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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Relations Commission - Minutes - 03/09/2006FORT COLLINS HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION Regular Meeting — March 9, 2006 5:30 p.m. IlCouncil Liaison: David Roy IlStaff Liaison: Becky O'Donnell 11 IlChairperson: Parker Preble 11 11 A regular meeting of the Human Relations Commission was held on Thursday, March 9, 2006 in the Council Information Office at 300 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Elaine Boni Caroline Tu Farley Maryanne Ingratta Parker Preble Moin Siddiqui Lester Washington BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Joann Gina[ Paige Backlund Jarquin STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Angelina Sanchez -Sprague, Recorder 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Parker Preble at 5:30 p.m. 2. PUBLIC INPUT: None. 3. GUEST SPEAKER: Parker Preble welcomed Mr. James Downey, Senior Advisory Board Liaison to the HRC. Mr. Downey, formerly of Boulder, has been active since the 1970s in efforts that help seniors. He moved to Fort Collins five years ago and has been active with the Senior Advisory Board since then. The Senior Advisory Board's (SAB) primary objective is to help aging citizens in Fort Collins and the surrounding area live full and interesting lives so that they might continue to contribute, participate and share in the life of the community. The Board assumes responsibility for involvement in a network of senior agencies and organizations (such as AARP, Larimer County Office on Aging and the Commission on Disability) so that they can remain aware of issues, needs and occurrences that may be relevant to their work. Their primary concern is to provide education in this community about the aging process, to inform and be informed, to advocate for a good quality of life, and to encourage networking among the various groups who deal with senior issues. The Commission had questions for Mr. Downey — primarily how does the SAB communicate with City Council, how do they secure budget, and where are particular senior needs met. HRC March 9, 2006 — Page 2 AGENDA REVIEW 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Elaine Boni made a motion to approve the minutes of February 9, 2006 as revised. Caroline Tu Farley seconded the motion. The motion passed. OLD BUSINESS a. Meeting Reflections • Parker reflected on whether the Commission had addressed the questions posed by the Mennonite Church representatives Frank Gibson and Mark Smith. He's noted in the past there have been overtures by the Mennonite Church to work with the HRC. Elaine agrees the Commission should reach out to them as they would with any other community agencies. Maryanne suggested they be invited to speak at an HRC meeting. • Parker wondered if Becky's had a chance to speak to Council Liaison David Roy regarding whether the HRC is able to apply for grants. Angelina will follow up with Becky. b. Submission of Articles • Lester posed the question: why do articles submitted to the Coloradoan need to be reviewed at a Commission meeting —why can't they be reviewed by email? Lester also mentioned the last article submitted by the deadline was not published in the expected timeframe. • Maryanne believes the system, which was previously agreed to by the group, could work with planning. (Calendar available for when a particular article is due/from whom, the article is shared by the writer prior to the appropriate meeting, reviewed by the Commission in a time frame that would make the Coloradoan deadline.) • The Commission brainstormed topic/author ideas —including: Moin on Islam, Maryanne resurrecting two articles previously submitted to Jack, Joann on an education & public outreach topic, Caroline on preaching to the choir. • Lester reminded the Commission that the regular schedule for publication was January, March, May, July, September, and November with the article due to the Coloradoan before the 3`d Saturday of the month. • Lester will keep in contact with Editor Pat Ferrier to make sure we continue to be on the same page. 7. COMMITTEE REPORTS a. Executive Delegation. • By election, Caroline & Lester will serve on the NIOT Board. • Parker wondered if others had seen a 1998 article on how to be an effective HRC? Some had. Parker suggested the HRC host a mixer, invite community leaders, and use that opportunity to discuss topics such as the hate flyers. He asked the Commission to think more about that and there will be more discussion later. Parker reported on an article regarding diversity issues again raising their head at CU. HRC March 9, 2006 — Page 3 b. Education & Community Outreach. • Maryanne reported the committee held a Community Chat on February 27'" that was well attended (12 -13 community members.) Some were concerned about the community's attitudes regarding gays and lesbians. • The next Community Chat is scheduled on Monday, April 17, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Bean Cycle, 144 N. College. The topic is "Women's Oppression." She asked the event be advertised on the City's Community Calendar. Angelina to make that entry. • The Committee suggested a Commission retreat with potluck some evening at Joann's home. They also recommended the use of an outside facilitator. Moin suggested dedicating four hours and having it at the time of a regular meeting. Lester suggested current community topics the Commission could explore are: immigration, Islam and gay & lesbian issues but he requested any new meeting be scheduled after the end of May. The group agreed the retreat could tentatively be set for the June meeting. c. Government Relations • Elaine had not had time to prepare a cover memo that spoke to the content, conclusions, and recommendations related to the Board & Commission diversity data that had been collected and will be forwarded to City Council. • Elaine will contact David Pearson concerning the department's use of the Spanish translation of the Police Complaint forms and the proposal for availability of the complaint form on-line. • Parker asked Elaine to make contact with other City's Human Relations Commissions (including Aurora, Steamboat Springs, and Boulder.) d. Media & Community Recognition • Lester's asked how many nominations for the Human Relations Awards had been submitted. (Angelina will follow up with Becky asking her to provide that information on her return.) He will contact KRFC about promoting the breakfast. Caroline asked if the nominations/evaluation forms could be distributed by April 7 Oust a few days after the March 31" deadline.) Parker is working on the bio for Keynote Speaker Norberto Valdez. 8. LIAISON REPORTS a. Northern Colorado Multicultural Commission (NCMC) Parker spoke with Keene Richardson a former member of NCMC. Maryanne reported NCMC is going strong with a membership drive under way. They're focusing on businesses who have previously provided support. They've had excellent turn out and at those meetings they've provided a history of the organization and its funding sources. Application deadlines have not yet passed so there will be more to report later. b. NIOT Alliance. No report. c. Latino Action Council. No report. d. Interfaith Council. Moin spoke of ethnic mentoring. He described it as volunteers from the majority supporting minority members of a community. NOTE: CSU has a Friends of International Students group. That group encourages you to invite them to your home so they have opportunities for learning American culture. They also ask you to be a resource as they learn to maneuver meeting their needs in a new culture. e. ERACISM. No report. HRC March 9, 2006 — Page 4 9. BUDGET REPORT. No report. 10. NEW BUSINESS. The City Manager's office extended an invitation on behalf of the Mayor asking the HRC to help in establishing an extensive stakeholders mailing list so that invitations could be extended to a "Open Mic with the Mayor" to be held Monday, March 27, 2006, Ben Delatour Room at the Public Library, time to be determined. It is a public outreach effort regarding the creation of a City holiday display policy. The Commission agreed they could help. Caroline will let the City Manager's Office know they are interested and that Lester Washington would work on a mailing list that will be shared early the week of March 13. The meeting adjourned at 7:05 P.M. Parker Preble, Chairperson Re ecca O'Donne , Staff Liaison