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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 07/14/1998 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION TUESDAY,JULY 14, 1998 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Rooms A & B 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 CITY COUNCIL STAFF: Michael Barone, Sr. Personnel Coordinator, and Jan Nelson, Recording Secretary I. ROLL CALL Chair Winans called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. Helzel, Stanton and Brown were absent. Te arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Behrends moved, seconded by Yasiri, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 5-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JUNE 9, 1998 MEETING Behrends noted his first name was spelled wrong in the heading for item IV. B and paragraph 2, page 5, sentence 3 should be changed to "HTHSB". Winans said paragraph 7, page 2 should be changed to: "...we are in the ballpark with other civic and social organizations." MOTION: Behrends moved, seconded by Yasiri, to approve as published and amended the Minutes of the June 9, 1998 meeting. Motion carried 5-0. IV. OLD BUSINESS A. City of Eden Prairie Vision 2001 Process Barone said he has not updated the informational sheets yet but suggested the Commission talk about the community focus areas and how the Commission's work fits under the categories of Preserving and Enhancing the Job Base, Preparing for an Aging Community and Insuring Public Safety. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes July 14, 1998 Page 2 1. Preserving and Enhancing the Job Base Barone read the Executive Summary for this category. Yasiri thought the Commission does not have a lot to do with some of the items,but she thought we could try to establish some kind of links with the major employers in the area. Winans thought the Chamber luncheon did a lot to provide a model for businesses to preserve and enhance the job base. We are getting more companies to be involved in the award application process. Yasiri thought we should do some educational activities surrounding the existence of the Commission and what we do in the city including the kind of services or referrals we can offer, the organizations the City funds, the events we sponsor and information about the Bias Crime Network. We could put together a packet of information to go to the Human Resource directors of the various businesses. Winans thought we should spend time developing the database so that we don't just do a blanket mailing to all the different size businesses in town. Te arrived at 7:30 P.M. A discussion followed about how best to present the idea of an informational packet to the City Council. Moran thought we should give the packet to the Chamber because they often work with Human Resource Departments in businesses. Barone thought we might be able to use some of the Reverse Commute material from Southwest Metro. Yasiri thought it would be a good idea to hook up with the company that facilitates Reverse Commute. Behrends will check with Dave Lindahl at the next HTHSB meeting to get the name of that company. Barone said there are a few big users of the Reverse Commute program that we could target. Yasiri thought we could partner with the company to disseminate information to the employees in the labor pool. They might be aware of issues related to discrimination and bias. Winans asked if the services we offer are referring them to mediation. Yasiri thought they have had the option of reporting incidents to the Commission,but as a Commission we have not dealt directly with these complaints for a number of years. Winans thought we could develop something to help them know the process by which they could get something resolved. Yasiri noted we have a list of phone numbers to start with, and the procedural flowchart we produced a number of years ago might be helpful. Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes July 14, 1998 Page 3 2. Preparing for an AOns! Community Winans thought age discrimination occurs at various ages. Yasiri thought age discrimination and the ability to file a suit is not necessarily dependent on age; however, Eden Prairie is still a relatively young community. Yasiri thought over the years we will be perceived as being progressive on issues if we provide information about services and issues surrounding aging. Winans said we have a very active Senior Center, and we might be able to explore with Sandy Werts some of the issues she knows about through her work. She thought we should also review the report issued by the Senior Issues Task Force before they disbanded. Yasiri thought another resource would be social workers and others who work in local nursing homes. Winans thought we could tie into some of the existing senior clubs as well. Pellar-Price suggested we participate in Senior Awareness Week. 3. Insuring Public Safety Winans understood seniors are concerned about response time for emergency services to residences on cul-de-sacs in the City. She asked Behrends to raise this as an issue with the HTHSB. Yasiri thought there may be an issue regarding the response teams for ambulances because we use Hennepin County for services and the street layout in Eden Prairie is confusing. Yasiri thought the DiverseCity on the Prairie event would fall under the offering of planned activities. Winans noted it encourages mutual respect between cultures and ages. Barone thought the Bias Crime Network would also fit under this category. Pellar-Price suggested sponsoring Study Circles as a way to develop this category. Yasiri thought it could also be used on the issue of an aging community, and possibly on all three issues. A discussion followed regarding the interest in and potential for success of Study Circles. The Commission then discussed how to continue the work on ideas put forth for the three issues. Yasiri agreed to pull together a list of materials with copies of those items available for the educational packet to present to the Council. The Commission decided to explore aging issues with Sandy Werts. Barone will get a copy of the Senior Issues Task Force report. Yasiri thought a Study Circle around the issue of the graduated drivers license