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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 12/08/1998 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION TUESDAY,DECEMBER 8, 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: Jennifer Johnson and Sopanha Te CITY COUNCIL STAFF: Michael Barone, Supv. Personnel/Payroll, and Jan Nelson, Recording Secretary I. ROLL CALL Chair Winans called the meeting to order at 7:25 P.M. Behrends, Moran and Te were absent. Yasiri and Stanton arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Helzel moved, seconded by Yasiri, to approve the Agenda as published. Motion carried 4-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 10, 1998 MEETING MOTION: Yasiri moved, seconded by Helzel, to approve as published the Minutes of the November 10, 1998 meeting. Motion carried 4-0. IV. OLD BUSINESS Prior to achieving a quorum, the Commissioner's present began informal discussion of old and new business items. A. Senior Issues Discussion -Sandy Werts Barone noted she was not able to come to tonight's meeting but will be on the Agenda for January. Winans asked if Werts is locked in for the January meeting. Barone said he will reconfirm with Werts. V. NEW BUSINESS A. Create/Update 1999 Work Plan; Revise 1999 Planning Calendar Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes December 8, 1999 Page 2 Winans distributed copies of a proposed Objectives and Work Plan for 1999, noting that it is based on one used for the 1997 Work Plan. Yasiri arrived at 7:25 PM. V. NEW BUSINESS A. Create/Update 1999 Work Plan; Revise 1999 Planning Calendar The Commission resumed their discussion of the 1999 Work Plan item by item. B. Increase community awareness of human rights and diversity Winans said items F and G regarding Vision 2001 Focus Areas were added to the 1997 items. II. Provide guidance and support to the City Council and City Staff as required on provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act Winans noted we have not given any attention to this objective in 1998. Helzel said there is an ADA Committee,but there were no meetings this year. Barone said this has been a relatively inactive committee for awhile. Yasiri noted Behrends is our representative to the committee. Helzel thought most of the grievances will be heard in the courts and not by the City. He thought we might have oversight concerning the City's compliance. Barone said City Staff has been monitoring ADA compliance. Yasiri noted much of this is mandated and the city has its own coordinator; consequently she thought we are serving more as an advisory resource. Commissioners discussed item C regarding N.O.D. The consensus was that we have lost touch with this group over the last couple of years, and the item should probably be removed. Yasiri thought item II.D. regarding appointing a representative of the Commission to serve on the City's ADA committee was still very appropriate. She also thought we should add a new goal to have an informal session on ADA for the Commission. Following a discussion of the Items I1.1 and II.2., the consensus was to list one goal: Add ADA as an element to our diversity training for new members of City Advisory Boards and Human Rights and Diversity Commission members. Stanton arrived at 7:40 PM. Winans asked if we should address anything about the schools for students with disabilities. Johnson thought the Schools are very accessible and she doesn't see a lot of discrimination of the disabled. Helzel thought we are pretty well covered because of the Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes December 8, 1999 Page 3 legislation that was passed. Yasiri thought we originally envisioned making this available to City employees as well. A discussion followed with the consensus that City Staff is not directly the Commission's responsibility. III. Bias Crime Response/Victim support Helzel thought we might want to define the word "regular" in item III.1. Winans thought that wording gives us more leeway. IV. Ensure that Alternative Dispute Resolution services are available to members of our community Winans asked if we are talking about residents of Eden Prairie or could we include those who work in the community as well. Yasiri said when we started working on this issue, the Commission provided dispute resolution. When we needed a mechanism to have additional resources, we started contracting for those services with organizations that have trained resolution people. She thought it was meant to be provided for residents;however, at that time we didn't have the big reverse commute situation that we do now. Winans thought this is a worthwhile discussion in order to determine guidelines about who we are providing this for. Yasiri noted that some groups are funded by other groups, and she didn't know how that would work if we offered this to people who work in the City. Helzel thought there would still be a link to Eden Prairie if they work here. V. Maintain communication with other organizations engaged inactivities that promote inclusiveness and embrace diversity within our community Commissioners discussed the status of Pride Institute and our representative on that board. Yasiri said she has been the Commission's representative for two terms. She reviewed the activities of Pride Institute, noting they meet quarterly. The consensus was to put the group