HomeMy WebLinkAboutHRCMinutes_2018_11_19Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes
Meeting Date: Monday, November 19, 2018
(Approved 1/14/19)
Room 300 Community Room, Brookings City & County Government Building
Attendance: Steve Bayer, chair; Maggie Owens, vice‐chair; Lawrence Novotny, recorder; George Hamer; Penny
Hauffe; Hanna Holmquist; Meagan Irvine‐Miller; Wren Murphy (student representative); Kas Williams (SDSU
liaison); Shari Thornes, city clerk‐staff
Absent: Shafiqur Rahman (county representative); Erinn Thomas;
Guest: Paul Briseno, city manager
Chair Bayer called the meeting to order at 12:06 pm.
Motion by Hamer, seconded by Hauffe, to adopt the agenda with the addition of the Halloween incident. All
present voted aye; motion carried.
Motion by Hamer, seconded by Murphy, to approve the minutes of the October 22 meeting. Motion carried.
Nominating Committee Report and Election of Officers:
Hamer, the 1‐person nominating committee, nominated the following for officers for 2019:
Chair – Steve Bayer
Vice‐chair – Meaghan Irvine Miller
Recorder – Lawrence Novotny
The normal selection process would be to have the current vice‐chair (Maggie Owens) move up to the chair
position. Owens had recently taken the position as human resources director for the city of Brookings.
The city manager asked what is the concern with a city employee chairing a city commission.
Hamer explained that he conducted an e‐mail survey of the members of the BHRC asking two questions.
The first was “Is it appropriate for a high level city employee to serve in a leadership role on a commission?” Six
responded back saying no and 2 responded back saying yes regarding the chair position.
The second was “Is it appropriate for a high level city employee to serve on the commission?” Five responded
no and 3 responded yes.
Hamer apologized that he did not send the survey to Owens.
BHRC members concerns mainly were the BHRC represents the citizens of Brookings and it is not to be a voice or
advocate of city government.
After 35 minutes of discussion, Briseno stated the BHRC has the right to select its officers as it sees fit. A vote
was taken on the nominated officers. Seven approved the slate with Owens voting no.
It was suggested that this issue of city employees serving as officers of the city’s commissions, committees and
boards needs to be looked at on a citywide basis and maybe a policy needs to be developed.
MLK contest:
Holmquist moved and Murphy seconded that the theme for the essay contest will be “In the end, we will
remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Motion passed.
Miller moved and Hauffe seconded that this will also be the theme of the poster contest.
Hamer, Williams and Briseno left at this point.
The MLK logistics team consisting of Hamer, Murphy, Holmquist, Bayer and Thomas will work with Thornes to
get the materials out to the schools this month. Judging will occur in January.
Halloween incident:
Murphy reported an incident that happened on Halloween night in downtown Brookings. An SDSU student was
asked by another individual if they were gay. When the student replied yes, they were hit in the face. The
incident was posted on Instagram and discussed on Facebook with a comment why is this happening in
Brookings which just received a 100 MEI score.
It is unknown if this incident was reported to the police and if it would it be classified as a hate crime.
It was suggested that BHRC look at the process of reporting hate crimes in Brookings.
Adjourn: Motion made to adjourn at 1:17 pm. All approved.
Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, recorder