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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-03-25 HRRC Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS & RELATIONS COMMISSION March 25, 2014 7:00 P.M. I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Seidman called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. II. ROLL CALL Answering roll call were Commissioners Arsenault, Bigbee, Cashmore, Carter, Davis, Haeg, Harrington, Sanders, and Seidman. Staff present: MJ Lamon, Staff Liaison, and Annie Coyle, City Management Fellow. III. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Motion was made by Commissioner Arseneault to approve the meeting agenda of the March 25, 2014. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis. Motion carried. IV. ADOPTION OF MEETING MINUTES Motion was made by Commissioner Arseneault to approve the Regular Meeting Minutes of February 25, 2014; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis. Motion carried. V. COMMUNITY COMMENT None. VI. SPECIAL GUEST: Jennifer Bennerotte and Krystal Caron, Communications Department Chair Seidman introduced Jennifer Bennerotte and Krystal Caron from the Communications Department. Bennerotte provided an overview of available communication tools to assist Boards and Commissions. Multiple handouts were passed out to Commissioners and are included in the commission meeting record. Krystal Caron will be providing most of the support for the commission’s communication requests. Commissioners should work directly with Staff Liaison Lamon for all communications needs, including event planning and promotion. Communications staff is available to print and hang event flyers around town for $49.00. Any communications services that are not part of the communications work plan will be billed back to the commission. VII. REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS A. Bylaw Review/Conflict of Interest/Communications City Manager Scott Neal gave a PowerPoint presentation and covered information about city government and structure, duties of the HRRC, commission protocol, public meeting laws, and public meeting ethics. Edina is a Plan B Council-Manager city. The Council body may request action or provide direction to the HRRC, however, the HRRC does not take direction from a single member of Council. The HRRC must get Council approval to amend its workplan. Duties of the HRRC are outlined in the City Code. The City is currently working to determine how to implement electronic presence for official meetings. Working Group and Committees cannot have a quorum of the whole HRRC in attendance. Those groups are not staffed. Commissioners should not send group emails to each other, instead all emails should be sent via the staff liaison. Replying all to emails and corresponding with a group of commissioners via email may violate the Open Meeting Law. Individual commissioners may not speak on behalf of the HRRC without consent of the group. This is especially important with written correspondence. Staff Liaison Lamon passed out HRRC bylaws, information about Parliamentary Procedure and the Code of Ethics. B. Welcome New Members Chair Seidman asked the Commissioners to quickly introduce themselves and their passions. Staff Liaison Lamon captured commissioner passion information. C. General Work Plan Updates i. Community Outreach Working Group Commissioners Bigbee and Davis provided a written report to the Commission. Commissioner Bigbee reported that the training completed with the Advocates for Human Rights was used hundreds of times last year. Edina is the first community to take on this initiative separate from the One Voice Minnesota report. Bigbee has been invited to speak at the Advocates press conference at the State Building. He will find out more information from the Advocates and work with Communications staff to prepare, if appropriate. The Working Group will continue to meet and determine next steps to engage more people, including members of the different faith communities, business community, and school district. The Working Group will provide an update at the April meeting. ii. Days of Remembrance Chair Seidman reported that links for the public service announcements and information was sent to the Commission. She invited all commissioners to attend. Staff Liaison Lamon provided copies of the event flyers for commissioners to take and hang up around town. D. Shared Board/Commission Blog Staff Liaison Lamon reported that the commission needs to decide if HRRC will participate in the shared blog, as well as which commissioner would be responsible for ensuring content when it’s HRRC turn. Commissioner Arseneault moved to appoint Commissioner Carter as the HRRC representative for the shared blog; motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis. Motion carried. E. Review subcommittee/ working groups/liaisons standing positions Management Fellow Coyle and Staff Liaison Lamon reported that the commission needs to have a record of which commissioners are serving on boards or groups outside of HRRC, and what the group does, term, and how appointment happens. Staff passed out an updated document, but there is still missing information. Commissioners were asked to provide information about groups that they know of, or serve on, to Lamon before the next meeting. Chair Seidman reminded commissioners to be thinking of which new members they can train/orientate to the groups before their terms expire. VIII. CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS Included in the packet. IX. CHAIR, COMMISSION MEMBER, AND STUDENT COMMENTS i. Chair Seidman reported that she went to Taste of Southview and was able to learn a great deal and taste a variety of foods. She also attended Energy and Environment Commission (EEC) which also has an Outreach Working Group. They are showing a movie about bees next week. Commissioner Davis reported that EEC is showing a movie monthly. ii. Commissioner Arseneault attended the Outreach Working Group Training Session and was impressed by the trainer. iii. Commissioner Harrington reported that Edina HS Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) is talking with Southview GSA about working together, and potentially helping Valley View create a GSA Group. iv. Commissioner Haeg reported that she was part of a survey to decide if the schools should remodel how grades are structured. X. STAFF COMMENTS i. The HRRC April meeting will be immediately following the Annual Volunteer Awards Reception April 29 at 7:15pm at Braemar Clubhouse. Staff passed around a sign up to attend the Volunteer Reception where the Tom Oye Award will be presented. ii. Staff was presented with an anti-bullying proposal by a member of the community. Bob Haben created ‘Be Better Today’, an anti-bullying initiative targeted for the schools. The commission has already completed its anti-bullying initiative workplan for 2014. Commissioners suggested that he present his initiative to the school district. iii. A Human Rights City proposal was included as part of correspondence in the packet. Staff and Chair Seidman met with Jessie Wyatt and learned that Edina meets all UN criteria to become a UN recognized Human Rights City. Staff will do some additional research and report back to the Commission in May. iv. Mayor’s Award Nominations are open and Commissioners are invited to submit nominations. Staff has nomination forms available. v. A draft HRRC 2014 roster was provided to commissioners. Commissioners are only required to have one public means of contact, either phone or email. Commissioners can choose to provide both. vi. Staff Liaison Lamon provided a handout on Google Groups, which is an information sharing platform for the group. All HRRC Commissioners are already enrolled in the group and will automatically receive all posts. If commissioners want to see the history of the account, they need to sign in. vii. Although there are no recent updates to the Resource File, staff reminded commissioners that the file is located in their office and that Commissioners submit articles and pieces of information they think other commissioners may be interested in reading. Commissioners can contact either Coyle or Lamon to come to City Hall and see the files. XI. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Davis moved adjournment; seconded by Commissioner Bigbee. Chair Seidman declared the meeting adjourned at 9:20PM. Respectfully submitted, ____________________________________ MJ Lamon, HRRC Staff Liaison Minutes approved by HRRC April 29, 2014 ____________________________________ Jan Seidman, HRRC Chair