Commissioner recommends dissolving Office of Human Rights

Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Scherer recently recommended eliminating the government department responsible for protecting residents from several forms of discrimination.

The county’s Office of Human Rights ensures fair access to local employment, housing, public accommodations and government assistance, regardless of a person’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disabilities. Agency officials also work to recover wage theft in Pinellas.

Commissioners discussed Scherer’s proposal to dissolve the office and transfer employees “into other departments with fully funded position vacancies” at an Aug. 27 workshop. He believes state, federal and professional agencies can fill the void and save the county $1.5 million annually.

“I just think it’s a lot of duplication of government,” Scherer said. “And we don’t need it.”

Officials no longer have a court-ordered mandate to maintain the office. However, County Attorney Jewel White noted that the commission “passed an ordinance that kind of retooled the department” in 2016.

The ordinance also established the Human Rights Board, which governs the office. Betina Baron, director of the Office of Human Rights, answers directly to the board – currently chaired by Commissioner Rene Flowers.

The board includes the county administrator, clerk of the circuit court, supervisor of elections, tax collector, property appraiser and several other local officials. “I think sometimes we overly focus on that consent decree (court-ordered mandate),” White said of the Civil Rights Act-era mandate.

“Their focus was shifted, after that consent decree went away, for all these priorities that eight board of county commissioners established in the past,” White continued. “And some of the directives have been very successful, like the wage theft, I would throw out there.”

In addition to mitigating discrimination and wage theft, when an employer fails to pay an employee what they are legally entitled to under contract or law, the office ensures compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and offers anti-harassment training. Flowers noted the department also operates the oft-used language line service “that is simply for individuals who may not speak English as their first language, but they are residents, they are taxpayers and they need help.”

“I’m never going to support doing away with that department,” Flowers said. “I’m not going to support merging that department.”

Scherer’s proposal was part of a larger effort to eliminate or restructure several county departments and positions. His overarching goal, as outlined in an email to colleagues, is to “achieve a complete rollback of the general fund millage rate.”

Commissioners have lowered property taxes in four of the previous five budget cycles and plan to maintain the current rate in fiscal year 2026. “We need tax relief,” Scherer said.

His formal recommendation received little support from the Republican-dominated commission despite state leadership also advocating for similar departmental and property tax cuts. Commissioner Chris Latvala noted the office’s importance to mitigating wage theft – often associated with human trafficking.

“We certainly need to keep the ability for an employee to make a sexual harassment complaint,” Latvala added. “I think we should find somewhere for that to go, another department, for instance. If you want to rename it and make it another county department, which we would have the power to do, I would be supportive of that.”

Scherer’s email states that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the National Labor Relations Board, the Florida Department of Professional Regulation, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and the National Association of Realtors offer similar services as the local Office of Human Rights.

However, Flowers said HUD pays the office to conduct investigations, and she has “never known the board of realtors to take up a housing discrimination case for a person. That’s not why they exist.”

Flowers provided statistics highlighting the office’s success in aiding disabled residents and victims of wage theft. “And it’s not like this is a 300-person department,” she said. “This is a few people who do a yeoman’s job.”

Commissioner Vince Nowicki said officials should protect specific services, such as wage theft recovery, while eliminating duplicitous aspects that “aren’t core functions” of local government. Chair Brian Scott noted that the county’s sole Office of Human Rights “basically absorbed” St. Petersburg’s department in 1999.

“I’m kind of a little bit on the fence on this one,” Scott said. “I would probably be OK with taking a little more time … and making sure we’re not doing a knee-jerk reaction on this.”

Commissioner Dave Eggers similarly expressed concern with eliminating the office “on the fly,” which “doesn’t mean it’s wrong.” He also believes there is symbolism associated with operating an Office of Human Rights in Pinellas.

“I think there’s a lot of good going on in that department,” Eggers said. “I think we need the chance to highlight that before we unravel it.”

The commission agreed to discuss the department’s future further at another workshop. A public hearing regarding the proposed budget and millage rate is Thursday at 6 p.m.