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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 03/08/2007 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS & DIVERSITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2007 7:00 PM, 125 EDEN PRAIRIE CENTER Office of Housing and Human Services COMMISSION MEMBERS: Cari Maguire (chair), Melissa Barra (Vice Chair), Larry Piumbroeck, Jeff Strate, Gerry Beckmann, Linda Chung, and Pam Spera STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Sandra Moran and Steven Shouts COMMISSION STAFF: Mary Keating attending for Molly Koivumaki, Staff Liaison; Mary Zilka, Recording Secretary I. ROLL CALL Meeting called to order at 7:05 pm. Commissioner Melissa Barra was absent. Sandra Moran arrived at 7:40 pm. Commissioner Linda Chung left at 8:00 pm. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Agenda approved. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MAY, OCT. & FEB. MEETINGS Unable to approve May, October 2006 due to Commission Members absent. February meeting minutes approved as amended. IV. NEW BUSINESS A. JEANNE ZETAH—PARTNERSHIP BREAKFAST Jeanne Zetah, Community Education with the Eden Prairie Schools requested the HRDC to help facilitate at the Partnership Breakfast. Strate moved and Beckmann seconded to co-sponsor the Annual Partnership Breakfast this year with the Eden Prairie School District. The topic for discussion is "Diversity in Eden Prairie, Join a Deeper Conversation on Racial Equity Gaps". The event will be on Friday, April 20, 2007 —7:30-9:00 am at St. Andrew Lutheran Church. V. REPORTS OF STAFF A. HUMAN SERVICES REVIEW COMMITTEE (HSRC) The HSRC did not meet in March. Human Rights & Diversity Commission March 8, 2007 Page 2 B. BIAS CRIME ACTIVITY STATUS None reported VI. OLD BUSINESS A. HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS SELECTION PROCESS There was some confusion about the new process for selecting human Rights Award Winners. The new process will be as follows: Process for human rights award: First selection meeting: nominations are reviewed. (at regular commission meeting—May this year, maybe back to April next year?). Finalists are chosen whom commissioners would like more information about. There is discussion of specifically what questions/information we would like from these nominees and questions that will be asked at the interview. All finalists are then invited to be interviewed at the next selection meeting (next regular commission meeting —June this year—back to May next year?) All finalists are briefly interviewed by the commission. After the interviews discussion and final selections are made. VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS A. SOUTH HENNEPIN IMMIGRANT SERVICES GROUP (SHISG) Gerry Beckmann attended the SHISG meeting and passed out the District Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives for ELL students. It was confusing to decipher and Beckmann explained to the group. B. ANY COMMISSION MEMBER MAY REPORT Report from Molly Koivumaki: Somali Parenting Class: Khadra Duale, a staff member of the Office of Housing and Community Services and Stephanie Hendrickson a staff member of the Family Center have started a program to help immigrant parents get involved with classes offered by the Family Center. The Primrose School of Eden Prairie donated a supply of gently used pre-school books this parenting class. The class, which meets monthly, focuses on helping Somali parents, understands the importance of early childhood education and helps build their confidence to participate in the classes offered at the Family Center. New Communications Plan From Scott Neal's BLOG, Wednesday March 7, 2007. Scott Neal outlined a four point plan to increase communication Human Rights & Diversity Commission March 8, 2007 Page 3 between commissions and the Council, and between individual departments and the Council. 1. The City Council has a standing agenda item on each meeting agenda for reports from commissions. We will establish a rotating schedule which provides an opportunity for one of the commissions to make a 5-10 minute status report to the Council during this agenda item at each Council meeting. During a normal year the Council has 21 regular meetings. This would provide three reporting opportunities each year for the seven standing commissions. 2. Based on my periodic attendance at commission meetings, my discussions with Commission chairs and my discussion with commission staff liaisons, the Commissions would like to receive more direct input from the Council concerning the things the Commissions are working on. OK. The Council is more deliberate in providing input, feedback and suggestions to the commissions. The Council agreed to establish a regular practice of considering the City's needs and formally assigning defined policy development tasks to commissions. 3. City staff have a standard practice of developing departmental and divisional Work Plans each year. The Work Plans are reviewed and approved by me and my senior management staff. The Council will establish a similar expectation for the commissions. A good example of what I envision is exactly what the Council received at the February 20 meeting from the Airport Commission and what the Council approved at last night's meeting from the Conservation Commission. I envision a document that describes a commission's plans and goals for the year that is developed from commission, staff and Council input that is formally approved by the Council on an annual basis. 4. In order to develop and sustain a good working relationship, I believe it is important for commissions, staff and the Mayor(as a representative of the Council) to meet and talk on a more regular basis than occurs today. The Mayor and I will host a meeting twice each year with the Commission chairs and staff liaisons to discuss policies, procedures, progress, ideas, etc. Former Mayor Tyra-Lukens and I facilitated two such meetings during the final two years of her term. She and I found the meetings useful as a means to connect the City's elected leadership to the City's appointed commission leadership. The Commission chairs found the meetings to be valuable. They began a dialog among themselves about their respective commission scopes, polices,practices, etc. It was a good learning experience for all involved. Mayor Young has already initiated one-on-one meetings with commission chairs to get to know them better. This practice is a good idea and will further a sense of connection between the Human Rights & Diversity Commission March 8, 2007 Page 4 commission chairs and the city's elected leaders. On my end, I am going to initiate a post-commission meeting with commission staff liaisons to get a timelier and in depth briefing of commission meetings and activities. I also plan to continue my past practice of sitting in on at least one regular meeting of each commission each year. The four points of the new protocol have one common dominator: greater levels of formal and informal communication among Council, staff and commissions. I believe this new protocol will improve the effectiveness of our commissions;provide greater policy value to the City; and increase the sense of connectedness between the City's elected and appointed leaders Mary Keating reported on an event she recently attended: On Monday, March 5 Khadra Duale, Kerry Holtmeier and Mary Keating attended the "Conversation on the Demographics of Race." It was a huge crowd (over 400 people) with School Superintendents, business executives, Chamber members in attendance. It was a good presentation with solid information regarding the importance of diversity in our communities, preparing young people to function in a diverse world and the concern that in the future we will face a workforce shortage if we don't educate all our children. Orfield discussed the "moral implications of current school and housing patterns". To make his point,he contrasted the Eden Prairie school district with Apple Valley/Eagan and cited Eden Prairie as an example of good planning to avoid segregated schools while Apple Valley drew some strange boundaries to keep all low-income Latino students in the same school. Jeff Strate reminded the commission that the Chamber of Commerce who the guardian of the scholarship funds should have a HRDC member be included also. Pam Spera said she could participate in those meetings. Sandra Moran attended the Myron Orfield Presentation and thought it was very good. Pam Spera also attended the Myron Orfield presentation and thought it was well done. VII. FUTURE MEETINGS/EVENTS The next HRDC meeting is Thursday, April 12, 2007 —7:00 PM, Office of Housing and Community Services. IX. ADJOURNMENT Beckmann moved to adjourn the meeting, Piumbroeck seconded. Meeting adjourned at 8:45 pm.