By BARBARA BELLINGER
Capital News Service
LANSING – The backlog of Michigan civil rights discrimination cases numbers in the thousands due to complications from the pandemic and a staffing shortage.
“Our complaints remain sky high at 2,500 investigations,” said John E. Johnson Jr., the Department of Civil Rights’ new executive director. “My most immediate issue is dealing with this backlog of cases that have yet to be investigated.”
The agency primarily investigates employment and housing discrimination complaints based on race, sex, national origin, disability and marital status. Each case can take up to a year and a half to complete.
That’s too long, said Lansing civil rights attorney Elizabeth Abdnour, who specializes in helping victims who have experienced civil rights violations or sexual harassment.
“I actually had one client who had two cases go through there,” Abdnour said. “It took them over a year to tell us that they decided they weren’t going to investigate.
“The two cases were assigned to two different investigators, which was also a whole can of worms,” she said.
Civil Rights officials say staffing shortages predate the pandemic.
“Prior to the pandemic, we had experienced an increase in turnover, with a number of experienced staff retiring or leaving for other positions,” said Vicki Levengood, the communications director for the department.
The pandemic complicated matters.
“The hiring freeze that was put in place early in the pandemic meant we were not able to fill a number of open positions in enforcement,” Levengood said. “For some time, we were down more than 10 investigators and intake staff.”
Since the state’s hiring freeze was lifted in December, the department has been able to fill open investigative positions, but training takes time. It still has only 30 investigators to work on the 2,500-case backlog, Johnson said.
“Those jobs are now being held by newly hired people who require training and on-the-job experience before they can be as efficient and productive as the experienced individuals they replaced,” Levengood said.
Trained investigators gather evidence through interviews and site visits. They meet with both parties and explore resolutions through the conciliation process.
If they fail to reach a resolution, charges could be filed, the case dismissed or a public hearing held.
But the first step is for people who believe they are victims of discrimination to call the department or complete a virtual intake form.
Some people call civil rights attorneys first. Abdnour said she provides the department’s information to clients.
“I let people who call me know that that’s not a recommended route,” she said. “And if there’s any other way for them to file an administrative complaint about their issue, that I would recommend that over (the Department of Civil Rights).”
There are other options. Victims can:
- file employment discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
- file school related discrimination or harassment complaints with the U.S. Department of Education, or
- file housing discrimination complaints with fair housing centers across the state.
The Fair Housing Center of Southeast and Mid Michigan based in Ann Arbor gives clients a variety of options for pursuing their case, including going to a private attorney for litigation, filing a complaint with the Civil Rights Department or having the center investigate for them.
“One of the ways we’re different than the Michigan Department of Civil Rights is we have the ability to do testing,” said Pamela Kisch, the executive director.
The Fair Housing Center has testers pose as home seekers and call landlords to determine if there was discrimination.
Recently, Kisch resolved such a case by negotiating a one-year lease with six months free rent.
Now that COVID restrictions have eased, people are moving again, Kisch said. The center’s caseload has increased about 11%, producing the most complaints in 30 years.
“I have two fulltime people doing investigations,” Kisch said. “If we had a third person, it would be fabulous.”
The Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit said that while it is experiencing a rise in complaints, it’s keeping up with the intake.
“We constantly strive to improve the effectiveness of our services,” said Steve Tomkowiak, the executive director.
New complaints continue to come into the Department of Civil Rights and the wait for resolution remains the same.
Abdnour says the lengthy wait at the department is a negative experience for her clients.
“If I’m in a workplace or something like that, and I’m being discriminated against, I’m supposed to just sit there and put up with it for a year while they decide if they’re even going to move forward with an investigation?”