File #: Res 1083-2007    Version: * Name: Urging the repeal of Proposal 06-02, a proposal to amend the Michigan State Constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Civil Rights
On agenda: 10/17/2007
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution opposing and urging the repeal of Proposal 06-02, a proposal to amend the Michigan State Constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.
Sponsors: Letitia James, Robert Jackson, Annabel Palma, James Sanders, Jr.
Council Member Sponsors: 4

Res. No. 1083

 

Resolution opposing and urging the repeal of Proposal 06-02, a proposal to amend the Michigan State Constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.

 

By Council Members James, Jackson, Palma and Sanders Jr.

 

                     Whereas, Proposal 06-02 was a proposal considered by the Michigan electorate to amend the Michigan State Constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes; and

Whereas, Proposal 06-02 would affect public institutions such as state government, local government, public colleges and universities, community colleges and school districts; and

                     Whereas, Proposal 06-02 would prohibit public institutions from discriminating against groups or individuals due to their gender, ethnicity, race, color or national origin; and

                     Whereas, The Michigan electorate voted to adopt Proposal 06-02, enabling it to become Article I, Section 26 of the 1963 Michigan Constitution; and

                     Whereas, According to a report by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (MCRC), which was commissioned by Governor Jennifer Granholm to investigate the impact Proposal 06-02 would have on the State of Michigan, Proposal 06-02 has virtually the same language as California’s Proposition 209, and both actions are part of a national strategy promoted by Ward Connerly, a founder of the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), to eliminate government affirmative action programs; and

 

Whereas, According to an article in the September 30, 2007 edition of The New York Times, the decreased enrollment of African-American students at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), an elite public university, has been attributed partially to the implementation of that state’s Proposition 209; and

Whereas, The article also indicates that in 1997, the UCLA freshmen class included 221 African-American students, and that currently only 1 in 50 UCLA freshmen are African-American; and

Whereas, According to ACRI, it was instrumental in achieving the adoption of Washington State’s I-200 and Florida State’s One Florida, both of which also banned race-based college admissions; and

Whereas, Affirmative action policies promote fairness in employment and education; and

Whereas, The United States Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that there is nothing unconstitutional about the consideration of race as a factor with respect to a candidate who is already being seriously considered for admission; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York opposes and urges the repeal of Proposal 06-02, a proposal to amend the Michigan State Constitution to ban affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.

LS# 3764

S.O.

10/10/07

1:58pm