“Holly Springs offers a home to everyone without question, without exception,” said Holly Springs Mayor Mike Kondratick as the town council voted to adopt Wake County’s nondiscrimination ordinance (NDO) at Tuesday’s meeting.
The new ordinance recognizes that Holly Springs finds discrimination in public accommodations and employment to be “detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of its residents and the peace and dignity of the town.”
Holly Springs joins eight other municipalities within Wake County – including Raleigh, Cary, and Apex – that have signed on to the nondiscrimination ordinance since 2022.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Karyn Mulligan, a 26-year-resident of the town, said passing the ordinance was unnecessary, and placed an unfair burden on small businesses.
Longtime town resident Beth Richardson joined Mulligan in trying to persuade the council to reject the resolution once again, calling it “big government overreach.
“The people in this community have the 14th Amendment that was ratified in 1868, 158 years ago. That amendment gave everyone, not in Holly Springs, but in the entire United States, equal rights,” said Richardson.
Richardson said in her 27 years living in Holly Springs, she hadn’t seen anyone denied employment or housing because of the color of their skin or whether they are male or female.
Council member Chris Deshazor suggested that Richardson’s assessment was incomplete.
Council member Chris Deshazor (Photo: HollySpringsnc.gov)
“Look around in this room – the majority of you could not vote on equal rights 158 years ago, because only white males could vote,” said Deshazor. “We have to continue to evolve and to grow.”
Under the Wake County Interlocal Agreement, protected classes include race, natural hair or hairstyles, ethnicity, creed, color, sex, pregnancy, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, natural origin or ancestry, national guard or veteran status, religious belief or non-belief, age or disability.
Resident Donna Friend said it was sad that folks opposing the NDO had largely been focused on sexual identity and sexual orientation.
“I would suspect each of us in this room fits into one or more categories,” Friend told the council. “And if you don’t, you probably have friends and family members who fit into one of those categories.”
Tuesday’s 5-1 vote follows nearly four years of rejection by prior town council members.
In 2022, then-council member Aaron Wolff spoke out against an “intolerant minority” when then-Mayor Sean Mayefskie dismissed efforts to sign on to Wake County’s nondiscrimination ordinance and issue a proclamation to recognize Pride Month.
All current members of Holly Springs Town Council have been elected in the past three years.
Only Danielle Hewetson voted against the NDO.
Mayor Kondratick said the council’s vote Tuesday evening was a recognition that many residents and businesses have been far ahead of elected officials to this point.
“I think that adopting Wake County’s nondiscrimination ordinance means that the letter of our law matches the power of your example,” said Kondratick.
Holly Springs has seen explosive growth in recent years, attracting major science and biotech businesses including Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Amgen and Genentech. The vast majority of those larger U.S. employers have established nondiscrimination policies as part of their corporate culture.
“Once we know better, we do better,” said Sarah Lawson, who joined the town council in December. “No percentage is too small to fight discrimination.”
This article appears courtesy of our media partner NC Newsline via Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.