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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 01/09/2025 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2025 7:00 P.M., EDEN PRAIRIE CITY CENTER Heritage Rooms 3 & 4 COMMISSION MEMBERS: Greg Leeper (Chair), Asad Aliweyd, Shana Bates, Zaheer Khan, Jody Knight, Jessica Oaxaca, Brenda Pfahnl, Savannah Riese, Kuhu Singh, Philip Skeie, John Urbanski, Susan Weaver STUDENT COMMISSION MEMBERS: Jude Lambal, Ayanna Arora, Kayna Aneja, Alisha Shah, Melody Li, Swara Halbe, Tamia Hassan, Zahara Umar COMMISSION STAFF: Paja Xiong, Community Services Manager & Staff Liaison Julie Krull, Recording Secretary I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Leeper called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Commission Members Aliweyd, Pfahnl and Singh and Student Commission Members Aneja, Li, Halbe and Umar were absent. II. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS There were no guests at the meeting this evening. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Weaver moved, seconded by Urbanski, to approve the agenda. Motion carried 9-0. IV. APPROVAL OF THE DECEMBER 12, 2024 MEETING MINUTES MOTION: Urbanski moved, seconded by Knight, to approve the December 12, 2024 Meeting Minutes. Motion carried 9-0. V. COMMUNITY PRESENTATION There was no community presentation this evening. VI. STAFF REPORT – PAJA XIONG Xiong shared information on the Housing and Community Services division and specifically her background. She started out working in non-profits and social services for Ramsey and Hennepin counties for five years. After that she worked for a non-profit assisting youth in educating them HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES January 9, 2025 Page 2 of 5 regarding life skills and education in getting better jobs. In previous roles she worked with the Hmong community in St. Paul. From there she came to the City of Eden Prairie in her current role as Community Services Manager. Xiong shared some of the work of the Housing and Community Services division. They administer housing and rehabilitation loans and work with housing assistance programs. This department also reaches out to property managers to train them on how to help residents. The department also helps the residents with housing needs. Xiong said another part of her role is the work with non-profits; two of the main groups are Community Engagement and the Equity Connect Group. Urbanski commented in the news there are a lot of companies dialing back DEI initiatives. Xiong responded she has not heard that but feels more initiatives are actually being formed. Weaver asked if Xiong could share a story of some problem that was resolved. Xiong responded by stating a lot of cities have an internal race equity group and pointed out one of the cities said they could not think of topics to address in the group so one other person in the group said to throw it back to the group to see what they wanted to discuss and possibility have them get together and then have presentations on the topics. Xiong thought that was a good suggestion by the gentleman in the group. Khan commented that Xiong had previously mentioned, in regards to housing, first time loans, and asked if those were different than the regular housing loans. Xiong responded that the City does advertise they have first time loans and those are usually based on income in which the party fills out an application to see if they quality. Khan asked where the money comes from to fund this program. Xiong said it is a federal grant called Community Development Block Grant. Chair Leeper said he asked Xiong to share this information because she is a resource to the group, especially with equity and diversity. Oaxaca asked Xiong how she interfaces with Hennepin County regarding housing issues. Xiong responded by stating with Hennepin County a lot of contacts are through the Metropolitan Council and also pointed out there are resources at the Hennepin County libraries. She also said if Oaxaca has additional contacts to send them to her. VII. OLD BUSINESS A. PRESENTATION TO CITY COUNCIL OVERVIEW Xiong presented the PowerPoint that will be shown to the City Council on January 21st. She pointed out Khan will discuss the community engagement activities and also the 2024 community presentations to the City Council. Riese will discuss the 2025 initiatives and also point out to the City Council that the HRDC has developed subcommittees for these initiatives. Urbanski commented for the initiatives that they should be on two slides versus one slide. Riese suggested just listing the initiatives out and not giving them an explanation on the slide. Urbanski also suggested shortening the explanations. Oaxaca asked what kind of questions have come up in the past and asked if the Commission Members could get a report if they are not in attendance at the meeting. Khan responded by saying they could be questions about the number of people that attended the HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES January 9, 2025 Page 3 of 5 events. Chair Leeper said the Council will ask who showed up, are we missing anyone and how can we help. He also pointed out he will answer all of the questions the City Council will ask. Oaxaca said she would like to know the questions being asked and the answers given to those. Xiong said she will follow up to see if minutes are taken at the meeting to get her that information. Knight commented last year the City Council asked if the HRDC is facing any obstacles and if so, how can the City Council assist. Xiong pointed out the presentation will be a total of 30 minutes. There will be approximately 15-20 minutes to discuss the PowerPoint and the rest of the time will be for questions. She asked who will be attending and the following Commissioners said they will be in attendance; Urbanski, Weaver, Knight, Riese, Khan, and Oaxaca. Student Commission Member Arora said she will let Xiong know if she can attend by January 15th. B. SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATE Chair Leeper wanted to thank all the subcommittees for their work and asked Weaver from the Human Rights Award to give an update on what their subcommittee has been working on. Weaver said the group is ready to submit the final form and the updates will be to include Human Rights, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion definitions at the top of the form. She also pointed out they changed the questions from the existing application. They would like everyone to answer the first question, which is “Describe this person’s work within the organization (school, community, etc.)”. From that question, then answer one of the following questions: 2. How does this person encourage the inclusion of marginalized groups or individuals (gender, race, LGBTQ, disability, etc)? Give an example. 