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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-01-28 HRRC Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS & RELATIONS COMMISSION January 28, 2014 7:00 P.M. I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Bigbee called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. II. ROLL CALL Answering roll call were Commissioners Arsenault, Bigbee, Cashmore, Davis, Haeg, Harrington, Lagerstrom, Seidman, Stanton, Winnick. Staff present: Scott Neal, City Manager; MJ Lamon, Staff Liaison and Annie Johnson, City Management Fellow. Commissioner Kingston arrived to the meeting at 7:02pm. VI. SPECIAL GUEST: Ric Dressen, Superintendent, Edina Public Schools. Chair Bigbee introduced Superintendent Dressen to the Commission. The Superintendent handed out the District’s Mission and Core Values to each Commissioner and reported that the schools are taking steps to meet and improve the goals of the District and help students be successful. A majority of jobs that current students will hold in the future have not been invented yet. The Superintendent highlighted the necessity for partnerships with the whole community due to socio- economic status, opportunity, and access gaps in education. Chair Bigbee currently serves on the District’s Equity Advisory Council. Superintendent Dressen provided an overview of demographic statistics for the District. A Commissioner raised a concern that German Language courses were stopped at the Middle School level. The Superintendent reported this was due to low enrollment, but there is an opportunity to have multiple languages taught in an on-line format. The fastest growing language course enrollment is for Mandarin Chinese. Online courses are not currently offered to the public, but that is something the Superintendent is open to looking into. Superintendent Dressen was asked to provide information about the South View Middle School defacement. He reported that the District worked with law enforcement and determined that it was not a racial act based on the investigation, although the behavior was inappropriate. There has been a significant amount of consequence and learning for the students involved. The building has been cleaned and the behavior of the student offenders continues to be monitored. Some Commissioners raised concerns that the District had not been made aware of the Bias/Hate Crime Response Plan and that by not determining the act to be a Hate Crime, the School District, Police Department, and City “covered up” the incident on behalf of the student offenders. There is a legal definition of Hate Crime defined in State Statute. There was no communication from the School District to the general public about the incident. The Superintendent indicated that due to expanded partnerships, situations such as this may be handled differently in the future. The District has a Safe Schools policy in place and they will be monitoring current legislation. Bullying is the most challenging in the middle school years. There is anti-bullying training starting in kindergarten for students. Chair Bigbee thanked the Superintendent for attending and called for an expanded partnership in the future. Edina Human Rights & Relations Commission Agenda Page 2 III. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Motion was made by Commissioner Stanton to approve the meeting agenda of the January 28, 2014 meeting as presented. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Arseneault. Motion carried. IV. ADOPTION OF MEETING MINUTES Motion was made by Commissioner Davis to approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of November 26, 2013; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Winnick. Motion carried. Commissioners Kingston and Stanton abstained. V. COMMUNITY COMMENT Gene Sylvestre, 7520 Cahill Road Apt 116A, Edina MN 55439, spoke about his involvement in WWII, his friendship with Tom Oye, and his history with the Commission as the original consultant that assisted with the formation of the HRRC. Mr. Sylvestre commended the Commission on their work. Commissioners will follow up about involving him in the Days of Remembrance celebration and Tom Oye Award. VI. REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS A. 2014 Chair and Vice Chair Nominations Commissioner Winnick reported that he reached out to members of the Commission and recommended that Commission Seidman serve as Chair; Commissioner Cashmore serve as Vice Chair; and that Commissioner Arseneault serve as 2nd Vice Chair pending a bylaw change subject to approval by the City Council. The election of officers will take place at the February HRRC Meeting. Commissioner Cashmore rescinded his interest in serving as a Vice Chair. Commissioner Winnick moved the slate of candidates; seconded by Commissioner Kingston. Motion carried. B. Review 2013 Accomplishments Chair Bigbee reported that 2013 accomplishments were highlighted during the November televised meeting and captured in the minutes of that meeting. C. Review 2014 Schedule The City reviews the calendar in advance of publishing to ensure dates of official meetings do not conflict with religious holidays. Commissioners discussed that HRRC meetings in August, November and December tend to fall into holidays and are usually very inconvenient or end up being cancelled. There is usually lower attendance in the summer months. April is a month with multiple additional HRRC events. Chair Bigbee moved to change the April regular meeting to April 29th, cancel the December meeting, and move the November televised meeting to a date to be