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Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Brookings City/County Government Center and Zoom Meeting App
Attendance: Nieema Thasing (chair – in person); Dianne Nagy (vice-chair – online); Lawrence Novotny
(recorder and CLEAR Partners liaison – in person); Behnoosh Amandi (county representative – in
person); Amanda Fickes (in person); Carla Gatzke (in person); Erica Moore (online); Emma Qurashi
(student representative & behavioral health liaison - online); Joseph Ulloa (student representative – in
person): Caleb Johnson (police liaison – in person); Mikaela Neubauer (library liaison – in person);
Casey Bell (city human resources & staff liaison – in person);
Absent: Mark Johnson; Asledi Castillo (SA diversity liaison); Marjoanne Collins (SDSU liaison);
Michele Vande Weerd (school liaison)
Guests: Jacob Meshke, deputy city manager; Stacey Burkhaulter-Sweeney, operations dispatcher with
Brookings Police Department
Vice-chair Nagy called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. Chair Thasing arrived a few minutes later.
Moore moved, Ulloa seconded, to approve the agenda with the addition of the Butler award to new
business. Motion approved.
Ulloa moved, Moore seconded, to approve the minutes of the June 08 meeting. Motion approved.
HRC’s role in city-wide DEI initiative was presented by Deputy City Manager Meshke who is the
city’s lead person in implementing the City of Brookings Community Economic Development Master
Plan. Community Economic Development Master Plan | Brookings, SD - Official Website (cityofbrookings-
sd.gov)
Last year, Resonance, a consulting group, held stakeholder meetings in Brookings and developed a 55-
page master plan that was adopted by the city council. The purpose of the plan is to aid economic
development by recruiting, developing, and retaining businesses.
The plan has 7 broad goals with each goal having strategies and objectives. Goal 4 is “We will invest in
the diverse talent that will fuel the future of our community.” Meshke is seeking BHRC’s input to
implement Strategy 4.8 which is “promote a citywide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and
welcoming initiative.” This strategy has these action items:
Assemble a diverse advisory committee, including City officials, residents, Human Rights
Commission, cultural representatives, businesses and community leaders, and philanthropic
representatives to help guide the City’s DEI and welcoming efforts.
Catalog best practices across North America, focusing on inclusive economic development,
business support programs, and welcoming initiatives.
Utilize the City of Brookings’ marketing and communications platforms to welcome new
residents and provide various citywide DEI initiatives, featuring participating companies,
businesses, and community leaders.
Celebrate the cultural diversity of Brookings
Devise a citywide DEI Action Plan.
Meshke displayed a spreadsheet with a 3 or 4 year timeline.
C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Outlook\JL2NTZGM\Impleme
ntation Plan - By Year_Master.xlsx
Meshke is seeking the creation of a DEI steering committee to guide the development of a workplan to
accomplish the goals of Strategy 4.8. The steering committee can either be the BHRC or Brookings
citizens that the BHRC recruits to serve on the steering committee.
A summary of the discussion between Meshke and BHRC:
• BHRC is a volunteer board and has limited time to give
• Will the annual DEI training for city employees be incorporated into the strategy
• City funds need to be used to cover any expenditures. Costs of developing this plan should not
come out of BHRC’s budget.
• Who does the steering committee report to? Meshke, Bell, BHRC?
• The city has a list of peer college towns around the US
• Should we be looking at progressive economic development such as occurs on the East Coast
• Has a needs assessment been done?
• Pay rate gap based on race and gender
• Explore the idea of conducting a community survey
• What are the metrics to define a DEI event
• What constitutes a DEI event?
• The Chamber of Commerce has a new resident task force. Maybe some of their work can be
merged into our work.
• If high level administrators do not like the steering committee’s plan, will it be discarded or will
it be accepted?
• The steering committee will sunset after several years.
