Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/203490
Sarasota News Leader November 1, 2013 Sarasota News Leader she will support such a measure and will bring up the idea at the commission's next meeting, on Nov. 5. Mason met with the leading local activist on the issue, Julia Nowak, two weeks ago, after Nowak spoke at four separate public meetings about the ordinance. Nowak is the Englewood Realtor who first discovered discriminatory language in condominium association documents at Venice's Casa Di Amici. The organization had limited condo ownership to just married couples and individuals, effectively banning gay and lesbian couples. After extensive media coverage, the association reversed its decision, which a consulting attorney said was "inadvertent." While the Casa Di Amici language was eventually fixed, Nowak argues the situation shows the need for a comprehensive anti-discrimination policy at the county level, and she has repeatedly pushed the County Commission Page 34 to act. She told the News Leader in August that she'd speak at every commission meeting held in South County till the board did something. Mason, at least, is. She served on the Sarasota City Commission when it passed its ordinance, she emphasizes. "I just don't want to see anybody discriminated against," she tells the News Leader. "I can talk a long time about discrimination, having grown up here in the '50s." Mason says she hasn't delved into the language used by other counties and cities, or any of the finer points of how the ordinance would work. As she told Nowak, "I'm one of five commissioners." But she has pledged to bring up the issue soon: "I'm going to bring it to my [local government] body and see how they want to deal with it." % The County Commission will meet in Venice on Nov. 5. Photo by Norman Schimmel