(The Center Square) – A federal lawsuit challenging appointment process for Asheville’s Human Relations Commission will proceed despite an appointment of the lead plaintiff in the case this week.
The Asheville City Council on Tuesday appointed retired city employee John Miall to the commission and tweaked the language of the city ordinance that guides the appointment process. Miall and four other white plaintiffs say the process discriminates based on race. Council members also reappointed two current commission members and appointed another not involved in the case.
“(Miall’s) appointment does not change the fact the ordinance continues to have racial preferences in appointing members to the commission,” Andrew Quinio, attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation representing the plaintiffs, told The Center Square. “They only made cosmetic changes to the ordinance. It still disadvantages nonminority applicants.”
The lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina alleges city officials violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause by applying racial preferences when considering applications, despite struggles filling the positions.
The voluntary 15-member commission was created by the city in 2018 to “promote and improve human relations and achieve equity among all citizens in the city by carrying out the city’s human relations program.” Initially, it included racial numerical quotas for membership that were later replaced with racial and demographic categories that effectively exclude white residents that do not fit into one of them, according to the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger on Sept. 29 rejected a motion from the plaintiffs to halt Tuesday’s vote, as well as a motion from the city to dismiss the lawsuit.
The City Council in January reduced the number of members on the commission to nine and allowed up to three non-city residents in Buncombe County to participate due to struggles securing a quorum. The city solicited applications for four positions in February that required those who apply to identify their race, and detail the backgrounds, education and other factors.
Miall and the other plaintiffs submitted applications by the April 30 deadline, but all were passed over in June. Two other applications were selected and the city again advertised for open positions.
Asheville argued in the city’s Sept. 14 motion to dismiss that the applicants were not rejected because of race. The city has denied allegations of discrimination. It has declined to comment on the case.
Miall, a lifelong resident who worked for the city for three decades, is joined in the litigation by a past leader of a local parent teacher organization, a graduate student working on behavioral health, a local community college instructor who mentors homeless citizens, and an architect who designs commercial and residential buildings in the city.
Miall is “still part of the lawsuit,” despite his appointment on Tuesday, Quinio said.
“He was still injured by these preferences … because he was still subjected to competing on unequal footing,” he said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs last Friday filed a motion for class certification to expand the number of residents covered by the lawsuit to “all past, present, future, and deterred nonminority Asheville or Buncombe County applicants to the Human Relations Commission of Asheville that are qualified to apply and compete for an appointment to the HRCA.”
