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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBHRCMinutes_2013_12_19 Brookings Human Rights Committee George Hamer, Chair Penny Hauffe, Vice Chair Patty Bacon, Recorder Steve Bayer Chandradhar Dwivedi Sam Jennings II Judy Karen Hanna Larsen Lawrence Novotny Shafiqur Rahman Jaime Nolan-Andrino, SDSU Liaison Shari Thornes, City Clerk-Staff Brookings Human Rights Committee Minutes – Thursday, December 19, 2013 at Noon Suite 230, Room 241 - Brookings City & County Government Center Attendance: Chandradhar Dwivedi, Lawrence Novotny, Shafiqur Rahman, Sam Jennings, Steve Bayer, Shari Thornes, Penny Hauffe, Guests Police Chief Jeff Miller, Nicki Viso 1. Call to Order at 12:01 pm 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Steve moved to adopt as amended, Sam seconded. Motion carried. 3. Approval of minutes: Chandradhar moved to approve, Shafiqur seconded. Motion carried. 4. Schedule future meetings: a. January 9th @ 11 a.m. b. Quarterly Meeting Date – will do a Doodle poll 5. Human Rights Campaign Foundation Municipal Equality Index Scorecard – 34 out of 100, highest score in the state. We started at 16, so we made progress. a. Meeting with Police Chief Jeff Miller – on the issue of reporting of hate crimes He is reviewing their current process to see if they’re missing anything on the “classification” of various types of crimes, including hate crimes. He asked his staff to look at their system and reached out to University Police Department. There are certain characteristics they use to define it as a hate crime. They look at motivations like race and religion. It is Chief Miller’s opinion that nothing has been reported because there are no hate crimes being committed in Brookings. Several people brought up some incidents they felt were hate crimes. Most of them occurred on campus. Chief Miller explained that it must be a crime and there must be a victim in order to qualify as a “hate” crime. Steve brought up that we should be filing a report even if there are no qualifying incidents. Sam brought up that there were 4 crimes that UPD classified as hate crimes listed in their report. Steve asked if it would be possible for the Police Department to file a report stating that there were no incidents of hate crimes to prove they’ve done their due diligence. George asked if there were beat cops who walked the streets downtown on Friday and Saturday nights like they did 20+ years ago. He said he doesn’t have the staffing to do it on a regular basis. He said he does not want to neglect the rest of the community by focusing all resources downtown primarily on the college students. Shafiqur asked how the city police department interacts with the campus police department. He gave a brief explanation of their relationship. Chief Miller responded to the question about whether or not the officers were required to take sensitivity training. He responded that no he wouldn’t be able to get them to training. The Committee decided we need to make it priority to find a way to get it required in a pro-active way. It was decided we need to put it on the agenda of our next work session. We also questioned that the Chief commented that there was a 2 page form that the officers didn’t want to fill out so he passed it on to office administrative staff to complete them. The Committee wondered how the office staff would be qualified to complete those reports. b. Schedule Conference Call with HR Campaign Legislative Counsel – Steve suggested and the group agreed that it is time to reach out to them so we can determine if they are looking for the UPD and county reporting as well as the city of Brookings. Shari will continue to try to get something scheduled. 6. MLK Awards: a. Poster Display Location & Arrangements – we have a location: Sioux River Cyclery street side windows. He’ll check with other downtown locations if there isn’t room. Press Release will go out on Jan. 10th. Date to put them up: Jan 10 at 4 pm. Meet at Sioux River: George, Sam, Penny, Patty. Remove on Feb. 1 at 10 am: George, Penny, Patty, Sam. b. Award Presentation – January 28 at 6 pm. George will do the presentations. The following awards for the first ($100), second ($75) and third ($50) place essays and first ($25), second ($15), and third ($10) place posters for the Dr. Martin Luther King Day poster and essay contest: K-1 Poster 1st place – Anika Hooda 2nd place – Ryan He 3rd place – Koen Beinhord 2-3 Poster 1st place – Claire Eidem 2nd place – Ian Thompson 3rd place Eli Eidsness Honorable mention – Mackenzie Abbott and Jacob Prout 4-5 Poster 1st place – Maddie Rowland 2nd place – Ingrid Hooda 3rd place - Ingrid Otterson Honorable mention – Francie Grimsley Middle School Essay 1st place – Kashfia Rahman 2nd place – Dwani Kharel 3rd place Jesina Davis Honorable mention – Josi Kjenstad and Brook Kiecksee High School Essay 1st place – Lydia Lucchesi 2nd place Shiela Cochrane 3rd place Aspen Meyer Honorable mention – Shae kizima, Chloe Person, Loren Visser, and Kristen Werpy 7. Action to co-sponsor Common Good Film Series The request is for $500 to help sponsor the film series. Penny moved that we commit $500 of our education budget to co-sponsor Common Good Film Series, Chandradhar seconded. Motion carried. Lawrence abstained. 8. Proposed Legislation in 2014 a. Geographic Names – the African American group in Sioux Falls felt that it was fine to leave the Negro names. The references to Squaw were changed to more appropriate names suggested by the Native American community. b. Other 9. Review 2013 Budget Report – We’re down to about $400 balance and that is good because we spent most of our money. 10. Minora Lighting – Lawrence attended. It was so cold that they moved indoors. The mayor attended and he was asked to light the first candle. The organizers were appreciative that it had happened. George asked if we wanted to be more proactive next year and actively participate in finding a location, etc. Chandradhar suggested that we look at participating with the Inter Faith group that works to recognize all faiths rather than choosing one particular religious event. 11. Brookings Visioning Charrettes Patty and Lawrence reported out on their experience and stated that diversity was discussed in their small groups. The committee committed to making sure that all of the City committee members get invited to the next charettes. Steve asked that we develop a pro-active plan for welcoming diverse populations as new employers like Bel will be attracting more new individuals to our community. We agreed to put it on our next work session agenda. 12. Committee Vacancy Update 13. Announcements/Correspondence/Calendar • December 11 @ 11 am – Judge MLK Entries • December 19th – Noon – HRC Meeting • January 17-18 – Install Poster/Essay Display • January 28 – City Council MLK Presentation • January __ - Take Down Public Poster/Essay Display • February 17th – 2013 Annual Report Deadline • April 13th – Spring Diversity Potluck – Shafiqur has lined up a speaker to talk about Hawaii. Steve brought up the upcoming movie Lone Survivor and said it was the only book he read twice and that two of the Seals who were killed were in Seal training with Eric Greitens. 14. January agenda: Action on 2013 Annual Report 15. Adjournment at 1:20 pm. Sam moved and Shafiqur seconded. Motion carried.