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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Relations Commission - Minutes - 10/11/2012FORT COLLINS HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION Regular Meeting – October 11, 2012 5:30 p.m. Council Liaison: Mayor Karen Weitkunat Staff Liaison: Rebecca O’Donnell Chairperson: Karen Buchanan A regular meeting of the Human Relations Commission was held on Thursday, October 11, 2012, CIC Room, 300 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Elaine Boni Kent Bryans Karen Buchanan Myles Crane Colleen Conway James Owiny Preety Sathe James Lesco EXCUSED ABSENCE: Christine Hays STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Rebecca O’Donnell, HRC Staff Liaison Melissa Herzog, Human Resources Rep. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Karen Buchanan at 5:33 p.m. PUBLIC INPUT Bob Overbeck, FTC Public Access station, Comcast channel 97, stated that he is non-profit, available to citizens in volunteering his services to film the Elder Abuse Forum. He can video the panel discussion and not the Q & A if confidential. BobMedia97@yahoo.com 847-321- 5974. HRC will seek City Attorney advice on whether the HRC needs a waiver of approval to video, or a legal commitment. AGENDA REVIEW Rebecca O’Donnell added calendar updates including media and education committee meetings. HRC October 11, 2012 – Page 2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Preety Sathe made a motion to approve the September 13, 2012 minutes. Elaine Boni seconded the motion. The motion was approved 8:0. BUDGET REPORT Rebecca O’Donnell reported that there is an HRC balance available of $666.85, not including the meals for October, November and December. The Women’s Commission reimbursement of $161.60 for their participation at the Human Relations Award Program, is included in the balance. Karen Buchanan introduced guest Emily Petersen, with Touchstone Health Partners. The community mental health center serves 6700 people per year, for over 60 years. Over one-third are children and youth. The Loveland based Namaqua Center, merged in 2007. 6000 grand- parents in Larimer County are raising their grand-children. This center allows children to stay at home with their families. The goal is to move mental health issues from institutional to residential, from facilities to community based health systems. One in four adults will have a mental health diagnosis in 2012, and one in five children will have an emotional disorder. Health care reform has fundamentally changed health care for mental health. Touchstone Health Partners are currently hiring mental health professionals and will be offering tours of the facility in 2013. COMMITTEE REPORTS • Executive Standing Committee November 13, 2012, an HRC Special Work Plan, Vision and Strategy Meeting will take place at 4913 Langdale in Fort Collins. This meeting is open to the public. October 29, 2012 Board and Commissions Collaboration meeting update. The October 29, 2012 meeting will start out in a large facilitation, and then small group breakouts. The Mayor will be there to greet and provide opening comments. Ginny Sawyer will be the facilitator. A planning meeting is set for 1:00pm-2:00pm on October 12, 2012. Karen Buchanan emailed Greg Tempel on the meeting minutes approval process questions from the September meeting. Karen will report back what Greg says. Melissa Herzog volunteered to attend the Elder Abuse Forum. • Government Relations Committee James Owiny attended the October 2, City Council meeting, and referred to the October 10, 2012 email he sent members which included: Proclamations at 5.30 PM - Pubic Power Week (10/7-13/2012); Conflict Resolutions; Day of the Girl (10/11/2012) Mayor was moved by this one and seemed very supportive; National Chiropractic Health Month; Arts and Humanities Month. City Council Regular meeting began at 6:00 p.m. Wide range of public input topics 1. Make It Stop Elder Abuse Forum - together with a call for volunteers to serve on various City Boards and Commissions including HRC. HRC October 11, 2012 – Page 3 2. Statement against City subsidizing costs of the new stadium. 3. Support of arts in Public Places - strong show. 4. Support of performing arts and special thanks to the City for facilitating it 5. Women's Commission - thanks for declaring October - Girl's month. 6. Support for cannabis. Council feedback Mayor appreciative of the call for volunteers - extended application deadline to 10/17/2012. Response from Councilmember Wade Troxell re stadium - staff should track expenses around the stadium, when & if the process begins. Consent agenda passed Arts in Public Places - discussion; possible some tweaks to final document or revisiting it in the future. Extensive discussion of citizen initiated action - re limiting First Amendment rights to Natural Persons. Elaine Boni commended James Owiny for his email of the Council Meeting and suggested that all the members continue this process when attending meetings. Preety stated that the October 16, 2012 City Council Meeting will be attended by Elaine Boni, Myles Crane and Preety Sathe. Colleen will attend the Council Meeting on November 20, 2012. December 4, 2012 is Human Rights Day and also the City Council Meeting. There needs to be 3-4 people attending. Rebecca O’Donnell will forward last year’s proclamation email to the members to update so that it can be reviewed in the November meeting. Preety Sathe excused herself from the remainder of the HRC meeting due to personal commitments. Elaine Boni stated she spoke with Jerry Schiager who will attend the December HRC Meeting, giving a short training, from 45 minutes to an hour, to support the Citizen Liaison Program. Captain Schiager will be bringing a new member from the Citizen Review Board. Peter Hall is arranging a ride-along and will be re-applying to HRC and will be invited to the training. There will be a private social gathering for HRC members at Elaine Boni’s house afterwards. • Educational Outreach Committee Myles Crane stated that the Elder Abuse Forum is 11 days away. Melissa Herzog will also be attending the Forum. 