The South Portland City Council will hold an executive session on Sept. 7 to discuss a human rights discrimination complaint that was filed against the city by an African-American woman whose nomination to a municipal commission was rejected in March.

The council will meet behind closed doors at 6 p.m. with Mark Franco, an attorney with Drummond Woodsum of Portland who specializes in civil rights litigation and municipal law, according to emails from interim City Manager Don Gerrish to city councilors.

Franco is representing the city on behalf of the Maine Municipal Association, which provides liability insurance for the city’s public officials, Gerrish said in the emails. The association is paying Franco’s fees related to the complaint.

The city was notified on June 13 that a complaint had been filed with the Maine Human Rights Commission, Gerrish said.

Deqa Dhalac, a Somali immigrant and social worker, later told the Portland Press Herald that she filed the complaint because the council rejected her nomination by Councilor Brad Fox to the city’s Civil Service Commission.

Instead, the council voted 5-2 to reappoint Phillip LaRou, who had been appointed by Fox just nine months earlier to fill an unexpired term on the seven-member commission. LaRou, a Portland firefighter who is white, had asked to be reappointed to a full five-year term, but Fox said he wanted to increase diversity on city boards and committees.