The ending action item is to have the BHRC compile a list of names to be on the steering committee. A
committee size of around 10 is very convenient. An individual can fill more than one diversity slot on
the committee. The steering committee needs to be in place by the end of this calendar year. Meshke
left at this point.
Officer elections
Nieema Thasing’s term as chair ends with this meeting. She moves into the immediate past chair spot.
Vice-chair Dianne Nagy moves into the chair position.
Ulloa moved, Fickes seconded, that Behnoosh Amandi be elected as the new vice-chair. Motion passed.
Butler award
No nominations were received for the Butler award, youth award, or youth ally award by the July 10
deadline. Novotny stated that a nomination for the Butler award is currently being drafted and will be
submitted. Novotny also proposed that 2 nominations carried over from 2 years ago can also be
considered. The BHRC decided to re-issue the press release seeking nominations with a new deadline
of July 31. Nominations from previous years should not be carried over; however, that individual can
re-submit the nomination as a new one.
Old business:
Neubauer brought 6 copies of Nice Racism and distributed them to members. There still are 2 copies
that are available. Neubauer will conduct a book club discussion on the book on August 15 at 5:30 pm,
A meeting will be scheduled involving the police chief concerning training.
BHRC members will be attending a DEI training presentation with Marlene Schultz on July 24 at 5:30
pm.
The MEI presentation was tabled.
Emergency meeting of BHRC
According to the city clerk, it takes 2-3 business days before an emergency meeting of BHRC can take
place. This is to allow for the required 24-hour advance meeting notice to occur.
If the BHRC needs to conduct an emergency vote outside of our regular meeting, the motion needs to be
submitted via blind copy e-mail to the members. The members submit their vote via e-mail either to the
chair or staff liaison. A majority of the members must vote in the affirmative for the motion to pass. The
results of the vote need to be read into the minutes of the next regular meeting. Members will be given a
24-48 hour response time. If a member does not respond, they will be given a phone call for them to
vote.
Burkhaulter-Sweeney left at this point.
Budget
Ulloa moved, Moore seconded, that the bills for the Juneteenth event be paid first using donated monies
received for the event with the balance of the bills being paid using BHRC budgeted funds. Motion
passed.
Qurashi and Moore left at this point.
Liaison Reports
POLICE (Johnson): Burkhaulter-Sweeney is being trained to become the LGBTQ liaison for the
Brookings Police Department. Johnson asked what info we are looking for in his reports. Johnson left
at this point.
LIBRARY (Neubauer). Facilitator training for the community dialogues will be Saturday, August 26,
from 10 – 3. Neubauer is looking for facilitators.
DISABILITIES (Ulloa): There will be a media announcement about a South Dakota inclusivity camp.
The disabilities committee is looking at expanding the acronym DEI to DEIA (diversity, equity,
inclusion, and accessibility).
Working group reports
PEAK CAMPAIGN: Moore tried to organize a meeting of the WG but could not find a common time.
She will work again on organizing a meeting.
SOCIAL MEDIA/COMMUNICATIONS: Amandi distributed a draft copy of a brochure for BHRC.
Suggested revisions were proposed.
LGBTQ AWARENESS: Brookings Pride is in the process of being formally organized.
INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH: Ulloa suggested doing outreach to students from India due to the
monsoon devastation.
INCLUSIVITY/COMMUNITY OUTREACH: We are out of diversity signs. The WG needs to look
into obtaining more signs.
TRAININGS/COMPLAINT PROCESS: Thasing is having problems accessing the link to the Sioux
Falls complaint process. Gatzke volunteered to help with this.
AFRICANS IN THE DISPORA: Around 150 attended the Juneteenth event on June 17 in Pioneer Park.
Budget
There is $6291 in uncommitted funds. What do we want to spend it on?
Merchandise? More diversity signs? A canopy tent and table? Brochure printing?
Adjourn:
Meeting adjourned at 7:28 pm.
Submitted by Lawrence Novotny, recorder