partially based on my view that the GF city commission does not have the legal or constitutional authority to make anti-discrimination law which is appropriately decided at the state and federal level.
The session is about 3 1/2 hours long so you might want to watch it in segments over the weekend. It’s well worth it to hear the different views of so many of your fellow citizens and to see how the process played out imo.
We will not be moving forward with the NDO. However we will be working on and discussing the language for a nonbinding resolution which would include all classes of constitutionally protected citizens.”