100 people have already signed up. There will be room for up to 150 attendees. There will also be 30 community resources attending. The Mayor will introduce the Forum. Myles Crane stated that Wendy Robinson from Arc wishes her organization to be referred to as The Arc of Larimer County and not ARC. Arc works with the developmentally disabled in Colorado. HRC members are to arrive no later than 3:00pm to assist with registration setup, distribution of program schedule and related materials on dinner roundtables, placing table numbers and exhibitor names on each community resource table, coordination with food serving staff, AV testing, accessing and laying out wall chairs, easels for CSU, coordinating event assignments with CSU students from Center for Public Deliberation, confirming roles of respective HRC members during registration including meet and greet panelists, resources, the Mayor and attendees and provide consistent and correct answers to all attendee questions . HRC October 11, 2012 – Page 4 Elaine Boni stated King Soopers will be providing the sandwiches. The Senior Center will be providing three staff employees for the night to assist. Each person will have two sandwiches, choice of meat and cheese, wheat role, gluten-free or lettuce wrap, potato chips, cookies for dessert and coffee and water. We need 12 volunteers to help in the kitchen. So far we have five volunteers. Elaine Boni will be baking the cookies. Myles Crane stated that CSU will have 12 volunteers to facilitate the discussion as well as HRC staff. Myles Crane asked for a motion to approve the Educational Outreach standing committee meeting minutes. James Lesco moved to approve. Elaine Boni seconded the motion. The motion was approved 7:0. Karen Buchanan and Myles Crane met with the Mayor on October 1, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. The main purpose was to share feedback and provide an update on HRC’s efforts this year including progress on the Revised 2012 Work Plan to support continued collaboration efforts with other boards and commissions. As part of the collaboration process, the Mayor liked the idea of combining the HRA and Mayor’s Awards for 2014. This is a great example of working together in ways that improve efficiencies and create economies of scale. The HRC will include their collaboration efforts, ideas and observations in their 2013 Annual Report. • Media & Community Recognition Committee Myles Crane, James Owiny and Preety Sathe attended the meeting. There was no public input. There was no quorum so voting did not take place. All agreed to have the annual awards breakfast at the Senior Center. Northside never responded to phone calls. On the topic is Social Media e.g. Face Book the question was: Who will keep it up? Do we put it on someone’s personal Face Book page, or use the City’s Face Book page? Rebecca O’Donnell stated that the City asks boards and commissions to use the City of Fort Collins facebook page to publicize B&C events. James Owiny discussed moving the 2014 HRC breakfast to October. For the volunteer award, people that have impacted thecommunity, using their own resources, should weigh more in the rating criteria for the HRAward than those having similar impacts through a paid position. Karen Buchanan asked on behalf of Chris Hays that the award criteria surveys please be returned so Chris and other interested HRC members can begin updating the award criteria and evaluation and selection process. James Owiny made the motion to approve the items presented. Myles Crane seconded the motion. The motion was approved 7:0. OLD BUSINESS HRC October 11, 2012 – Page 5 Elaine Boni sent a copy of the HRC brochure and provided websites to the City of Fort Morgan for their interest in possibly forming an HRC. Elaine has not received word back yet. Karen Buchanan discussed the HRC administrative roles and responsibilities for by laws inclusion. Karen also discussed how the meeting minutes would be reviewed and edited by members stating that changes need to be tracked. Karen receives all of the changes in separate email documents from members and then must review and consolidate and is finding it too time consuming. Karen recommended that the first member making a change sends it out to everyone and we save that document. The next member making changes saves it and then sends the document out to all of us, so that we are always dealing with the most updated minutes. James Lesco suggested a sequence to be established and a time line for completion, or to use Googledocs which is posted in Cloud and anyone can make changes and would have access to the document. This would be a living document. Karen asked about requirements to use Googledocs. Since everyone must have a gmail account, this wouldn’t work at the present time. So, Karen will send minutes out to HRC members after Chair and Vice Chair have