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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 04/10/2025 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2025 7:00 P.M., EDEN PRAIRIE CITY CENTER Heritage Rooms 3 & 4 COMMISSION MEMBERS: Greg Leeper (Chair), Asad Aliweyd, Shana Bates, Shalanda Berry, Danielle Burton-Haselrig, Zaheer Khan, Jody Knight, Jessica Oaxaca, Brenda Pfahnl, Savannah Riese, Wendi Russo, 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 7:00 p.m. Commission Members Burton-Haselrig and Riese and Student Commission Members Arora, Aneja, Li, Hassan, and Umar were absent. II. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS Xiong introduced the new Commission Members, Berry and Russo; Burton-Haselrig was absent. She asked that each Commissioner and Student Commissioners introduce themselves, state how long they have been on the Commission and share their favorite book. Berry – new Commissioner, stated she likes herbs and home remedies and reads up on those. Shah – been on Commission since Sept., (inaudible for favorite book) Lambal – 2 years, favorite book is “Nightingale” Halbe – been on Commission since Sept., favorite book is “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Bates – 1 year, favorite book is “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates” Chair Leeper – 9 years, favorite book is “The Brothers Karamazov” Xiong – Staff Liaison, favorite book is the Hunger Game series and “Know My Name” Aliweyd – 6 years, no specific book Knight – starting 3rd year, favorite book , “You Can’t Hurt Me” Urbanski – starting 5th year, favorite book, “James” Weaver – starting 5th year, favorite book is “Small Things Like These” Pfahnl – starting 4th year, (inaudible on favorite book) Russo – new Commissioner, favorite book is “A Woman’s Worth” Khan – in his second term, favorite book is “Three Cups of Tea” Oaxaca – 1 year, favorite book is “The Memory Keepers Daughter” HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES April 10, 2025 Page 2 of 4 III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Weaver moved, seconded by Aliweyd, to approve the Agenda. Motion carried 9-11. IV. APPROVAL OF THE MARCH 13, 2025 MEETING MINUTES MOTION: Khan moved, seconded by Bates, to approve the March 13, 2025 Meeting Minutes. Motion carried 11-0. V. COMMUNITY PRESENTATION There was no Community Presentation this evening. VI. OLD BUSINESS A. IFTAR CELEBRATION DEBRIEF Xiong thanked the Commissioners and Student Commissioners that came to and volunteered at this event and commented she felt it was successful. Khan said he concurred it was a successful event because of the amount of people that were engaging with each other. Aliweyd stated in terms of turn-out, there were less people there than last year but he also felt it was a successful event. Lambal commented it was disappointing more people did not show up and suggested next year to invite students to get their voices heard. Student Commissioner Umar inquired why this is only an invite only event and why it cannot be open to the public. Chair Leeper asked Aliweyd if he would respond to that. Aliweyd responded if it was open to the public the amount of people attending would be unknown and therefore there would be no way to anticipate the amount of food needed. He suggested to start organizing this event earlier and for the people that were invited this year that did not show up they should not be invited next year. Khan suggested inviting non- Muslim individuals so they could learn more about the Muslim culture. Xiong pointed out next year there will not be the Garden Room to host the event there. Aliweyd inquired what other spaces could be utilized and pointed out the Community Center is too small. He suggested the cafeteria at the high school and also said he felt there should be other food options available. B. HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS Xiong presented a PowerPoint presentation for discussion on the Human Rights Awards. She pointed out the nominations closed on Monday and at that time only 3 nominations had been received; two in the individual category and one in the non-profit category. She commented because they have three nominations they will need to update the timeline in order to get the plaques to be ready in time. The rubric and scoring sheet will be sent out to the Commission by April 11th via email. The Commission Members will then independently score and return the sheet to Xiong by April 21st. The Human Rights Award HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES April 10, 2025 Page 3 of 4 recipients and Commission will be notified on April 23rd-25th and will be invited to the City Council meeting for recognition on May 20th. Xiong commented that she and Chair Leeper would like the Commission to attend the event. Chair Leeper said they are looking for 2-3 Commissioners and Student Commissioners to volunteer at this event. Xiong went over the scoring tips and scoring guidelines. She also pointed out the scoring process is very simple. Each Commission Member will score the two questions. The direction was for the nominee to answer the main questions and one of