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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBHRCMinutes_2016_03_28Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes (amended) Monday, March 28, 2016 Room 300, Brookings City & County Government Building Chair Hauffe called the meeting to order at 5:34 pm. Attendance: Penny Hauffe, chair; Steve Bayer, vice-chair; Lawrence Novotny, recorder; Chandradhar Dwivedi; George Hamer; Judy Karen; Maggie Owens; Shafiqur Rahman; Laura Renee Chandler; Elliot Johnson; Emily Lucchesi, Brookings High School Human Rights Committee and Shari Thornes, City Clerk-staff. Absent: none. A motion was made by Bayer, seconded by Hamer, to approved the agenda. All present voted yes; motion carried. A motion was made by Rahman, seconded by Hamer, to approve the February 4, 2016 minutes. All present voted yes; motion carried. Schedule next meeting. April 21 at noon is tentatively the next meeting. New Business. A. Butler Award: The City Clerk’s office will issue a press release seeking nominations. Deadline for nominations will be mid-May. It was discussed that BHRC members need to reach out to service groups to inform them of the Butler award and to solicit nominations. B. Earth Day Booth: The city will have a shared booth at the Habitat Restore Earth Day event on May 14. The booth will be shared by the Sustainability Council, Disabilities Committee, Bicycle Advisory Committee and BHRC. The City Clerk has a table skirt available with the city logo. Volunteers will be needed to staff the booth. C. Diversity & Inclusion Poster: The Sustainability Council has been creating posters and ads depicting various aspects of sustainability. The Council wants to have one that focuses on inclusion and diversity. City staff is working on drafting some ideas for the poster. Reports/Updates. A. Liaison with Brooking High School Human Rights Committee: BHSHRC member Lucchesi provided an update and advised the students meet at 7:30 am at the high school. Students apply to become members and are then initiated into the BHSHRC. The BHSHRC created video interviews of its members, and a website is being designed. BHSHRC adopted a mission statement and one of its goals is building awareness since they recently had students who were not aware of any human rights issues. The high school principal is very supportive of the BHSHRC and a special education teacher has joined the committee. BHSHRC is working on recruiting freshmen and sophomores in order to sustain the BHSHRC into the future. Currently, there is about an equal balance of boys and girls in the BHSHRC and some minority students are also participating. It was suggested that the BHSHRC reach out to the Boys & Girls Club. B. Liaison with Police Dept: Derek Powers was unable to attend this evening. Cora Olson, the liaison with the University Police Dept has resigned from UPD. Johnson volunteered to draft a letter on behalf of BHRC to SDSU vice-president of safety and security requesting a replacement liaison be appointed. Hamer volunteered to follow up with a personal visit with the vice-president. C. Spring Diversity Potluck: The speaker is Jose Gonzalez, SDSU agronomist from Spain. He will be asked to limit his talk to 15 minutes. Johnson and Chandler volunteered to do radio station PSAs. A member of the BHSHRC volunteered to translate the diversity flier into Spanish. Rahman left at this point. D. No Hate Buttons: Novotny stated that a group of Brookings citizens are distributing No Hate buttons as a way of getting a message out that Brookings should not be engaging in hateful speech or activities. Novotny asked if BHRC would purchase buttons for distribution at the diversity potluck. Cost is $70 for 200 buttons. A motion was made by Hamer, seconded by Bayer, to purchase 200 buttons to distribute at the diversity potluck. All present voted yes; motion carried. E. Community Common Read: The campus committee narrowed the books down to three with 2 of them dealing with mental health. It was suggested to invite the new Brookings City Library director to become involved with both the city and campus community common read committees. F. Meeting with Mayor Reed: The meeting with the Mayor and the BHRC chair and vice-chair has been postponed due to the mayor’s illness. G. 2016 MEI Scorecard: Novotny, Johnson, Owens & Chandler volunteered to be on a sub-committee to look at how Brookings can raise its LGBT municipal equality index score. H. Commission complaint procedures update: City Attorney Britzman along with Thornes, Hauffe & Bayer have been revising the complaint procedures documents. A flow chart of the complaint process was drafted. These documents will be submitted to the entire BHRC for approval after further review. The BHRC needs to develop criteria for the selection of mediators. Johnson left at this point. I. Renters Rights Brochure Translation: Owens may have an individual that would be willing to translate the renters rights brochure into Spanish. It was suggested to offer this individual a stipend for her work. Chandler left at this point. J. Proposed 2016 Educational Events/Forums: Various BHRC members have been suggesting educational events/topics. Since it is impossible to do all of these in a year, Thornes will conduct a doodle survey of members to narrow the topics down to 1 or 2. Some suggestions to promote BHRC messaging:  Update website  Create a FaceBook page  Presentations at 1Million cups  Presentations at Green Drinks Announcements. • March 31 – SD World Affairs Council program on Syria • April 10 – diversity potluck • April 20 – Sioux Falls Diversity Conference • June 18 – Sioux Falls Pride • September 10 – Dakotas Equality Summit, Sioux Falls Adjourn. Motion made to adjourn at 7:50 pm. Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, Recorder