Co-op Boards and Discrimination

[consigliere]

Gotham Gazette has an interesting column about Co-Op Boards, by Andy Humm, in this month's Civil Rights section:

 
While the most publicized civil rights conflict in the country at the moment is over women seeking membership in the all-male Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, a battle is brewing here in New York over a secret society with cells all over the city: the co-op board.
 
It is illegal for co-op boards (or any other employer, housing supplier, or public accommodation) to discriminate on the bases of "actual or perceived race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender (including gender identity), sexual orientation, disability, marital status," according to the city's human rights law. But they rarely have to reveal the reason for keeping someone out of their co-op. That will change if legislation in Albany, and a bill being suggested to the City Council, are eventually enacted.
 
Craig Gurian, a civil rights attorney in the city, has proposed to City Council members legislation that would require co-op boards to state in writing why they reject a potential buyer. "We need legislation that says you can turn someone down for any lawful reason," he said, "but you must explain why you did it and those are the reasons you will be stuck with if litigation were to ensue. The problem is that co-ops play a game. They don't like having to be restricted to the reasons they had at the time of the turndown. They try to dig up negative information that they didn't have during the application process."
 
Gurian just settled a case in late November with a Westchester co-op board that was alleged to have discriminated against a woman because she had children. Federal law prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of familial status." When Gurian finally got a probable cause ruling from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the United States Justice Department got involved in the case and obtained a $102,500 settlement for the woman. It also forbid the co-op board from asking applicants to bring their children to interviews or to inquire on the number of children. The settlement sends a strong signal to city co-ops that discrimination on this basis will be dealt with severely.
 
As the New York Times reported in mid-November in the Real Estate section, Westchester has drafted legislation to get co-op boards to provide written reasons for turning down potential buyers. The New York State Assembly passed a bill in September requiring the same thing (one unlikely to be passed in the New York State Senate). But Gurian's proposal to the New York City Council has yet to be taken up.
 
"We're more than willing to think about it and discuss it with people," said Councilmember Gail Brewer (D-Upper West Side), a member of the General Welfare Committee, "but I have to be honest with you: in my district it's a tough one." She is discussing with constituents, many of whom live in co-ops, and associations representing co-op owners. Arthur Weinstein, a Manhattan attorney with the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, told the Times that the new proposals are unnecessary.
 
He also said, "A board that might otherwise be willing to work with a buyer to solve perceived problems might hesitate to do so for fear of creating the illusion of discrimination when solutions to those problems cannot be found."
 

[Manny]

I would like very much to contact Consiglieri. My wife and I recently had a similar problem and are in need of legal assistance. How may I reach him or her? Their posting is dated Dec.3 and has to do with co-op and discrimination.