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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 12/14/2023 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2023 7:00 P.M., EDEN PRAIRIE CENTER Office of Housing and Community Services COMMISSION MEMBERS: Greg Leeper (Chair), Asad Aliweyd, Sana Elassar, Samuel Griffin, Zaheer Khan, Christine Kleckner, Jody Knight, Brenda Pfahnl, Kuhu Singh, Philip Skeie, John Urbanski, Susan Weaver STUDENT COMMISSION MEMBERS: Tamia Hassan, Jude Kambal, Kanya Karthic, Shivangi Mohan, Navya Nambiar, Madeline Wilson, Kiana Poul, Sudiksha Talla COMMISSION STAFF: Jonathan Stanley, Staff Liaison Julie Krull, Recording Secretary I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Leeper called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. Commission Members Aliweyd, Elassar, Kleckner, Pfahnl, Skeie, Weaver and Student Members Mohan, Nambiar and Wilson were absent. II. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS There were no guests this evening. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Khan moved, seconded by Urbanski, to approve the agenda. Motion carried 6-0. IV. APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 11, 2023 MEETING MINUTES Minutes could not be approved because there was not a quorum. They will be approved at the January Commission meeting. V. COMMUNITY PRESENTATION There was not a community presentation this evening. . HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES December 14, 2023 Page 2 of 6 VI. STAFF REPORT – JONATHAN STANLEY A. COMMUNITY NEWS There was no Community News B. CITY / OHCS NEWS There was no City/OHCS News C. EPREI UPDATES Stanley said the second half of the survey presentation will be given at the December meeting. He said he was not sure what the meeting for January will look like but will update the Commission when he finds out. D. HRDC NEWS Liaison Transition Megan Yerks will no longer be the Staff Liaison as she left her position with the City of Eden Prairie. In the interim, Jonathan Stanley will be filling in for her until a permanent replacement is found for her. E. UPCOMING MEETINGS OR OPPORTUNITIES There were no upcoming meetings or opportunities discussed. F. COMMISSIONER UPDATES . Commissioner Reappointment • Chair Leeper, Aliweyd and Elassar will need unanimous approval by the City Council, status unknown. • Urbanski and Weaver do not need unanimous approval, status unknown. • Kleckner does not need unanimous approval and will reapply. • Commissioners up for renewal will hear from Sara Aschenbeck when the application process opens. Commissioners will need to complete the application and attend an interview. • There will be one open seat. If anyone knows of a potential candidate invite them to apply. • The application window will run from early January to early February. Urbanski asked how long was left on Missaghi’s term. Stanley did not know but said he would look into it. Rick Getschow was walking by and stopped in on the meeting. He stated all terms will be 3 years and they will stagger those terms. HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES December 14, 2023 Page 3 of 6 VII. OLD BUSINESS There was no Old Business. VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS Chair Leeper said due to lack of engagement and limited staff capacity, the November and December Social Media Posts will be templates. B. WORDS IN ACTION CONTEST Tentative Timeline (dependent on the City Council Meeting Date) • Submission Period: Jan. 8- Feb. 5, 2024 • Committee Evaluation Meeting: Feb. 8, 2024 6pm • Winners/Honorary Mentions notified: Feb. 9, 2024 • Winners/Honorary Mentions recognized on the City’s social media: Feb. 20, 2024 • Winners/Honorary Mentions recognized at the City Council Meeting on Feb. 20, 2024 Stanley said he will confirm with Rick Getschow that the presentation will take place at the Feb. 20, 2024 City Council meeting. Singh asked if the criteria for the quotes will be the same as last year. Chair Leeper confirmed it will stay the same. He said at the January meeting he will look for volunteers for this event. Tonight he would like one student and one adult commission member to evaluate the submissions. This would entail reading and scoring the submissions and having a meeting on it. Kambal and Khan volunteered. Khan asked if the Communications Department will be advertising for this event this year. Stanley confirmed they will be advertising this event. Khan asked when the Commission will start to look at the Human Rights Awards. Stanley said it typically starts in January but since that will be a busy month it may need to get pushed back to February; he will confirm with Rich Getschow. C. IFTAR EVENT Chair Leeper said this event will take place in late March. Last year’s committee were Commissioners Aliweyd, Elassar and Khan along with Mohamed from City Staff and Juliette from the EP Police Department. Chair Leeper said planning needs to start as soon as possible and confirming last year’s plan and notes are available to simplify the process. Mohamed and Juliette confirmed they would assist again in 2024. Chair Leeper asked for Commission volunteers. Khan said he would volunteer. Chair Leeper asked Stanley to reach out to Aliweyd and Elassar to see if they would like to volunteer for this year’s event. Kambal and Hassan said they would also be available to volunteer. HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES December 14, 2023 Page 4 of 6 D. 2024 WORK PLAN Chair Leeper said the goal tonight would be to finalize the Work Plan and asked Commissioners and Students to be involved in some of the events. He said the Commission will meet with the City Council in January to present what is on the calendar for the coming year. Chair Leeper said he is looking for one adult and one student to present to City Council. He said there are two events that need to be discussed this evening to see if the Commission would like to continue with them or stop them. The first event is Stop the Trafficking 5K and