Council Panel Seeking Ordinance to Ban AIDS Bias

A San Diego City Council committee has called for an ordinance to prohibit housing or job discrimination against people suffering from AIDS.

The Public Services and Safety Committee instructed the city manager and city attorney Wednesday to draft such a measure, a model of which has been proposed by the regional task force on acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Dr. Brad Truax, chairman of the task force, said the group had planned to present the anti-discrimination measure to county supervisors for consideration later this month, after which it would be offered to cities throughout the county for their review. Councilman William Jones, however, urged city staff members to begin their own work on an ordinance and not wait for the county’s action.

After the meeting, Truax told reporters that the ordinance proposed by the task force would also prohibit discrimination by financial institutions, insurance companies and at public facilities against AIDS victims or anyone who could be “perceived” as being exposed to the AIDS virus.

He said the proposed measure is based on anti-discrimination ordinances passed in other cities, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The call for a similar ordinance in San Diego came during a committee hearing in which the council members decided how to spend $150,000 in federal funds to relieve the suffering of AIDS victims. Truax told council members the money was needed for education, as well as to fill in the “gaps” of various social services.

The committee voted for the city to put out bids for agencies to provide those services, but restricted the bidding to agencies whose sole mission is to serve AIDS victims. The winning bid will be selected by September.