reviewed with a suggested sequence of review with timelines. NEW BUSINESS Karen Buchanan discussed having Mr. Overbeck videotape the Elder Abuse Forum. James Lesco likes the idea. Mr. Overbeck would post the forum on his website. Public access would be a benefit and give us more visibility. Elaine Boni commented that it is too bad we do not have the money to have Channel 14 do it. James Owiny stated to save money, maybe Mr. Overbeck could also video tape the HR Award Breakfast. Karen Buchanan called for a motion to approve the video taping of the forum by Overbeck. James Lesco motioned. James Owiny seconded. All in favor. The motion was approved 7:0. Karen Buchanan asked Rebecca O’Donnell to email Greg regarding his advice on videotaping the forum. Karen also said she’d forward the HRC official response via email using the approved template for Rebecca O’Donnell to send to Mr. Overbeck. Karen Buchanan called for a motion to amend the approval of videoing the forum based on Greg Tempel’s review and advise. Myles Crane made the motion; James Owiny seconded. The amended motion was approved 7:0. Myles Crane requested approval to send his Elder Abuse Forum written article to the Coloradoan editors as a Soap Box. Elaine Boni also has articles published in the 50+ Marketplace, the North 40 News, the Senior Voice and the Senior Center electronic newsletter. Elaine Boni moved to accept the Myles Soapbox article pending minor edits. James Owiny seconded. All in favor. The motion was approved 7:0. LIAISON REPORTS CRB previously reported and included in the Government Relations Committee report.. The MLK meeting is up and going. The poster is approved and they are asking for help judging HRC October 11, 2012 – Page 6 entries. Elaine Boni will continue to volunteer on the project after the HRC completion. Karen Buchanan stated she will help as well with judging entries for the MLK essay contest. James Owiny stated the big news at CSU, is the approval of the stadium. James also commented that October 11th is the Youth Diversity Symposium. India Night will be on Sunday, October 14, 2012 from 3:30 pm-7:00 pm at the LSC Main Ballroom. James has flyers at CSU for the HRC and the Elder Abuse Forum. October 11 is also National Coming Out Day, and this month is National Hispanic Month. Karen Buchanan stated that CSUCPD will be contributing a significant role at the Elder Abuse Forum. Other activities the CSU-CPD is working on include public input regarding the Poudre Valley School District superintendent position; the Board wants to know qualities of a new superintendent. CPD is also facilitating at the Net Zero Conference on October 16 & 17. Kent - No report of COD. He did not attend the meeting. Myles Crane expressed gratitude that the Senior Advisory Board, and Larimer County Office on Aging will have a strong representation at the Forum and that the Commission on Disability, Women’s Commission, Youth Advisory Board and Senior Center Council will also be represented at the Elder Abuse Forum. ADJOURNMENT Karen asked for a motion to approve the bullets to be emailed to B&C’s, as follows: • The HRC's "Make it STOP: Elder Abuse Forum” will take place Monday, October 22, 2012 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Fort Collins Senior Center at 1200 Raintree Drive. Program co-sponsors are: the Commission on Disability, the Senior Advisory Board, the Women's Commission, the Youth Advisory Board as well as the Senior Center Council and the Larimer County Office on Aging. Mayor Karen Weitkunat will introduce the event which includes a moderated panel of distinguished leaders, over 25 community resources and intergenerational discussions at dinner tables facilitated by students from CSU's Center for Public Deliberation. Kindly share with your family, friends and associates that admission is free and registration at http://col.st/QO1KcF is easy. HRC invites all board or commission members to attend. We also welcome any volunteers who can help with food service to please contact Elaine Boni, HRC Vice Chair at elaineboni@juno.com. No cooking is required! • Karen Buchanan, HRC Chair and Myles Crane, Educational Outreach Standing Committee Chair, had a productive and informative meeting with Mayor Karen Weitkunat, our Council Liaison, on October 1, 2012 to share feedback and provide an update on the progress the HRC has made regarding our amended 2012 Work Plan to support continued collaboration efforts with other boards and commissions. • Emily Petersen, Development and Marketing Director for Touchstone Health Partners spoke at our meeting. She provided an excellent and informative overview of the valuable services and resources available through her organization to those in need. Touchstone Health Partners is also a community resource participant at the upcoming Elder Abuse Forum. James Lesco motioned to approve the bullet points. Elaine Boni seconded. The motion was approved 7:0. HRC October 11, 2012 – Page 7 Elaine Boni motioned to adjourn. James Owiny seconded. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:32 p.m. The next meeting of the HRC will be held on November 8, 2012, 5:30 p.m. in the CIC Room. Minutes approved by majority vote of the Commission on November 8, 2012. Standing Committees Executive Chair Karen Buchanan and Vice Chair Elaine Boni Government Relations Chair Preety Sathe / Kent Bryans, Elaine Boni Educational Outreach Chair Myles Crane/ Colleen Conway, Christine Hays Media/Community Recognition Chair James Owiny/ James Lesco