asked if the Commission would like to continue to partner with Grace Church by assisting with packet pick up and reserving the Flagship parking lot. Knight said she is concerned with Grace Church as they are not very inclusive. Khan said he had the same experience and noticed if an individual is not doing something that aligns with them there is some push back or discrimination. He said the Commission should support the cause but not get involved. Singh commented that this Commission supports everyone and asked why we would partner with an organization that does not include everyone. Urbanski agreed with the not supporting Grace Church. Singh asked Stanley if a letter could be sent to Grace Church to raise the issue to the impression that they are presenting. She stated we would be doing a dis-service to the community if the Commission did not send a letter defining some of the experiences and why it is not acceptable. Griffin said he agrees with the other Commission members and feels the Commission should not partner with Grace Church and asked if they would have enough volunteers without the assistance from the HRDC. Chair Leeper said he had previously talked to Yerks about the possibility of not partnering with them and if they would have enough volunteers and she confirmed they would have enough. Chair Leeper said from what he is hearing, the Commission would like to move away with partnering with Grace Church but still support the cause. Chair Leeper said the next event he would like to discuss is Social Media and go through which holidays will be template post and which will be an extended format. He said the Commission should pick four to five events from the list where volunteers will share their story and said the rest will be templates. Singh said she would like to see the following events in extended format; Black History Month, Eid al-Fitr, Diwali, Hannukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Chair Leeper said Kwanzaa can be difficult finding individuals. Singh suggested Indigenous People Day. Urbanski concurred with Singh and also suggested Juneteenth. It was discussed that this coincides with Black History Month. Chair Leeper asked Khan which Eid he prefers and he said Eid al-Fitr. It was discussed that since the Eden Prairie Community Center holds an event for PRIDE, the Commission does not need to do any more with it except promote the Community Center event. Urbanski suggested focusing on Hispanic Heritage Month to give this group more exposure given the feedback from the survey. It was also discussed to have two individuals and not three to focus on. Karthic suggested focusing on Disability Employment Awareness Month. Kambal said in regards to Hispanic Heritage Month, Eden Prairie High School does an event on this so it may be easy to find volunteers. Chair Leeper asked the Commission if just one event should be showcased for December and suggested taking Christmas off and keeping Hannukah. Singh felt strongly that we should keep Christmas as it is a large portion of the population and should be included. HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES December 14, 2023 Page 5 of 6 The Commission decided to keep both Christmas and Hannukah. The Commission came up with 8 events on the preliminary list that will be discussed next month. They are: Black History Month, Eid al-Fitr, Hispanic Heritage Month, Disability Employment Awareness Month, Indigenous Peoples Day, Diwali, Hannukah and Christmas. Chair Leeper wanted to discuss the IFTAR celebration and asked the Commission what is should look like this year and if there should be a presentation. Khan said he thinks there should be more socialization. Work Plan Presentation: This is tentatively scheduled for January 16. Chair Leeper said he would one adult and one student to do the Work Plan Presentation. Dinner will be at 5 pm and the workshop will be at 5:30 pm. One adult will also be needed for the MLK Presentation and the HRA Introduction at the City Council Meeting at 7 pm. There was a review of the PowerPoint presentation. With slide 3, it was discussed to change #1 to read, “Contribute Implementation and Monitoring the Race and Equity Report”. For #4 in the same slide the Commission agreed it should read, “Enlist the cooperation of organizations and individuals in the community to promote awareness and appreciation of the City’s Manifesto. For slide 4, it was decided to take out Stop the Trafficking 5K. Chair Leeper asked the Commission what order they would like to have the slides. It was decided to switch #2 and #3 around; #1 and #4 will stay the same. Chair Leeper asked who would like to present the PowerPoint to the City Council. Singh said she would present and Hassan also volunteered. It was decided that Hassan would do the first part of the presentation and Singh that latter part of the presentation. Singh said she remembered that she presented last year and asked if someone else would like to present. Khan said he would check his calendar and Knight said she could if no one else wants to. Chair Leeper said at 7 pm there may be a presentation for the Human Rights Awards unless it gets changed to the February City Council meeting and is looking for a volunteer for that. He would also need a volunteer for the Words in Action contest as that will still be in January. Singh said she could assist with that. Urbanski asked when the Commission will get the final Work Plan for 2024. Chair Leeper said the only change will be taking the Stop the Trafficking 5K off and possibly moving the Human Rights Award to February. Stanley said he will go over it with Rick Getschow and then send a copy out to the Commissioners. IX. UPCOMING MEETINGS A. JANUARY 11, 2024 HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES December 14, 2023 Page 6 of 6 X. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Griffin moved, seconded by Singh, to adjourn the Human Rights & Diversity Commission meeting. Motion carried 6-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m.