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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHRCMinutes_2024_07_11Brookings Human Rights Commission Minutes Thursday, July 11, 2024, 5:30pm Brookings City/County Government Center and Zoom Attendance: Commissioners Liaisons Attendees • Dianne Nagy, Chair Carla Gatzke, Recorder Behnoosh Amandi, Vice Chair, County Casey Bell, Staff Lawrence Novotny, CLEAR Partners Michael Drake, Police Chief Absent • Lee Mallak Pastor Mark Johnsen Nieema Thasing Michele Vande Weerd, School District Marjoanne Collins, SDSU Chloe Wisser, SA Diversity Approved new members Denia Warne Rhiannon Nedlund Ari Limoges Quorum was not met. Chair Dianne Nagy opened the discussion at 5:40pm. Public Comment: Thank you from Lawrence for gift from Commission acknowledging his extended service. New Business Officer Elections: Postponed for next meeting when we have quorum. Event Coordination/Planning: In the future, the City recommends asking the Parks Board to approve larger events in the parks, i.e. Pride. Awards: We’ll extend solicitations to maximize time for nominations. May result in us approving recipients by email. Common Read event: We discussed the two videos recommended at the last meeting for a community/Commission viewing and discussion, which would support the Common Read topic and qualify as Commission education. Those in attendance supported viewing of "The Urgency of Intersectionality" by Kimberle Crenshaw: https://youtu.be/akOe5-UsQ2o. Diane will ask for Commission to vote via email. Screening of SDVFP documentary: There was a suggestion to plan a screening in Brookings similar to the Sioux Falls screening. The attendees discussed and supported the idea, with the library as a suggested venue. Old Business Vacancies: Nominations from the executive team to fill the three vacancies have been approved: Denia Warne, Rhiannon Nedlund, and Ari Limoges. Unfortunately, Emma has resigned due to personal conflicts. The City has begun advertising for candidates. Human rights training alignment with ordinance: Casey has researched and confirmed that human rights training for the Commission aligns with our mission and scope in the ordinance. Attendees supported moving forward. Dianne will contact Erica to curate the information to align with our scope. Here are the articles we identified in May as most aligned: United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations, Articles: 1, 4, 7, 13, 18, 19, 23, 25. Budget: We received a donation from FBT for next year’s Juneteenth. Reports Brookings Police, Chief Drake – nothing to report. Thank you from the Commission to the officers present at Juneteenth and Pride celebrations LGBTQ Liaison: Cole Sartell has resigned as liaison. Lawrence reported on Pride: feedback was positive, estimate 300 attendees (despite the rainstorm at the beginning), people enjoyed the show and would like it be longer. Yard signs were popular; we plan to advertise on our web site and Facebook page that the previous diversity signs are available on Amazon and other online sources. Task Forces PEAK - no report DEI – Casey, Marge Carla and student Grace Enz met. Grace will be researching peer communities’ efforts toward DEI. We’ll meet again on 30 July. Social Media – Benoosh continues to post DEI related events on our Facebook page. She will also start to post links to DEI events on the Visit Brookings calendar: https://visitbrookingssd.com/events/ Working Groups Training / Complaint Process, Casey and Lawrence and Carla - upcoming meeting with city attorney Multi-Cultural Awareness – Dianne: Juneteenth was a success. Estimate 100-150 attendees. Lawrence suggested the Commission thank the Mayor for his comments at City Council against hate and in support of diversity and inclusion in Brookings, and also suggested we advise the Mayor that his presence was noted at Pride. Dianne reported that the results of the recent email poll to Commission members about adding HRC’s signature to a letter from regional entities in support of human rights. The results of the poll were: 5 yes, 1 abstain, and 1 none-response. Dianne signed the letter on behalf of HRC. The meeting closed at 6:30 pm.