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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-10-28 HRRC Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS & RELATIONS COMMISSION October 28, 2014 7:00 PM City Hall – Community Room I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Seidman called the meeting to order at 7:02pm. II. ROLL CALL Answering roll call were Commissioners Arseneault, Bigbee, Gates, Kennedy, Chair Seidman, Weinert, and Winnick. Staff present: Staff Liaison MJ Lamon. III. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Motion was made by Commissioner Winnick to amend the Regular Meeting Agenda of October 28, 2014 to add youth housing litigation to item VII. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Bigbee. Motion carried. IV. APPROVAL OF September 23, 2014 REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Amendment to item IV. to read Approval of August minutes Amendment to item IX. to read Winnick stated he would forward information about Edina Resource Center to commissioner Carter for consideration of a blog post. Commissioner Arseneault moved to approve the minutes as presented to the HRRC. Commissioner Kennedy seconded. Motion carried. V. COMMUNITY COMMENT Edina resident Sandy Berman attended the HRRC meeting. Mr. Berman’s comments were in effect to his October 10, 2014 correspondence to the HRRC asking about Columbus Day name replacement, affordable housing and the Edina Wikipedia entry changes being rejected on several occasions. Mr. Berman encouraged HRRC to urge the City Council to mandate affordable housing and policy change. He also requested the HRRC research who is rejecting the entry changes. Commissioner Winnick shared information on the historic timeline of Edina created by the HRRC located on our website. VI. GUEST PRESENTER: Bill Neuendorf, Economic Development Director, Grandview Redevelopment Citizen Engagement Plan The City of Edina sought to work with a partner to bring new light to the old Public Works City site. They are looking to create a project that has a public and private component. Neuendorf stated the process will begin in December. Thursday, December 4th is the target date for the public engagement process. This will be a six month process that includes working with residents in Edina for feedback on the best use of the property. VII. REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS A. Bias Offense Response Plan Update (Winnick) Commissioner Winnick shared approved changes that were made to the Plan. In addition to the approval of the Plan, City Council approved the recommendation to implement a process to City departments for reporting bias offenses. B. Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution Update (Kennedy/Lamon) Per direction of the City Council, the Indigenous Peoples Day resolution will be posted on Speak Up, Edina! to solicit resident feedback. Commissioner Kennedy had communication with Council member Sprague about resident comments opposed to changing the name of the day. Commissioner Kennedy commented some people in the community believe it is to dishonor Columbus, when in fact it is to honor indigenous people's day. Staff Liaison Lamon explained the Speak Up, Edina! process. The HRRC expressed interest in slowing down the process to reframe the message. Lamon and Kennedy will speak this week to review Speak Up, Edina! proposal. C. Televised Meeting: Finalize December Agenda (All) Chair Seidman presented the draft agenda for the televised December 11th meeting. HRRC agreed to ask Christie Nicoson from World Without Genocide to present. Commissioner Kennedy will present on Human Rights City Designation. HRRC would like to show the Tom Oye PSA. Lamon will ask the technology department if HRRC timeline can be shown on screen. The HRRC asked if they could get a pop-up sign version of this. Kennedy asked that a time breakdown be added to the agenda. Arseneault presented times on the agenda. The Commissioners agreed that the times looked good. D. Community Conversations Update (Bigbee/Davis) Bigbee shared that two working group meetings took place on October 6 and October 27. Minutes from each meeting were provided to Commissioners. The first meeting included a review of the process and the role of the volunteers. The second meeting was a training by the staff of The Advocates for Human Rights on how the group will conduct the listening sessions. Commissioner Bidgbee noted that the listening sessions will ask participants to answer two questions: (1) what are the qualities of a welcoming community; and (2) is Edina a welcoming community? Bigbee hopes to have the first session before the end of November. There has been one resignation from the working group. E. Youth Housing Litigation Commissioner Winnick discussed the Sun Current article about a private group suing the City of Edina for the Beacon 66th homeless youth housing facility rezoning decision. Chief Nelson reported to City Council that there is no increase in crime at the Beacon facility in South Minneapolis. Winnick read opposed reasons stated in the Sun Current. Winnick suggested we establish a monitoring committee to observe/watch/report events around youth housing and this lawsuit. Winnick volunteers to serve on the committee. It was noted a monitoring committee on housing status is consistent with our draft 2015 Work Plan which calls for the monitoring of the status of Edina affordable housing as a new initiative. Bigbee moved to establish a committee to monitor the status of Edina’s youth housing (including pending litigation). The motion was seconded by Kennedy. Motion carried. VIII. CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS Chair Seidman noted that Sandy Berman, the author of the October 10 letter we received, spoke about his correspondence during Community Comments; therefore we did not need to consider the correspondence further. IX. CHAIR, COMMISSION MEMBER, AND STUDENT COMMENTS A. Next Meeting: December 11, 2014 (Televised in Council Chambers) Commissioner Carter has resigned. A motion was made by Arseneault to have only one person on Nomination Committee. The motion was seconded by Bigbee. Motion carried. Commissioner Arseneault shared that she is volunteering for the Human Services Task Force. The Task Force has already had their first meeting. The second meeting is on October 29th to hear presentations from organizations. Commissioner Kennedy is creating a working group for Human Rights City; she stated that Commissioner Sanders is helping her. Commissioner Kennedy noted that much of the work the working group will do is education. She believes information from the Community Conversations listening sessions will be useful for the working group to choose what topics they will tackle. Motion was made by Winnick to create Human Rights City working group. The working group members shall include Colleen Feige and Leslie Lagerstrom. The motion was seconded by Arseneault. Motion Carried. Commissioner Winnick gave an update about the Edina Community Resource Center. Commissioner Weinert shared that the model UN topic this year is sex trafficking. Wagner shared that she attended a Gay Student Alliance; they are trying to do more outreach to Edina students to ensure Edina is a safe place for gay students. Commissioner Gates shared she is involved in Mock Trial. The case being examined is the murder of a homeless mother. X. STAFF COMMENTS Staff Liaison Lamon shared that the Vision Edina workshop for the Board and Commission members will be held on November 17th. A picture of the HRRC will be taken on December 11th at 6:45pm at City Hall. XI. ADJOURNMENT Motion was made by Commissioner Kennedy to adjourn the October 28th meeting, Arseneault seconded. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 9:02pm. Respectfully submitted, ____________________________________ MJ Lamon, HRRC Staff Liaison Minutes approved by HRRC December 11, 2014 ____________________________________ Jan Seidman, HRRC Chair