determined after November 27th; seconded by Commissioner Davis. Motion carried. D. Review 2014 Work Plan and Assign a Leader for Each Initiative Chair Bigbee indicated that each initiative on the 2014 Work Plan needed to have a Commissioner assigned. The following Commissioners volunteered to serve:  Anti-Bullying Initiative: Commissioner Lagerstrom Edina Human Rights & Relations Commission Agenda Page 3  Community Outreach Initiative: Commissioners Bigbee and Davis  Special Needs Awareness Campaign: Commissioners Davis and Arseneault  Days of Remembrance Commissioners Seidman, Cashmore, and Winnick  Bias/Hate Crimes Response Plan: Commissioners Winnick and Cashmore  Tom Oye Award: Commissioner Winnick Chair Bigbee invited Commissioners departing the HRRC to continue their involvement on the initiatives as members of the public. Commissioners discussed partnering with the Edina Arts Board to have a Special Needs Awareness film featured at the Edina Film Festival. Plans for the three 2014 Days of Remembrance events are in motion. Residents have been reaching out to staff to get involved. Commissioner Winnick moved to remove Immigration Reform from the 2014 Work Plan; seconded by Commissioner Davis. The Commission discussed the relevance of keeping this item on the work plan. Commissioner Cashmore called the question; motion carried. Commissioners discussed adding a new 2014 initiative to the Work Plan involving relations between the HRRC and Edina School District. This will be added to the next meeting agenda. Commissioners raised questions regarding access to the City’s Enterprise Facilities, specifically Edinborough Park for families and children that cannot afford the entrance fee, when there are no other parks in the area. Manager Neal reported that the City Council had directed staff to stop the annual facility loss of $400,000; last year the facility broke even. Similar issues exist at the pool, golf course, etc. Patron numbers are increasing. Residents at Edinborough pay fees to support the facility. Commissioners asked Manager Neal to find out how the facility tracks usage and disperses scholarships. E. Gender Stereotypes Letters were sent by Edina High School students in English 10; Commission would be open to recommendations for action. Commissioners discussed taking up Women in Leadership on a future year’s work plan. F. Graffiti Incident Update Chair Bigbee referenced the reports included in the packet. Visits were made by HRRC Commissioners to leadership from different City departments. There had been past incidents of bias/hate crimes that had not been processed according to the Bias/Hate Crime Response Plan. Concerns were raised that the City does not properly handle incidents of bias/hate crime. Commissioner Winnick reported that the recommendation is to have all City departments adopt the approach currently used by the Parks and Recreation Department and provide annual compiled reports about instances of bias/hate crimes to the City Manager, HRRC and City Council. Commissioners discussed the relevance of the Bias/Hate Crime Response Plan and how to move forward. The Commission expressed dissatisfaction with how the Southview Middle School Graffiti Incident was handled. Additional concerns were raised about the role of the Police Department and Administration Department in determining the “victim” of a crime and the implications of not determining the community as a victim. Commissioners discussed modifying the recommendation for the Police Department. Edina Human Rights & Relations Commission Agenda Page 4 Commissioners noted that Police Chief Long resigned since the initial department visit, and that there will be an opportunity to work with the new Chief. In addition, Commissioners discussed the need to do additional training or engagement of Police Officers to ensure they are aware of the plan and the role of the HRRC, and implement the Bias/Hate Crime Response Plan correctly. Commissioner Kingston moved to review the recommendations specifically related to the Police Department and bring back for HRRC consideration at the February meeting; motion was seconded by Commissioner Winnick. Motion carried. Commissioner Cashmore abstained. VII. CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS Included in the packet. VIII. CHAIR AND COMMISSION MEMBER COMMENTS Commissioner Seidman clarified that the Tom Oye Award nominations would be coming to the Commission in February and that a decision would be made in March. Commissioner Winnick reported that applications are open until January 31, 2014 and that 4 applications had been received. Information was sent to every social service agency in South Hennepin County. Commissioner Lagerstrom reported that the Anti-Bullying event was planned for February 8th at 10:30am at the Edina Senior Center. Chair Bigbee responded to questions about a recent Sun Current letter to the editor included in the packet penned by 4 HRRC Commissioners. There was a letter of response sent to the City which is why the Commission was notified. The original Commissioners have since responded. Chair Bigbee will share a copy of the response letter with the Commission. Commissioners raised concerns that the letter appeared to represent the views of the HRRC as a whole, not the individual writers, because of how the paper printed the signatory line. IX. ADJOURNMENT Chair Bigbee declared the meeting adjourned at 9:32 PM. Respectfully submitted, ____________________________________ Annie Coyle, HRRC Staff Liaison Minutes approved by HRRC February 25, 2014 ____________________________________ Arnie Bigbee, HRRC Chair