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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 01/13/1998 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION TUESDAY,JANUARY 13, 1998 7:00 PM, PRAIRIE ROOMS A & B 8080 MITCHELL ROAD CITY CENTER COMMISSION MEMBERS: Brad Behrends, Richard Helzel, Vicki Pellar-Price, Ramon Reina, Gloria Winans,Munna Yasiri, and Deborah Yungner YOUTH REPRESENTATIVES: Andrea Brown and Sopanha Te COMMISSION STAFF: Michael Barone, Sr. Personnel Coordinator, and Jan Nelson, Recording Secretary GUEST: Sue Nelson, West Suburban Mediation Center I. ROLL CALL Chair Helzel called the meeting to order at 7:15 PM. Behrends and Pellar-Price were absent. Yungner arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Reina moved, seconded by Yasiri, to approve the Agenda as published. Motion carried 5-0. V. NEW BUSINESS B. Report from Sue Nelson and Approval of Fourth Quarter 1997 Funding for West Suburban Mediation Center Sue Nelson described the history and function of West Suburban Mediation Center. She works part-time for West Suburban, and they have one full-time case manager. They have 40-50 mediators and expect to hold another training session in April. They require 30 hours of training for mediators. Some of the mediators have had training as facilitators. Yungner arrived at 7:30 PM. Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission January 13, 1998 Minutes Page 2 Winans asked how many cases are from Eden Prairie. Nelson said she provides that information in her quarterly reports to the Commission,but she will be happy to provide a summary of the Eden Prairie cases for 1997 including the type of case, referral source and the outcome. Winans said she would like to see any trends that might exist. Nelson said the cities usually go up and down in case load. They try to restore the victim and give the offender a chance to atone for the behavior in order to start the healing process on both sides. Yungner asked if they are working with the High School Nelson said they don't do much with schools, although that would be a possibility. They also would like to get involved in mediation of Human Rights cases for the state. Yungner said she would like to see the school staff aware of West Suburban's activities. Barone said he will contact Molly Koivumaki, Julie Meinzer and Jim Clark to make sure they are aware of West Suburban. Nelson said the schools are involved in peer mediation; however, the school needs to know which cases are appropriate for peer mediation. Helzel thanked Nelson for her presentation. MOTION: Yasiri moved, seconded by Reina, to approve 4th quarter 1997 funding in the amount of$625.00 for West Suburban Mediation Center. Motion carried 5-0. A discussion followed regarding the awareness in the School District about the mediation services offered by West Suburban. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 8, 1997 MEETING MOTION: Yasiri moved, seconded by Yungner, to approve as published the Minutes of the December 8, 1997 meeting. Motion carried 3-0-2, with Helzel and Reina abstaining. IV. OLD BUSINESS A. Review of 1998 Work Plan Revisions from December 1997 Barone said he added some items that seemed appropriate regarding the youth scholarship and the Human Rights award. Helzel asked Commission members to review the work plan regularly in order to look ahead for items to consider. Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission January 13, 1998 Minutes Page 3 V. NEW BUSINESS A. Plan for Candidate Night Open House for Boards and Commissions held 7:00 p.m. Tuesday,January 13 Helzel noted there was a light turnout at tonight's open house. Winans asked if the two Commission members whose terms expire will need to submit an application again in order to continue on the Commission. Reina and Yungner said they both received a letter about continuing. Barone said interview night is February 5, with appointments to be made at the February 17 City Council meeting. Winans asked if there is any way we could have input into the appointment selection. Barone said we are only asked to provide an attendance report. C. Update on Human Rights Award Process Barone said there will be a half-page ad in the Eden Prairie News this week. We sent a press release about the award to both the Sun Current and the Eden Prairie News. Helzel noted the application for the award is a very good illustration of how we want to do something at every level of the community. Barone passed around a copy of the award application. He noted it has the Manifesto printed on the back. He said there will be a Proclamation at the next Council meeting declaring 1998 as a year to recognize and celebrate diversity and human rights in Eden Prairie. Helzel thought someone from the Commission should attend the meeting. Winans and Helzel volunteered to go. Barone said the subcommittee will probably have to reconvene in order to get another speaker as Dr. Reatha Clark King is unable to attend. D. Update on Human Rights Youth Scholarship Award Te asked how the award will be publicized. Barone said a news release went out last week to the Sun Current and the Eden Prairie News. Along with a poster and application forms, the news release was mailed to the guidance offices at the High School and several private schools. Both the Human Rights award application and the youth scholarship application will be available on Eden Prairie's new web site. Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission January 13, 1998 Minutes Page 4 Reina said he will talk to the secretary at Hopkins High School to make sure the Diversity Coordinator there gets the information. He thought the information should go to all the Diversity Coordinators in the various schools since they are not necessarily located in the Guidance Office. Barone said they have received $375 in funding so far•, however, none of the large sponsors have responded. Winans said Paragon Cable contacted her about the range of contributions. She said they noted this is the first year they received the announcement. Reina said he would like to keep seed money in order to increase the scholarship at some point. Barone said we may need to do some calling. He will get the Chamber's membership roster and divide up the list for calls. E. Information on Bias Crime Network Volunteer Training for February 1998 Barone said Peter Huck reported receiving 10 or 12 responses to their request for new members of the Bias Crime Network. Huck would like to be able to set up a one to two hour training session in February for people that are really interested, and he would like the Commission members to participate in the training. Barone will check out the possibility of having the session on February's optional workshop night, February 24. Winans asked if the student representatives would be involved. Barone thought they would. VI. REPORTS OF COMMISSION MEMBERS A. Housing, Transportation & Social Services Board: Brad Behrends Behrends was not present. B. League of Human Rights Commissions: Gloria Winans Winans said the League will have elections in January or February. They have asked her to serve as Treasurer and she asked the Commissioners if they would consider it a conflict of interest if she accepted that position since she is scheduled to take over as Chair of the Commission in April. The consensus was there would not be a conflict of interest. Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission January 13, 1998 Minutes Page 5 Winans said they are looking for a location for the 1998 conference. They appreciated Eden Prairie hosting the event in 1997. Winans said most cities have charged the League for holding the conference at their facilities so they were very appreciative of our not charging them for use of the building. C. Report of Youth Representatives Te said she has not heard any more about the Gay and Lesbian Support Group that Brown reported on at the last meeting. Winans proposed that the youth representatives consider helping to structure an essay contest centered around Dr. King for Martin Luther King Day in 1999. This would be a way to include more youth in our program. Reina asked if we would include other schools. The consensus was to have the subcommittee work on the details and bring back their recommendation. Te said she serves as a Peer Counselor at the High School, and they were not given the West Suburban phone number as a reference. Yungner asked if there are problems or activities in the school that might benefit from West Suburban's services. Te said the Peer Counselors receive references from the school counselors. Reina noted peer counseling is not one of West Suburban's functions. Yasiri thought students do not like to go outside the school to adults and would prefer to go to a peer group. VII. REPORTS OF STAFF A. Activity Status Barone said there was nothing to report. VIII. FUTURE AGENDAS Yasiri commented that we planned to limit guest speakers to 15 minutes, and noted that tonight's speaker went quite a bit longer than that. Helzel noted Diversity Training was scheduled for the optional workshop date of January 27. He asked if we will need that. Barone said he will try to meet with Oliver about the Diversity Training; however, we may need to use the workshop to distribute the calling lists for the scholarship fund raising. Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission January 13, 1998 Minutes Page 6 Winans noted Paragon Cable has offered a time slot on cable. It would be taped on January 27 at 3:00 - 4:30 PM. Helzel or Winans will be there to discuss the scholarship program. January 27 7:00 - 9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop February 10 7:00 - 9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting February 24 7:00 - 9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop March 10 7:00 - 9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting March 24 7:00 - 9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop April 14 7:00 - 9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting April 16 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM HRDC & ED Chamber of Commerce Human Rights Award Luncheon April 28 7:00 - 9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop IX. ADJOURN MOTION: Reina moved, seconded by Yasiri, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Helzel adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m. K\RECORDS\M--\Human Rights&Diversity\1998\I-13-98.d-