King County Charter Amendment No. 2 Prohibiting Discrimination

Full text here.

Basically adds disability and sexual orientation to the list of things that the County can’t discriminate against in hiring or contracting.

I am generally opposed to laws that in any way whatsoever restrict who PRIVATE entities can hire or why they can hire them. That includes non-discrimination laws. I think private entities should be able to do whatever the hell they want, and if they make decisions in ways other than merit alone, they will suffer the economic consequences of that stupid choice.

However, this is GOVERNMENTAL hiring and contracting. I very much think the government should be required to not discriminate on irrelevant attributes. If I was doing such, I would not give a list of things you can’t discriminate on, I would instead require that ONLY attributes directly relevant to the candidate (or contractor’s) ability to accomplish the tasks required of them for the position / assignment could be taken into account. (Of course, this would prohibit any and all forms of affirmative action as well, which would be a good thing.) This does not go that far.

But I guess as long as you are going to have things on a list, it is OK for these things to be on the list too.

My vote:

YES