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Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Brookings City & County Government Center and Zoom Meeting App
Attendance: Nieema Thasing (chair -in person); Dianne Nagy (vice-chair – in person); Lawrence
Novotny, (recorder and CLEAR Partners liaison– in person); Emma Qurashi (student representative &
behavioral health liaison - online); Charlene ‘Charlie’ Ward (county representative & Disabilities
Awareness Committee liaison– in person); Mikaela Neubauer (library liaison – in person); Bruce Pengra
(sustainability council liaison - online); Casey Bell (city human resources & staff liaison – in person);
Absent: Dan Berg; Tracy Chapman; Joel Gindo; Erica Moore; Erinn Thomas; Marci Gebers (sheriff’s
office liaison); Caleb Johnson (police liaison); Michele Vande Weerd (school liaison);
Chair Thasing called the meeting to order at 5:37 pm.
Since there was not a quorum, no official business was conducted. Those present engaged in
discussion.
Liaison Reports:
Brookings Police Dept (Bell): The new police chief, Michael Drake, will start on August 22. The
public is invited to a meet & greet (5 – 6 pm) with him prior to the city council meeting on August 23.
A consulting organization conducted an evaluation of the operation of the police dept and the report is
available on the police website. Some of the report’s recommendations are already being implemented;
others will continue under the new chief.
Sustainability Council (Pengra): A woman having Native American heritage is interested in places in
Brookings when native plants can be found and if these plants would be available for foraging. The
sustainability council is in communication with Parks Dept about the feasibility of Dakota Nature Park
being an ideal location for this.
Disabilities Awareness Committee (Ward): An event will be held on Main Avenue on August 20
which is Disabled Day for Kids.
Library and Brookings Inclusive Collaborative (Neubauer): Facilitator training for the Intergroup
Dialogues will be held on August 27 at the library. BIC is providing funding for the training including
lunch. Eighteen people have volunteered to become facilitators and they will lead small group
discussions over 5 weeks. The dialogue groups will start with a kickoff event at the library on Sept 13.
CLEAR Partners (Novotny) – CLEAR had a meeting with the interim police chief and also had a tour
of the police station building which needs to be updated.
The individual who attended the BHRC October meeting and brought forth a school bullying issue
attended the CLEAR meeting. He brought forth the bullying issue was continuing. CLEAR had a
discussion with him and the interim police chief about the role of school resource officers in dealing
with bullying. CLEAR brought the bullying issue to the attention of the school board. The board and
school administration cannot discuss individual issues with a third party.
Brookings Economic Development Master Plan (Nagy) —Resonance (the contracting agency) held
stakeholder roundtable discussions. Nagy, Thasing, Novotny, and Bell attended the roundtable dealing
with human resources. BHRC provided the notes and recommendations of our listening session to
Resonance. A recommendation that came out of the roundtable was to look at revamping the Festival
of Cultures that was held on campus – maybe combine it with the diversity potluck. Another
recommendation was to have a conversation involving BHRC, Disabilities Awareness Committee, and
BATA.
Working Groups:
Common Read The fliers are available and posted on campus. We need to get them distributed
around the community. The kickoff event will be August 30 from 6-8 pm in the Dykhouse Stadium
Club 71. Public is invited. On August 29 is the event involving the campus horses. Neubauer is
leading a library book discussion (Crossing the Line) on Sept 26.
Training: The WG has meet with the meetings being recorded for viewing. Both the intake
questionnaire form and the overall page have been revised. The WG is proposing having 2 mentors
(members of BHRC) who will meet with the complainant and also with the respondent (who the
complaint is being filed against) to explain the paperwork process and help guide them. There will be a
role for each member of the BHRC in handling a discrimination complaint.
Qurashi left at this point.
Black Culture Awareness: starting to look at MLK event for next year. Am working on developing
instructions that posters are not to depict acts of violence such as guns which appeared in some of the
2022 poster entries.
Budget
Am in the process of paying the bills for Juneteenth. BHRC received a $1000 donation for Juneteenth
after the event. The recommendation is to put this donation on reserve for future Juneteenth events.
Old Business
HRC statewide meeting Vermillion, Sioux Falls, and Brookings are on board. Thasing has not heard
anything from Rapid City.
Member attendance ad hoc committee: The committee has a recommended policy. However, the new
policy cannot be discussed or acted upon due to lack of quorum at the last 2 meetings. Because of this,
the existing policy is still in place and may have to be implemented to resolve the issue.
SDSU liaison: The past liaisons have been the campus diversity officer. This position no longer
exists. The question is does SDSU appoint someone or should BHRC recommend someone from
SDSU to be the liaison (that person will need approval of SDSU administration).
New Business
Behavioral Health liaison: Qurashi (via Zoom chat) said she would be the liaison.
Butler award: One nomination was received. Novotny will also be re-submitting 2 nominations
received last year.
Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 6:35 pm.
Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, recorder