the three questions presented. If they did answer all three, she directed the Commissioners to score the best they can based on their answers. She pointed out Google sheets will be used to track the scores. Xiong shared there is not a youth nomination but said one youth nomination may be coming in tomorrow. Chair Leeper commented he is disappointed there were only three nominations that came in this year. He said these awards have been going on for 35 years and for the first 10 years there was only one award given out each year as there were no separate categories. Over the years, the other categories were created. Historically, there have been categories with low numbers so this is not something new, but he said would like to see more nominations next year. Bates pointed out the timing of this event aligns with the schools being on spring break and suggested that could have had an impact on not receiving any youth nominations and asked that be taken in account for next year. Khan inquired if more nominations are still coming in. Xiong responded today is the last day. She said Chair Leeper and herself had a discussion on the timeline and said that it can be changed and can be discussed when the Commission goes over their work plan for next year; a different season can be picked or have a longer time period for submissions. Pfahnl suggested having a list of all the non-profits in the area as the Commission may not know about them all. Weaver asked if this event has run its course and could there be another event to honor people or organizations. Chair Leeper said that is a good point and the topic can be revisited at a later date. Russo asked if text messages were going out on this event. Xiong said there were text messages that went out three times on this event. There were many other avenues this message got out to public; in the schools teachers were personally reached out to so they could share this information. Xiong said that is how she found out there may be another submission because one of the teachers said they were working on one nominee and was delayed because of spring break and should be coming in the morning. Chair Leeper thanked everyone for their input and per Weaver’s comment, maybe going forward the Commission will focus on one category versus four, as that may be too much. Xiong reminded the Commission of the April 21st deadline and said she will also be sending out an email reminder. C. PEOPLEFEST! UPDATE Chair Leeper asked Urbanski to give an update on this event. Urbanski responded by stating the kick-off for this event will take place on July 27th. The Commission is responsible for updating the restaurant guide. There are 35 restaurants listed in the guide. As discussed at the last meeting, the ask was to have each Commissioner and Student Commissioner take 3 restaurants and reach out to them to see if they are still in business and let them know this event will be taking place again this year. Also, ask them if they HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY MINUTES April 10, 2025 Page 4 of 4 would be willing to donate a $10-$20 gift card that could be used as a door prize for this event. Let them know this would get their name out there and create traffic for the restaurant. Urbanski said he and Xiong have worked on taking all of the restaurants and putting them in groups of 3 and have also created a script to use when talking with the restaurants. The PeopleFest Committee would like this task done by the first part of June as they would like this information put together for publication in July. Urbanski said he will put out a list of restaurants for all to sign up for this evening. Xiong pointed out on the guide it does have recommendations and when reaching out to the restaurants ask them if this is still what they want included in the flyer. Oaxaca suggested instead of having each member pick the three restaurants they would like to visit, just have them assigned to each member of the Commission and if someone wants to switch with someone else they can do that. Xiong said in regards to the gift cards she can supply an official Eden Prairie envelope for the restaurants to put the cards in and then they can be mailed in. Chair Leeper suggested putting the sign-up sheet in the back corner and asked the Commission to take a few minutes to sign up. Urbanski asked the Student Commissioners if they would be willing to take on Asia Mall. He stated there are 8-10 different places in the Mall they could visit and asked for a volunteer to coordinate this. Chair Leeper suggested Xiong follow up on this with the students via email. Pfahnl pointed out there is one restaurant in the EP Center that is closed and will be moving; that restaurant is El Burrito Mexican Grill. Xiong asked the Commissioner who gets that restaurant to make sure to get their new address. VIII. NEW BUSINESS There was no New Business this evening. IX. UPCOMING MEETINGS A. May 8, 2025 X. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Urbanski moved, seconded by Aliweyd, to adjourn the Human Rights & Diversity Commission meeting. Motion carried 11-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:07 p.m.