on the Agenda for regular quarterly reports. Stanton asked if we need to include the issue of aging in this item. Winans said we added that under item I for the Vision 2001 items. Winans suggested that the word "projects"be changed to "activities" on the Planning Calendar in order to use the same terminology as the Objectives. She asked Barone to revise the 1999 Objectives and to add the appropriate items to the Planning Calendar. B. Discussion of 1999 Human Rights Award Status/Options Winans said they had a preliminary meeting with Natalie Swaggert to address the issue of the Chamber's reluctance to sponsor the luncheon in April. She said they Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes December 8, 1999 Page 4 are considering hosting the lunch in-house and presenting the awards at a City council meeting in April, with a recognition luncheon the next day sponsored by the City. Helzel thought there may be enough industries now that are civic minded that would be willing to sponsor the event. That way we could get the business linkage we need. Yasiri thought we could get cable access involved. Winans said our goal will be to announce the event around MLK's birthday. Swaggert will set up a meeting for Barone and Winans with Enger and Mayor Harris. Barone said that way we can roll out the meeting information right before Dr. King's birthday. He said the other real issue is where to have it this year because there will not be enough parking at the City Center facility to have the event here. He suggested we work with someone who has a membership at Olympic Hills or Bearpath. Yasiri thought it would be a waste to not make it an event if we go outside. Barone said we have a new communications person who has strong writing skills. Winans asked for volunteers to help on the project. Barone noted the meeting with the Mayor is December 21, so there are two weeks to pull together the subcommittee. Johnson and Helzel volunteered to serve. The subcommittee will meet Tuesday, December 15 at 3:30 PM. Barone will invite Steve Nelson to help them. C. Begin solicitation process of 1999 Human Rights Youth Scholarship(s) Award Process Winans noted we have enough money in reserve to fund this year's scholarship, but she asked if that will cause problems the next year when we send out solicitation letters. Yasiri thought we made the decision that we would continue doing this every year to keep the funding up. She noted a lot of organizations have limited amounts to spend, and if you get off their list it is difficult to get your slot back. Helzel thought we had decided at one point that half of the funds raised were to go to future funding. Helzel would like to find a co-sponsor for the whole Human Rights award process. Winans thought we should lobby Daytons because of having a Target and a Mervyns in the City. The consensus was to continue the solicitation of funds for the scholarship. The Commission also decided to reinstate the Agenda item"Other" to cover items that need to be discussed at the meeting that are not on the published Agenda. VI. REPORTS OF COMMISSION MEMBERS Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes December 8, 1999 Page 5 A. Housing, Transportation & Human Services: Brad Behrends No report. B. Minnesota League of Human Rights Commissions: Gloria Winans Winans said she attended the November meeting in Shoreview. It was a mini study circle on why those present had chosen to be heavily involved in the Human Rights work. She said they are trying to recruit communities that want to do study circles. C. Report of Youth Representatives: Jennifer Johnson and Sopanha Te Johnson asked what the Commission would like her to do about diversity training. Winans handed out information on the 50th Anniversary of Human Rights, noting that the group that does the training can't do anything until after December because of sponsoring the 50th Anniversary celebration. She thought we should zero in on January for the training when we will have the Declaration as well. VII. REPORTS OF STAFF A. Activity Status No activity. Yasiri noted she attended the Human Rights Conference on Friday. There were very good speakers and entertainment. The conference was very well attended, and they are talking about having to find another location next year in order to have more space. Winans noted Delores Fridge has stepped down as head of the Minnesota Human rights Commission to take a job with the Minnesota Education Commission. Pellar-Price said she is working on developing the informational packets. She asked how many packets we will send out, and how many individual brochures we need. Winans thought we need about 150 packets for the various Human Resources departments at companies in Eden Prairie. Winans thought we should shoot for having them available in the first quarter of 1999. VIII. FUTURE AGENDAS/EVENTS January 12, 1999 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting January 26, 1999 7:00 -9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop February 9, 1999 7:00 -9:00 PM HRDC Regular Meeting Human Rights and Diversity Commission Minutes December 8, 1999 Page 6 February 23, 1999 7:00 -9:00 PM Optional HRDC Workshop IX. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Stanton moved, seconded by Pellar-Price, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Winans adjourned the meeting at 8:25 PM.