HOUSTON – Senator Paul Bettencourt has announced he has released 100,000 calls into the City of Houston in opposition to Houston Proposition 1 and 2. If enacted, Proposition 1 (the H.E.R.O. Ordinance) would prohibit veterans from receiving any preferential treatment in hiring practices at private businesses.
“After multiple attempts by Mayor Parker to deny citizens their right to lawfully petition their elected officials, the controversial equal rights ordinance will finally be put before the voters,” said Senator Bettencourt. “After being rebuked on four different occasions by multiple courts for using deceptive ballot language, and erring on the H.E.R.O. language, it should come as no surprise that Mayor Parker has crafted an ordinance that will deny the country’s veterans any preferential treatment in hiring practices at the City of Houston and in private businesses.”
Proposition 1 seeks to prohibit discrimination in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment, and housing based on an individual’s sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy.
“We have all heard about the issue of men in women’s restrooms, but the fact that Mayor Parker wants to penalize the country’s veterans in her effort to create a new protected class of people is simply wrong,” Bettencourt continued. “The fact that the Parker Administration has spent over a year attempting to deny lawfully collected petition signatures from even being counted so that the ordinance could be voted on is a telling indication of how the vote will likely go. The proposition is so poorly written, if enforced by city officials, it will prevent private companies from offering a veterans preference in hiring practices.”
In addition to opposing Houston Proposition 1, Senator Bettencourt also opposes Houston Proposition 2. Proposition 2 is a misguided effort to change term limits to two four year terms for city council members while grandfathering existing members.
“No big city mayor, that I am aware of, has ever been reversed four times in one summer on election issues. The public shouldn’t trust this poorly written ordinance, and they should just vote NO,” Bettencourt concluded.
