ORDINANCE NO. 656
AN ORDINANCE OF THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE
PROHIBITING AIDS DISCRIMINATION
The Board of Supervisors of the
County of Riverside, State of California, Ordains as Follows:
Section 1. FINDINGS. The Board of
Supervisors finds and declares:
a. That the medical condition
described as Acquired Immune
Deficiency
Syndrome, commonly known as AIDS, is a deadly disease which has the potential
to affect every segment of our County's population;
b. That AIDS, in the opinion of the
scientific and medical
community,
is caused by a virus, known as HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) (or in the
past, HTLV-III or LAV), which attacks and cripples the body's immune system and
neurological system, thereby leaving the body vulnerable to opportunistic
infections, certain cancers and neurological diseases;
c. That a person afflicted with AIDS
suffers a variety of
bacterial,
viral, and/or fungal caused illnesses, cancers, protozoan and neurological
conditions which debilitate the body resulting in a high mortality rate within
several years after diagnosis;
d. That the transmission of the
virus has occurred through
transfer
of blood, blood by-products, and body organs; through intimate sexual contact;
through the sharing of hypodermic needles used in drug injections; or
perinatally;
e. That no evidence exists to
indicate the spread of the virus
through
casual contact, such as contact at work or at school, through the air or water
or through the handling of food by persons having the AIDS virus;
f. That medical studies of family
groups in which one or more
persons
have been diagnosed with AIDS show no spread of the virus other than through
sexual intimacy or through the exchange of blood, such as mother to fetus;
g. That a public health danger
represented by the HIV virus and
its
subsequent manifestation as AIDS is caused by the lengthy incubation period
during which period an apparently healthy but infected individual may spread
the disease to other persons through the transfer of blood, blood by-products,
body organs, semen, or vaginal/cervical secretions, perinatally or through the
sharing of hypodermic needles used in drug injections;
h. That AIDS has been recognized as
a national public health
emergency
with a large proportion of the cases diagnosed in California;
i. That AIDS, in the opinion of the
scientific and medical
community,
will continue to increase at a high rate within our County for the foreseeable
future;
j. That persons with AIDS,
AIDS-related complex (ARC), or in an
AIDS-related
status (ARS), including persons infected with the AIDS virus who may never show
AIDS symptoms or develop the disease, are faced with potential discrimination,
and such potential for discrimination is sufficient to justify a County
ordinance to prohibit those discriminatory practices which are not currently
adequately addressed by federal and state law.
Section 2. PUBLIC POLICY. It is
hereby declared as the public policy of the County of Riverside that it is
necessary to protect and safeguard the rights and opportunities of persons with
AIDS, ARC or ARS in respect to discrimination in housing, business
establishments, and County facilities and services.
Section 3. DEFINITIONS.
a. AIDS means Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome, a disease
complex
which occurs when an important part of the human immune system is destroyed by
the action of a human immune deficiency virus known as HIV and previously
referred to as HTLV-III or LAV and as it may be further defined by the United
States Public Health Services Center for Disease Control. AIDS is manifested by
infections, cancers or neurological diseases;
b. ARC means AIDS-related complex.
ARC occurs when the human
immune
system is weakened by the AIDS virus, and such conditions as enlarged lymph nodes,
fever, weight loss, malaise, and chronic diarrhea result. ARC may or may not
develop into AIDS.
c. ARS means AIDS-related status.
Such status includes:
1. A person who is HIV positive;
2. A person, who because of
association with another person
having
AIDS, ARC, or is HIV positive, is regarded as very likely to contract the virus
that causes AIDS; and
3. A person who perceived and dealt
with by other others as
though
being infected with the virus that causes AIDS because of such person's
association with another person diagnosed as having AIDS, ARC, or who is HIV
positive.
d. BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENT includes
any entity, however
organized,
which furnishes goods or services, including educational services, or
accommodations to the general public; including any entity which as a
membership requirement if its membership requirement consists only of the
payment of membership fee and a substantial number of the residents within the
County of Riverside could qualify.
e. EMPLOYEE includes any person
employed by an employer.
f. EMPLOYER means any person
regularly employing one or more
persons,
or any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly.
