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Minutes for HB2376 - Committee on Local Government
Short Title
Prohibiting the recording of any restrictive covenant that violates the Kansas act against discrimination and authorizing the removal of such covenants from existing documents, and prohibiting city or county laws prohibiting discrimination that are more restrictive than state law.
Minutes Content for Wed, Feb 15, 2023
Jason Long briefed the committee on the bill. He explained the bill would amend the Kansas Act Against Discrimination by adding two now statutes to the act and amending an existing statute (Attachment 1)..
Representative Patrick Penn testified as a proponent for the bill (Attachment 2), (Attachment 3), (Attachment 4). He explained that the bill empowers local governments across Kansas to both ensure alignment and compliance with governing U.S. Federal and Kansas State law on anti-discrimination and finally have the tools to begin more easily rectifying a decades-old issue: racially-discriminatory "restrictive covenants".
Mark Tomb, VP of Governmental Affairs, Kansas Association of Realtors, also testified as a proponent for the bill (Attachment 5). He supports the long overdue measures in this bill to remove derogatory restrictive covenants that have no place in modern society.
A question and answer period followed.
Proponents who provided written-only testimony were:
- Paul Davis, Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas (Attachment 6)
- Wendy Weiss, Legislative Committee Chair, Kansas Register of Deeds Association (Attachment 7)
- Tonya Buckingham, Sedgwick County Register of Deeds(Attachment 8), (Attachment 9)
- Jay Hall, Deputy Directory and General Counsel, Kansas Association of Counties (Attachment 10)
Michael Poppa, Mayor, City of Roeland Park, testified as an opponent to the bill (attachment 10). He explained this law would prohibit "city or county laws prohibiting discrimination that are more restrictive than state laws" (Attachment 11)
Rabbi Moti Reiber, Executive Director, Kansas Interfaith Action also testified as an opponent (Attachment 12). He stated that this bill is aimed at taking away hard-won rights from Kansans who are members of the LGBT community.
Opponents who provided written-only testimony were:
- Jan Faidley, Council Member, City of Roeland Park (Attachment 13)
- Taryn Jones, Equality Kansas (Attachment 14)
- Solana Flora, Mayor, Mission,Kansas (Attachment 15)
- Stacey Knoell, Executive Director, African American Affairs Commission (Attachment 16)
- Amanda Mogoi, APRN, co-owner of M-Care Healthcare (Attachment 17)
- Aileen Berquist, Policy Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas (Attachment 18)
- Liz Hamor, CEO, Center of Daring (Attachment 19)
- Michael Koss, Deputy City Attorney, City of Overland Park (Attachment 20)
- Connie Brown Collins, Founder/Director, Voter Rights Network of Wyandotte County (Attachment 21)
- Brandon Johnson, Wichita City Council (Attachment 22)
Spencer Duncan, Government Affairs Director, League of Municipalities testified as neutral on the bill (Attachment 23). He explained that Section 2 preempts cities from passing non-discrimination provisions beyond what is in current state law. This would invalidate numerous non-discrimination ordinances passed by cities, which were approved with input and direction for their citizens. The League respectfully asks this section be removed.
Neutral written-only testimony was provided by:
- Phoebe Neseth, Director, Government and Public Affairs, Community Associations Institute (Attachment 24).
Chairman Bergquist closed the hearing on HB2376.