law would be especially timely for our community. She thought we might Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes July 14, 1998 Page 4 sponsor a session on the subject at the school. We also might explore having AAA offer a defensive driving course to youthful drivers like they do for seniors. B. Update on "DiverseCity on the Prairie" - Sunday,August 16 Winans asked all Commissioners to plan to participate in this event which will run from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 16. Barone noted we no longer need to help sell tickets as they have developed a new system. He distributed copies of the letter that went out to food vendors. They have discussed going outside the City for vendors if there is not sufficient response from Eden Prairie businesses. Winans asked for volunteers to serve on two shifts for the event. Pellar-Price and Yasiri will serve from 3:30 to 6:00 P.M. Winans, Te, and Moran will serve from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Other Commissioners will be contacted regarding their preference for time. Yasiri thought we need to do more to attract the age 10-18 group to the event. Te will check on a school group that might be able to perform prior to the scheduled performances. Pellar-Price suggested advertising the event on the Eaton bulletin board. Other suggestions included a Ba'hai religious group that does a teen drama around breaking barriers around discrimination, Sri Lankan hand painting, name tags in other languages, and handouts such as balloons or other small items. Winans will contact Helzel about give-away items. A discussion followed regarding how to promote the Commission at the event. Moran thought we could display a copy of the Manifesto at City Hall before and after the event and then have it at the booth for the event. V. NEW BUSINESS A. Report on HRDC Activities at July 4th Celebration -Gloria Winans Winans thought the event was great and noted that there were probably 5000 people in the area and on the streets. Pellar-Price and her son set up our booth, which was next to the City's booth where they were selling shirts. Moran asked if we could get shirts for the workers in our booth at the DiverseCity event. Winans will talk to Tria Mann about shirts and the logo for the event. Winans would like to see us participate more at the July 4th event in order to promote the August event. B. Approval of West Suburban Mediation Center 2nd quarter 1998 -$625 Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes July 14, 1998 Page 5 MOTION: Yasiri moved, seconded by Moran, to recommend approval of the request from West Suburban Mediation Center for funding in the amount of$625 for 2nd quarter 1998. Motion carried 5-0. C. Updated Work Plan Barone distributed copies of the updated Work Plan. He added Vision 2001 as part of the Work Plan. A discussion followed about the item concerning issues and problem solving on diversity training that was scheduled for July. Winans said we need to have the training in 1999 for the Boards and Commissions and asked Barone if the City employees are also scheduled for training in 1999. Barone will review this with Swaggert. D. Meeting of Subcommittee on Youth Scholarship Winans said she, Moran, Pellar-Price, Barone and Swaggert met before tonight's meeting to discuss next year's scholarship. The meeting notes will be available for next month's meeting; however, they are recommending that we increase the number of youth scholarships to two at the High School level,both in the amount of$500, with one award to a male and one to a female. They also discussed how to improve the application process and the possibility of allowing other people to nominate students for the scholarships. A discussion followed about the non-traditional student scholarship and the fact that most of the applicants have been female. Te thought students are hearing about the scholarship but just aren't willing to take the time to investigate the application process. Yasiri suggested adding some language about the procedure if there are no applicants for one of the scholarships. MOTION: Yasiri moved, seconded by Pellar-Price, to approve going forward with the two scholarship program in 1999, one awarded to a male student and one to a female, with the understanding that a set of procedures will be developed to cover the situation where there are no qualified candidates for one of the scholarships. Motion carried 5-0. Regarding the issue of the non-traditional scholarship, Winans said they thought it would be difficult to raise $1500 each year. They are recommending a Feasibility Study to work on that issue and will contact representatives at Normandale Community College and Hennepin Technical to help with that. VI. REPORTS OF COMMISSION MEMBERS Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes July 14, 1998 Page 6 A. Housing, Transportation & Human Services: Brad Behrends No report. B. League of Human Rights Commissions: Gloria Winans Winans said at the next meeting she will have the agenda for the Annual Conference of the League scheduled for the last Saturday of September in St. Cloud. C. Report of Youth Representatives: Andrea Brown and Sopanha Te Te had nothing to report but she suggested doing the drivers training piece through Drivers Ed, and also to contact the health classes as a means of building a bridge to teenagers and youth. Winans asked if there is any requirement for community service in the school. Te said the graduation standards require some community service, so that has become a hot issue. She said the American Cultures class deals with issues regarding the elderly. VII. REPORTS OF STAFF No report. VIII.FUTURE AGENDAS/EVENTS 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 Optional HRDC Workshop September 8 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting September 22 7:00 -9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop October 13 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting October 27 7:00 -9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop IX. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Behrends moved, seconded by Pellar-Price, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Winans adjourned the meeting at 8:55 PM.