g. EMPLOYMENT AGENCY means any
person regularly undertaking
compensation
to procure employees for an employer or to procure for employees opportunities
to work for an employer and includes an agent of such a person.
h. HOUSING ACCOMMODATION includes
any improved or unimproved
real
property, or portion thereof, which is used or occupied, or is intended,
arranged or designed to be used or occupied, as the home, residence, or
sleeping place of one or more persons.
i. HOUSING SERVICES shall mean
services otherwise provided by
the owner
of any housing accommodation to persons renting or leasing such housing
accommodation, including but not limited to, utilities such as light, heat,
water and telephone; ordinary repairs or replacement, and maintenance,
including painting; elevator services, laundry facilities and privileges, the
use of common recreational facilities, janitorial services, resident manager,
refuse removal, furnishings, food service, parking and any other benefits,
privileges or facilities provided;
j. LABOR ORGANIZATION means any
organization which exists and
is
constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining or
of dealing with employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of
employment, or of other mutual aid or protection.
k. OWNER includes the lessee,
sublessee, assignee, managing
agent,
real estate broker or salesman, or any person having any legal or equitable
right of ownership or possession or the right to rent or lease housing
accommodations.
l. PERSON includes one or more
individuals, partnerships,
associations,
corporations, labor organizations, legal representatives, trustees, trustees in
bankruptcy, and receivers or other fiduciaries;
Section 3. HOUSING ACCOMMODATIONS
AND HOUSING SERVICES.
a. It shall be unlawful for any
owner of any housing
accommodation
or housing service to discriminate against any person because such person has
AIDS, ARC or ARS.
b. Nothing in this section shall:
1. Apply to any housing
accommodation in which the owner or
any member
of his or her family occupies the same housing accommodation in common with the
prospective tenant. This exception shall not apply where the owner occupies a
separate apartment, condominium or other housing unit in a multiple-unit
complex.
2. Permit or require the rental or
occupancy of any housing
accommodation
otherwise prohibited by law.
3. Otherwise interfere with any just
cause for an owner to
evict a
person from any housing accommodation or permit the delay of any unlawful
detainer action.
Section 4. BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENTS.
It shall be unlawful for any person to deny any person the full and equal
enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and
accommodations of any business establishment on the grounds that such person
has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
Section 5. COUNTY FACILITIES AND
SERVICES.
a. It shall be unlawful to deny any
person the full and equal
enjoyment
of, or to impose less advantageous terms, or restrict the availability of, the
use of any County facility or participation in any County funded or supported
service or program on the grounds that such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
b. Nothing in the section shall:
1. Apply to any facility, service or
program which does not
receive
any assistance from the County and which is not open to or provided to the
public generally;
2. Restrict services or programs
specifically designed for
persons
with AIDS, ARC or ARS.
Section 6. EMPLOYMENT.
a. It shall be unlawful:
1. For an employer:
a) To fail or refuse to hire or to
discharge any
person, or
otherwise to discriminate against any person with respect to his compensation,
terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, on the basis such person has
AIDS, ARC or ARS; or
b) To limit, segregate, or classify
his employees or
applicants
for employment in any which would deprive or tend to deprive any person of
employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an
employee, on the basis such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
2. For an employment agency to fail
or refuse to refer for
employment,
or otherwise to discriminate against, any person, or to classify or refer for
employment any person on the basis such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
3. For a labor organization:
a) To exclude or to expel from its
membership or
otherwise
to discriminate against, any person on the basis such person has AIDS, ARC or
ARS;
b) To limit, segregate, or classify
its membership or
applicants
for membership, or to classify or fail or refuse to refer for employment any
person, in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any person of
employment opportunities, or would limit such employment opportunities or
otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee or as an applicant for
employment, on the basis such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS; or;
c) To cause or attempt to cause an
employer to
discriminate
against any person in violation of this section.
