While Duluth may be about 1,500 miles away from Arizona, the city's Human Rights Commission is urging the mayor and City Council to stop doing business there because of its controversial immigration law.
"I think it's important no matter where you're at to take an action when it's something we're against," said Scott Yeazle, the commission's chairman. "I think it's a step in the right direction."
If the City Council and mayor follow the commission's boycott request, made unanimously during a meeting on May 12, it would be a largely symbolic action.
Mayor Don Ness said he isn't aware of the city doing any business with Arizona. And while he said he opposes that state's immigration law, he wouldn't support the ban.
"It would introduce an additional administrative burden on our staff with little or no practical impact in our purchasing," he said. "I don't want to give more work to our staff to make a political point at a time that we are understaffed in our administrative offices that would have to implement the boycott."
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But some members of the council appear to favor the boycott, saying the law, which requires law enforcement officials to ask a person's legal status if there is "reasonable suspicion" to believe the person is in the country illegally, promotes racial profiling and discrimination.
"Boycotts do work and they prove a point," said 2nd District Councilor Patrick Boyle. "I would support it. This would not be an issue for me."
At Large Councilor Dan Hartman said he would abstain from voting on the issue because it doesn't have a direct effect on the city. While he did vote two months ago with the council majority to symbolically support universal health care, "after that I thought we shouldn't be spending the time we did on that issue."
Another At Large councilor, Jim Stauber, said he would oppose a boycott if it came to the council.
"We shouldn't get involved in that debate," he said. "We have so many other pressing issues."
This appears to be the first time Duluth's Human Rights Commission has asked the council to take a stand on an issue that doesn't involve the city. Former commission member Jane Maddy, who served for about 10 years before 2008, said she couldn't remember the group bringing forward a similar proposal.
"We would not have done anything like that," she said. "It's not a city issue."
Even if the council and mayor don't support the boycott, Yeazle said the commission at its next meeting may consider asking the city's nonprofits to support the ban.
