GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1989

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 197

Short Title:  Charlotte Fair Housing.	(Local)
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Sponsors: Representatives Barnhill; Cunningham, Grimmer, McLaughlin, Foster, Easterling, Balmer, and Diggs.
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Referred to:  Government.
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February 13, 1989

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF CHARLOTTE PERTAINING TO FAIR HOUSING.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Section 6.151 of the Charter of the City of Charlotte, being Chapter 713, Session Laws of 1965, as added by Chapter 390, Session Laws of 1979, reads as rewritten:
  "Sec. 6.151.  Equal Housing. (a)	The City Council shall have the power to adopt ordinances prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, handicap, familial status, or national origin in real estate transactions.  Such ordinances may regulate or prohibit any act, practice, activity or procedure related, directly or indirectly, to the sale or rental of public or private housing, which affects or may tend to affect the availability or desirability of housing on an equal basis to all persons; may provide that violations constitute a criminal offense; may subject the offender to civil penalties; and may provide that the City may enforce the ordinances by application to the Superior Court Division of the  General Court of Justice for appropriate legal and equitable remedies, including but not limited to, mandatory and prohibitory injunctions and orders of abatement, attorney's fees and punitive damages, and the court shall have jurisdiction to grant such remedies.
(b)	The City Council also shall have the power to amend any ordinance adopted pursuant to the provisions contained in subsection (a) of this section to ensure that such ordinance remains substantially equivalent to the federal Fair Housing Act (41 USCS §§ 3601, et seq.)."
Sec. 2.  Section 6.155 of the Charter of the City of Charlotte, being Chapter 713, Session Laws of 1965 as added by Chapter 390, Session Laws of 1979, reads as rewritten:
  "Sec. 6.155.  Committee meetings.  The City Council may provide that the statutory provisions relating to meetings of governmental bodies, presently embodied in Article 33C of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes, shall not apply to the activity of any committee authorized to enforce the ordinance, to the extent that said committee is receiving a complaint or conducting an investigation, discovery, or conciliation pertaining to a complaint filed pursuant to the ordinance."
Sec. 3.  This act is effective upon ratification.