4. For any employer, labor
organization, or joint
labor-management
committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining, including
on-the-job training programs, to discriminate against any person on the basis
of AIDS, ARC or ARS in admission to, or employment in, any program established
to provide apprenticeship or other training.
b. Notwithstanding any other
provision of this Chapter, it
shall not
be unlawful:
1. For an employer to hire and
employ employees, for an
employment
agency to classify, or to refer for employment any person, for a labor
organization to classify its membership or to classify or refer for employment
any person, or for an employer, labor organization, or joint labor-management
committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining programs
to admit or employ any person in any such program, on the basis such person has
AIDS, ARC or ARS in those certain instances where lack of AIDS, ARC or ARS is a
bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal
operation of that particular business or enterprise.
2. For an employer to apply
different standards of
compensation,
or different terms, conditions or privileges of employment pursuant to a bona
fide seniority or merit system, or a system which measures earnings by quantity
or quality of production or to employees who work in different locations,
provided that such differences are not the result of an intention to
discriminate against a person on the basis such person has AIDS, ARC or ARS.
3. For an employer to give and to
act upon the results of
any
professionally developed ability test provided that such test, its
administration or action upon the results of such tests is not designed,
intended or used to discriminate against a person on the basis such person has
AIDS, ARC or ARS.
Section 7. ADVERTISING. It shall be
unlawful to make, print,
publish, advertise or disseminate in
any way, or cause to be made, printed, published, advertised disseminated in
any way, any notice, statement, sign, advertisement, application or contract
which indicates an intent to engage in any practice made unlawful by this
chapter.
Section 8. ASSOCIATION AND
RETALIATION.
a. Association. It shall be
unlawful for any person to do any
of the
acts prohibited by this chapter, as a result of the fact that a person
associates with anyone who has AIDS or any condition related thereto covered by
this chapter.
b. Retaliation. It shall be
unlawful for any person to do any
of the
acts prohibited in this chapter or to retaliate against a person because a
person:
1. Has opposed any act or practice
made unlawful by this
chapter;
2. Has supported this chapter and
its enforcement;
3. Has testified, assisted or
participated in any way in
any
investigation, proceeding, or litigation under this chapter.
Section 9. EXCEPTIONS.
a. Nothing in this chapter shall be
construed to prohibit any
act
specifically authorized by the laws of the United States, the State of
California or the County of Riverside or any act required by the County
Department of Health Services to protect the public health.
b. Nothing in this chapter shall
prohibit any act which is
necessary
to protect the health or safety of the general public. If a party to any action
brought under this chapter asserts that an otherwise discriminatory practice is
justified as necessary to protect the health or safety of the general public,
that party shall have the burden of proving:
1. That the discrimination is in
fact a necessary result of
a
necessary result of a necessary course of conduct pursued to protect the health
or safety of the general public; and
2. That there exists no less
discriminatory means of
satisfying
the necessary protection of the health or safety of the general public.
Section 10. LIABILITY AND DAMAGES.
Any person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter or who aids in
the violation of any provisions of this chapter is liable for each and every
such offense for damages up to a maximum of three times the amount of actual
damages, for punitive damages as may be determined by a jury or a court sitting
without a jury, and for costs, including reasonable attorney's fees, as may be
determined by the court.
Section 11. ENFORCEMENT.
a. Any aggrieved person may enforce
the provisions of this
chapter by
means of a civil action.
b. Any person who commits, or
proposes to commit, an act in
violation
of this chapter may be enjoined therefrom by a court of competent jurisdiction.
c. An action for injunction under
subdivision (b) may be
brought by
any aggrieved person or by any person or entity which will fairly and
adequately represent the interests of the aggrieved person.
d. Nothing in this chapter shall
preclude any aggrieved person
from
seeking any other remedy provided by law.
e. An action arising under this
chapter shall not be rendered
moot
because of the death or physical or mental incapacity of the person who was the
subject of the claimed discrimination.
f. Notwithstanding any provision of
law, no criminal penalties
shall
attach for any violation of the provisions of this chapter.
Section 12. SEVERABILITY. If any
part or provision of this chapter or the application thereof to any person or
circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the chapter, including the
application of such part or provision to other persons or circumstances, shall
not be affected thereby and shall continue in full force and effect. To this
end, provisions of this chapter are severable.
Section 13. This Ordinance shall
take effect thirty days after the date of adoption.
ADOPTED: 05-24-88 (Eff.: 06-23-88)