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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Relations Commission - Minutes - 01/09/2020Human Relations Commission January 9, 2020 5:30-7:30 pm CIC Room, City Hall, 300 LaPorte Ave., Fort Collins, CO Call to Order ● Meeting was called to order by Chairperson Julia Mackewich at 5:30 Roll Call ● Present: Eva Amason Vic Smith Beth Jaeger Wendy True Julia Mackewich Phil Walker Jean Runyon Staff Present: Carol Thomas, Equal Opportunity and Compliance Manager, HRC Liaison Emily Gorgol, City Council Member, HRC liaison ● Observers: None Agenda Review ● Agenda items reviewed. Motion to accept agenda made by Phil Walker. Second by Wendy True . Vote 7-0. Approval of Minutes ● Jean Runyon moved that minutes be approved. Second by Vic Smith. Vote to approve: 7-0. Public Particpation ● None HRC Periodic Review ● Emily Gorgol, HRC liaison ● Julia initiated discussion about changing bylaws to allow a student liaison and collaboration with other boards and commissions. Emily says City is waiting on making changes until determining long term plan & reimagining boards’ restructuring. ● Timeline for this is 1 year. Emily stated our wish to discuss changes in City Code now may not be timely. She will ask about this. ● Carol suggested collaboration with other boards/ commissions may be currently possible without code change. ● HRC would like to follow up on our request for rapid crisis response from City Council regarding hate incidents. ● We are waiting for response from Mayor and City Manager on Julia’s email request for follow up information regarding their meeting with CSU president. Julia will copy Emily on this email request. ● Emily suggested HRC may need to be more specific in their request to Council and suggested involving a representative other than City Manager to expedite our request. ● Emily will check with Darin Atteberry (City Manager) on his progress with this. ● Vic stated that HRC has made this request for 3 previous years and suggested that HRC write a sample appropriate response to present to Council. ● Vic will send copies of the emails of the last 3 years’ requests for crisis response to City Council. ● Vic and Beth will compose new request memo to accompany the older copies. ● Carol will help us investigate how we may be involved in planning/creating principles of community. ● Emily outlined the goals of Reimagining Boards and Commissions: to promote more diversity in board make-up, to ensure board members feel more valued & supported for their time volunteered, and to assist in their understanding of structure of city government. Budget Review ● Current funds available: $5900 ● $2000 in unspent funds from 2019 was forfeited. ● Discussion on how to make use of all allotted funds for this year ● Wendy suggested using leftover funds to purchase books to be donated to public library, school libraries, etc. This will be added as discussion item to later agenda New Business ● Annual retreat — Decision to schedule longer work session during regularly scheduled meeting rather than longer retreat. Session set for Thursday, Feb. 13, 5:30-8:00 (approx.), CIC Room, City Hall. Eva, Julia will coordinate food. ● Dinner — Vic will host social event for board members (+1’s permitted) Sunday, Feb. 16, 5:30 pm, at his home. He will handle food arrangements ● Super issues review — Report from Phil. First issue: Outside consultants reviewed city parks & trails, small groups discussed findings and budgeting. Some (older) neighborhoods don’t have parks. City doesn’t fund parks, but new developers must include them in planning. Second issue: Advocacy for city to fund multicultural retreat, May11-12, which it agreed to do. ● Annual homelessness report — April 14th work session is scheduled. HRC members are encouraged to attend if available and determine appropriate follow-up responses. ● Spring Creek Park Christmas lights: price went from donations last year to a cost of $11 this year. This cost may be prohibitive for various individuals/groups. Possible reasons for price increase discussed—larger display, Friends of the Garden nonprofit partnering to establish world class botanic garden. Julia will contact Friends to obtain further information. ● Annual report—Julia and Jean will work on this. ● New HRC logo — City requires us to use the new logo they provide. Old Business General discussion, reiteration, of duties of chairs, groups with an emphasis on expanding educational outreach. Further discussion of this will take place at work session on 2 /13/2020. Meeting was adjourned at 7:30.