HomeMy WebLinkAboutHRCMinutes_2017_06_12Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes
Monday,June 12, 2017
Room 300 Community Room, Brookings City & County Government Building
Attendance:Steve Bayer, chair;George Hamer, vice-chair;Lawrence Novotny, recorder;Laura Renee
Chandler; Chandradhar Dwivedi;Penny Hauffe; Judy Karen;Meagan Irvine-Miller;Maggie Owens;
Shari Thornes, city clerk-staff (via phone); Laurie Carruthers, city communications specialist, staff
Absent:Shafiqur Rahman.
Guests:Steve Britzman, city attorney;Benjamin (Chris)Hartzler representing SDSU GSA (Gender &
Sexuality Alliance).
Chair Bayer called the meeting to order at 12:01 pm.
A motion was made by Dwivedi, seconded by Hauffe,to adopt the agenda. All present voted yes;
motion carried.
A motion was made by Karen, seconded by Dwivedi, to approve the minutes of the May 8, 2017
meeting. All present voted yes; motion carried.
King Contest:
Discussion was held on the necessity for a process for judging and scoring of the essays to avoid last
year’s conflict over dispute on selection of the essay winners.One of the problems was that only 3 or 4
Commission members had read all the essays,so these 3 or 4 were making the decision for the entire
HRC.The judges were making their decisions based upon the content (how well the essay reflected the
theme) instead of how well the essays are written.
Owens volunteered to draft a rubric to be used in scoring of the essays. All HRC members will be
expected to read the essays and complete the rubric before the judging meeting.In the past HRC
members recused themselves from judging if a family member submitted an entry.The Commission
will continue this practice with the recommendation that the recused person leave the room during
discussion of the relevant entries.
Owens suggested having the HRC members select the winning posters by electronic vote since the
posters are scanned and posted on the website. Staff indicated that this was not practical due to the
narrow time crunch between poster submission and judging.City staff scans the posters over a several
week period to avoid the expense of Allegra doing it.The posters will continue to be judged by
Commission members present at the judging meeting since this current process is working well.
Master Plan:
The chair and vice-chair of the Human Rights Commission, Sustainability Council,Brookings Committee
for People who have Disabilities, Historic Preservation Commission and Bicycle Advisory Committee
will meet with the consultants developing the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan on July 11 from 1:30-
2:30 pm. Each group is to present their two or three top points, which will be selected at the next
meeting.
Inclusivity Signs:
An incident occurred several weeks ago whereby the N-word was painted on the garage of a black
woman. The woman stated that she still loves Brookings but blames the incident on a bad actor.This
incident spread via social media.Bayer says we need to respond to this incident.
Dianne Nagy obtained a $750 grant on behalf of the Brookings Interfaith Council to purchase about 80
signs that read “No Matter Where You Are From, We’re Glad You Are Our Neighbor” in English, Spanish
and Arabic.The grant will enable 2 signs to be given to each member of the Interfaith Council –one
sign for placement at their home and the other to be given to someone.
A motion was made by Hauffe,seconded by Dwivedi,to match the $750 to purchase additional signs.
All present voted yes; motion carried.
The signs will be made available to the public on a first come basis.City staff will check on the sign
ordinance to see if there is any limitation with sign placement.Dwivedi proposed that the Commission
submit a letter to the Brookings Register explaining that the signs are our response to the incident.
Bayer, Nagy and Thornes will draft a letter and submit it for approval.Novotny proposed presenting a
sign to each city councilor at their meeting.
Brookings Inclusivity Team:
Thornes will provide the Mayor with the notes of the inclusivity team’s meetings.Bayer will invite
SDSU’s new diversity director to be the SDSU liaison to HRC and also invite him to become part of the
inclusivity team.
City Diversity Training:
Both the Mayor and City Manager are supportive of a $2500 budget increase to HRC to support
diversity training for law enforcement and city staff. The Police Chief and the city’s Human Resources
Director will be asked to work with Owens and Thornes to develop the training.
MEI:
The Human Rights Campaign submitted suggested revisions to our human rights ordinance.The main
revisions would allow the city to act on LGBT discrimination cases.The Human Rights Campaign is
asking the Commission to proceed with revising the ordinance as a test to state law,which currently
bans cities from enforcing any non-discrimination categories that are not stated in the state’s human
relations act.Britzman stated that we could expand our investigation powers to include LGBT
discrimination but our ability to prosecute any violati ons is problematic under current state law.
Britzman is supportive of the Human Rights Campaign’s suggested revisions.Bayer, Britzman and
Thornes will meet with the Mayor and City Manager to review the proposed ordinance revisions.
Hamer and Karen left at this point.
Community Common Read:
A motion was made by Dwivedi,seconded by Hauffe,to sponsor an interfaith panel and dialogue as
the community’s common read event.All present voted yes; motion carried.
Other:
The safe zone and diversity potluck agenda items were postponed to next meeting.A permanent vice-
chair needs to be selected.
Calendar:
June 17 –Sioux Falls Pride
July 10 –HRC meeting
July 11 –meeting with City Comprehensive Master Plan team
July 19 –Combined Awards event
October 8 –Diversity Potluck
November 2 –Common Read Speaker
Adjourn:A motion was made to adjourn at 1:19 pm.All present voted yes; motion carried.
Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, recorder