3. How does this person’s effort impact the fair and equitable treatment of all in the community? Give an example. 4. How does this person’s work promote diversity or human rights? Give an example. The group also suggested eliminating the business category and also to have the names of nominees and nominators be anonymous. Chair Leeper asked the Commission for their input. Oaxaca said she is in favor of having the selection process be anonymous. Khan suggested to reach out to the faith community and also said he thinks the business category should not be eliminated. Chair Leeper said in the past the business groups have had great projects that have been highlighted and thought it may be a good idea to keep that category. Weaver asked what would happen if they did not get any business nominations. Chair Leeper said at that point the category would be eliminated. Urbanski suggested combining the non-profit category with the business category. Chair Leeper and Khan thought that was a good idea to combine both categories. Hassan commented it would be less confusing if they were separated. Bates concurred with Hassan. Oaxaca asked, in regards to the form, do the questions pertain to an individual. Chair Leeper responded they do pertain to an individual. Urbanski suggested adding the phrase, “individual or organization” to the questions to encompass both individual and organization. Kahn said DEI should be referenced in the questions. Skeie responded by stating organizations may decline based on that. HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES January 9, 2025 Page 4 of 5 Chair Leeper went over the questions again and asked if they work for both individuals and organizations. The Commission concurred they do work for both. Xiong pointed out she has a rubric that will work with these questions. Khan said in regards to answering the questions, he would like to see the answers to all of the questions and not just one because if someone answered all three and someone answered just one, then the first person may score higher and the score may be difficult to score them based on that. Urbanski said he understood Khan’s point of view but thinks it would give individuals an opportunity to pick one question and expand on that. Chair Leeper stated the Commission should make sure they are not creating barriers with the questions. Riese commented that is why they are providing definitions at the top of the form so that the individual filling out the form knows what the question is looking for and can base their answer on that to provide the most impact. Xiong said the rubric will help with this as it will rate the answer with the points associated with the question. Urbanski suggested having the definition relate to the specific question by placing the question underneath the definition. Lambal commented if someone answers all of the questions they are going to have a more powerful application and suggested they answer 2 of the 3 questions listed. Oaxaca suggested having components of the rubric with the application, listing out expectations we are looking for. Xiong said that could be done and pointed out the contest will launch on March 10th and close on April 4th. Weaver commented she feels like the Human Rights Award and Words in Action are too close together and suggested in the future to have them at different times of the year. Xiong said in regards to BIPOC Youth, she and Chair Leeper thought it best to put them with Community Presentations. Oaxaca asked then if the Community Presentation group will also work with the BIPOC Youth; Chair Leeper concurred they would. Riese added they will all operate under one group but the BIPOC Youth group will be the focus of their presentation. Riese shared this is how the presentation would be set up. They will introduce the HRDC for the first 5 minutes and then break out into smaller groups. There will be one moderator of color and the other will be Jill. They anticipate hosting it at the Community Center and are looking to firm up a date in March or April. Xiong said when she shares the calendar it may be easier to pick a date based on business. Riese commented they would like to have it on a Thursday or Friday night. Urbanski gave an update on PeopleFest and said they have scheduled meetings on the second Monday of every month. Knight said she has been looking into the LGBTQ groups and found someone at the Community Center that gave her the director’s name at the school and she has followed up with them and noted they have been unresponsive. Xiong said she will follow up with that. Lambal said she has the name of the GSA adviser, Jay Rousse, and will also look into it. Knight responded that was the same person, she also expressed her frustration that no one has gotten back to her. Bates responded they may not be getting back to her because she is not in the school district so they do not want to talk to her because they are protecting the kids. Chair Leeper apologized to Knight for her frustrations. Xiong said she has some contacts that she will follow up with in regards to this situation. HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES January 9, 2025 Page 5 of 5 VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. WORDS IN ACTION UPDATE Khan was next to give an update on Words in Action. He said on December 15th they had a meeting and decided they would like to come up with two more topics to write on. Martin Luther King, Jr. will still be an option and there will always be an option to come up with a topic of the writer’s choosing. For advertising, the group talked about forums in the school, and to also reach out to more ethnic groups. There is also a daily school newsletter that could be used for advertising. Khan said, besides the high school, they plan on advertising in the middle schools. A QR code has also been launched and put into advertisements. Xiong said she has been reaching out to the schools and also the Communication Department to disperse flyers. She said they are also available at the library. She also distributed the flyers to the Commission and pointed out the time lines and QR code and also thank the subcommittee for their work on this. Xiong pointed out this event is also on the City Facebook and Instagram accounts and that the flyers will also be distributed to the Eden Prairie schools. Urbanski asked if electronic notices regarding this event could be sent out more than once. Xiong replied they can be sent out more than once. IX. UPCOMING MEETINGS A. February 13, 2025 X. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Khan moved, seconded by Riese, to adjourn the Human Rights & Diversity Commission meeting. Motion carried 9-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.