OGDEN -- The city council will reconsider its passage of controversial ordinances prohibiting housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.
The council approved the ordinances this week by a 4-3 vote during a tense, emotional meeting.
"Nobody walked away from that meeting thinking it was a victory," Council Chairwoman Caitlin K. Gochnour said Friday.
Mayor Matthew Godfrey has said he plans to veto the ordinances as approved by the council.
Tuesday night, Gochnour said, the council will try to determine how to get a fifth vote needed to overturn a veto.
Godfrey objects to the ordinances as passed because the council removed provisions to exempt the city and also got rid of a religious expression clause.
"The language they changed will make it impossible for landlords to grant tenants the freedom of association, which the Constitution guarantees, without being in violation of the ordinance," he wrote in an e-mail to the Standard-Examiner.
Removal of the city exemption could enable those who feel they have been discriminated against to trigger a state law allowing them to sue the municipality and seek practically unlimited attorney fees, City Attorney Gary Williams has said.
The religious expression provision was an attempt to allow both church groups and members of the gay, bisexual and transgender communities to express their opinions without fear of violating the ordinance, he has said.
Some church leaders have said they would not be free to express in the workplace their religious opposition to the gay lifestyle without the provision.
Councilmen Doug Stephens, Brandon Stephenson and Neil Garner voted against adopting the ordinances. All three said they oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender but favor the religious beliefs provision.
If Godfrey vetoes the measures, Stephens, Stephenson or Garner would have to change their position to keep the ordinance in place.
Stephens and Stephenson said Friday they wouldn't change their view on the current ordinance, but Garner said he's waiting to see what kind of compromise the council may reach.
The council meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 2549 Washington Blvd.
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