BEREA —
Members of the Berea community and the city council were invited Tuesday to attend “Building a Better Berea,” which is the second-annual Community Welcome Reception hosted by Bereans for Fairness.
The event comes on the heels of a recent announcement from Mayor Steve Connelly that he plans to sign an executive order which would “reiterate that Berea is an equal opportunity employer,” Connelly said at a recent State of the City Address. “We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, political affiliation, age, genetics, disability, marital status or sexual orientation.”
The change is part of a systematic update of the city’s personnel policy that, among other changes, also will protect city employees from discrimination based on genetic data, the mayor said after the address.
Under the mayor-council form of government, personnel management is an executive function, and Connelly said he expects to sign an executive order instituting the changes as soon as a draft of the revised policy is completed.
Kate Griggs, a Bereans For Fairness representative, thanked Connelly during Tuesday’s Berea City Council meeting for his announcement.
“You can wait to hear more,” Connelly said. “I suspect there’s more in store.”
The welcome reception, which is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12 at Berea Coffee & Tea, will allow the public to meet new members of the Berea Human Rights Commission and new Berea City Council members. The event is free and open to the public.
In other business:
• There will be a strategic planning forum Feb. 13 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Artisan Center. “We’ll have an open session for conversation as far as goals and objectives and things to happen in the future,” said Berea City Administrator Randy Stone.
• The council heard from Berea resident Randy Coffey about an initiative that already has begun in the southeastern part of the state.
The US 25 yard sale, which began last year in the Williams town/Corbin area, is an “effort to entice travelers from I-75” into communities and boost local economies along US Highway 25, according to Event Coordinator Judy Wiggington.
The ultimate goal is to get the yard sale to run along US 25 from Florida to Michigan, Wiggington said.
Coffey encouraged the council to consider supporting the event with funding, but no decision was made Tuesday by the council.
• The council approved the final reading of an ordinance that would deem a city-owned 2006 Crown Victoria as surplus property. The vehicle, formerly used by the Berea Police Department, has 97,252 miles and is “no longer suitable for use by the police department,” Stone said.
The next Berea City Council meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19 at the Berea Police and Municipal Building.
* The Corbin Times-Tribune contributed to this article.
Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.
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Community, council invited to meet new government, human rights members
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