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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 06/09/1998 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION TUESDAY,JUNE 9, 1998 7:00 PM, PRAIRIE ROOMS A & B CITY CENTER 8080 MITCHELL ROAD COMMISSION MEMBERS: Brad Behrends, Richard Helzel, Harry Moran, Vicki Pellar-Price, Darryl Stanton, Gloria Winans, and Munna Yasiri YOUTH REPRESENTATIVES: Andrea Brown and Sopanha Te COMMISSION STAFF: Michael Barone, Sr. Personnel Coordinator, and Jan Nelson, Recording Secretary I. ROLL CALL Chair Winans called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM. Helzel, Brown and Te were absent. Yasiri arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Behrends moved, seconded by Moran, to approve the Agenda as published. Motion carried 7-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MAY 12, 1998 MEETING Winans said the last sentence of the last paragraph on page 4 should be changed to: "...to continue to pursue the possibility of establishing a"Study Circle" in Eden Prairie." MOTION: Behrends moved, seconded by Stanton, to approve as published and amended the Minutes of the May 10, 1998 meeting. Motion carried 4-0-1, with Stanton abstaining. IV. OLD BUSINESS A. Report on Eden Prairie High School Diversity Fair held May 21, 1998 -Gloria Winans and Andrea Brown Winans said she, Moran and Barone attended the Diversity Fair on May 21. It was a challenge to get the students to come into the booth. She suggested we provide some incentive next year. Moran said a couple of kids had assignments to go to different booths and ask questions,but there were very few others asking questions. Stanton suggested we dialogue with the Social Studies teachers before the event to make it an assignment to come to our booth. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes June 9, 1998 Page 2 Winans noted it sounds like they don't have it every year. Pellar-Price asked if the School's Diversity Coordinator helped. Winans said she was there but was not involved in the planning. Pellar-Price thought the event should be done every year, and every student should have the assignment of going around and asking questions. Moran noted that his wife and son also participated in the event this year. The event almost did not happen. He said the event is not well thought out or planned, and it is not put forth as a "must do" thing. Winans suggested we add it to our work plan for the year and perhaps be more proactive. Moran said he would perform a liaison function in order to get them set up early in the year. Stanton said he would be willing to work with him. Moran thought the student reps should also be involved. Swaggert suggested the Commission send a letter off to congratulate them on doing it this year and suggesting that the Commission could work with them on planning for the next event. B. Presentation of Human Rights Youth Scholarship Award to Tram-Anh Vo on May 28, 1998 at EPHS Awards Ceremony -Gloria Winans and Brad Behrends Winans said she and Behrends went to the ceremony to present the award. She thought the presentation went well and they were well prepared with a ramp for Brad. They had to untape the microphones so that Brad could use them. She commented that the Commission has talked about increasing the dollar amount of the scholarship from$500,but she compared other awards given during the ceremony and we are in the ballpark with the other civic and social organizations. C. Report on "Minnesota Summit on Hate Crimes" held May 19, 1998 at Minneapolis Convention Center - Michael Barone Barone said he included a copy of the Agenda for this event along with a newspaper article from the next day in the Commission packet. They had some very good speakers. It was set up to be videotaped and made into a television show. He has a folder of information available for anyone who would like to review it. One of the panelists was Mort Rywick who used as one of his examples the Eden Prairie candlelight ceremony that was done after the incident several years ago. Yasiri arrived at 7:25 p.m. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes June 9, 1998 Minutes Page 3 V. NEW BUSINESS A. City of Eden Prairie Vision 2001 Process Winans noted all of the Commission members except Stanton attended one of the sessions held on the Vision 2001 process. She said she had asked Swaggert to come tonight to give an explanation of the charge to the commissions. Swaggert said it is a process that should start to change how commissions approach their work. The Council Value Statements were developed a year ago by the City Council working with the Management Group. It was based on an assessment of a number of things. We went into the community forum with a pre-set understanding of the value statements the Council held and other areas of focus. The Community Values came out of the community forum. The focus areas did not necessarily jibe with the Council and Staff areas. She said there was not very much interest in social services, and that frames a challenge for this commission. Even though the community does not place it as a focus, the Council will, and they plan to add back in the issue of preparing for an increasingly diverse community. That will provide a critical role for this commission, and we will need to continue the work in awareness and education. Stanton asked what type of recruitment was done to include diversity in the forum groups. Swaggert said the groups were a pure random sample. They wanted to remove the forum from the various vocal minorities. For future work we will want more focused groups with experts or strong interest groups. She noted this is a first step in a three-year process. Stanton asked if the focus group will be used again. Swaggert said we will use them as a base group when we are trying to test for general community kinds of questions. Winans noted she attended the original meeting on this, as did members of other commissions, so there was some diversity in the original group. Swaggert noted the commission members were added on top of the selected focus group, and the topics they were given were not particularly concerned with diversity. She said the focus group was very present-bound, and it was very hard for them to project into the future Yasiri thought people don't necessarily look at maturation of the community. She thought transportation issues for the majority of the community are topics such as construction of roads and toll roads, not transportation for low-income people. Pellar-Price thought this is a very transient community, and, consequently, they are concerned only with the "now." Swaggert said we have been shown to be stable and are actually much less transient than Plymouth, for example. She said we will be doing another survey that will have questions that have to do with people's commitment to the community. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes June 9, 1998 Minutes Page 4 Swaggert suggested the commission use the spiral-bound notebook as they work through the worksheet. The bullets for each of the focus areas are comments directly out of the community forum groups. Swaggert said the strategic planning will be started this week, and they will start to look at issues including the increasing diversity. The Commission will be continually updated with new information. She said they don't need a finished product at this point. Swaggert suggested the work plan might be reformatted so that items can be referenced as to whether it is a community value or a community focus area. Yasiri thought this is a process we will continue to refine and it might be good to incorporate the values on the same sheet with the work plan so that we have it for a reference. Swaggert said the Community Values are what is on-going, because they are what should influence the Commission's planning. She said they will put something out that includes both on one sheet. Behrends noted the HTHSB suggested that these items be put up in all the meeting rooms at City Center. Swaggert said the City Council is very interested in doing some more joint meetings with commissions. They are encouraging boards and commissions to come forward to share something on their work plans. Winans thought we might host our own forum so that we could share the results with the Council. Stanton was concerned that he never sees the HRDC on cable TV. He thought it is important to have the commission out in the community, and he would like to see it on public-access TV. Swaggert thought we might want to do one or two meetings a year. Stanton suggested we tape a focus group and show that on TV. Yasiri cautioned there is some amount of controversy in some of the things the commission is involved in, such as issues like the Manifesto. A discussion followed regarding using public-access TV. Moran was concerned about the focus areas and whether they are current. Swaggert said everything done in the community exercises was to project forward. These items will be critical over the next ten years. We need to work on what are the strategies now that we need to reach the vision. A discussion followed about how the Commission should proceed in working with the Community Values and focus areas. The consensus was that the Commission will have to be an advocate for those groups in the community that are heard the least. Yasiri said the HTHSB does site visits because they are funding certain groups, some of which have large immigrant populations, and we could tie into those sessions to talk about what our commission does. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes June 9, 1998 Minutes Page 5 Winans suggested the Commission come up with recommendations on these issues to incorporate in the work plan at the July meeting. VI. REPORTS OF COMMISSION MEMBERS A. Housing, Transportation & Human Services Board -Brad Behrends Behrends reported they are starting a process to look at Vision 2001 and that took up most of last meeting's agenda. Winans thought we might consider a joint meeting with them as part of the process. B. League of Human Rights Commissions - Gloria Winans Winans said the focus now is planning for the State Conference in St. Cloud in September. The next meeting will be Sunday, June 28, in Golden Valley from noon to 3:00 p.m. She will not be able to attend. Behrends said he could go if need be. C. Report of Youth Representatives: Andrea Brown and Sopanha Te Not present. Winans noted Brown received two or three different scholarships at the High School award ceremony and Te also received a special award. Winans asked Barone to check on having Te remain on the Commission next year. A discussion followed regarding the selection process for youth representatives. Barone agreed to check into the process and report back. Stanton thought we could use the youth representatives as a way to get into the new immigrant groups. VII. REPORTS OF STAFF Barone said there is an incident under investigation. It was a property crime, but they are treating it as a crime of bias. Trees and sod were damaged at Bearpath Golf Course; however, they are not sure it was directed at anyone in particular. Winans asked when it happened. Barone said it occurred on Saturday, May 30. Winans thought it is good that they are keeping us informed. VIII. FUTURE AGENDAS/EVENTS Winans noted there is no workshop on June 23. Yasiri thought the July 14 meeting will be a heavy session, so we probably don't want any presentation. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes June 9, 1998 Minutes Page 6 Winans said she attended the Minnesota Summit on Youth at the Minneapolis Convention Center. They are looking for various communities to sign up to be communities of promise and put youth initiatives in place to show that youth are valued and protected in those communities. Barone distributed a handout from the ABC Foundation. July 14 6:00 -7:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop Topic: Youth Scholarship Award Process 1999 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting August 11 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting August 16 4:00 -8:00 PM "DiverseCity on the Prairie" event -Staring Lake Park - Eden Prairie August 25 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting September 8 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting IX. ADJOURN MOTION: Pellar-Price moved, seconded by Stanton, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. Chair Winans adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m.