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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Human Relations Commission - 03/07/2002 SUMMARY MINUTES—QUORUM MEETING HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION MEETING March 7,2002 Commissioners-Present Commissioners-Absent Chairperson:Mr.Oscar Hinojosa, Sr. Dr. Stuart Elovitz Vice Chair:Dr. Sylvester Peterson Mr.Daniel Gonzales Ms.Laura Aguinaga Mr.Richard"Dik"Johnson Ms.Betty Black Ms. Amy Rhoads Mr.Joey Maldonado Ms. Wendy Lai Ms. Crystal Lyons Ms. Stephanie Saenz Mr.Errol Summerlin Ms.Nancy Vera Staff—Present HRC Legal Advisor—Absent L.David Ramos Mr.Joseph Harney June Shultz The Human Relations Commission held its Regular Monthly Meeting on February 7, 2002 at 5:00 p.m., in City Hall, 1201 Leopard St., Council Chambers, Corpus Christi, Texas. This meeting was a quorum meeting. The following are summary minutes of the meeting. ATTENDANCE: Roll Call—Absences:Dr.Elovitz,Mr. Gonzales,Mr.Johnson,and Ms.Rhoads. Excused Absence Requests: Betty Black (ill) and Joey Maldonado (business conflict). A Motion was made by Commissioner Summerlin and seconded by Commissioner Aguinaga to reflect the absences as excused,vote was taken and passed unanimously. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: Commissioner Summerlin indicated that the reference to Carroll and Moody did not accurately reflect the entire discussion. He made a motion that Page 2, Line 15 sentence be stricken. Additionally, beginning with Line 19, Chair.... Continuing through to Line 24 should be stricken. All that needs to be reflected is that we visited the schools. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Vera. General discussion followed. A vote was taken. The motion to strike the designated wording was approved, with one abstaining vote by Commissioner Valadez Ortiz. Commissioner Summerlin made a motion to accept the minutes as amended, seconded by Commissioner Lyons. A vote was taken and the motion passed. PUBLIC COMMENTS/PRESENTATIONS: None. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: The Chair mentioned a Caller Times article that appeared in the January 5, 2002 issue, regarding racial profiling. He spoke with Sylvia Gomez,who indicated that there is a policy in place. Copies of the policy were provided to Mr.Ramos. He will distribute copies of it at the next meeting. At the last meeting there was discussion of the powers of the Commissioners. It was requested that Mr.Harney provide information on that authority at the next meeting. 1 SCAN NED COMMITTEE REPORT Housing Committee: Commissioner Maldonado discussed meeting with the Housing Coalition. Mr.Ramos met with them on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming Fair Housing Seminar, scheduled for April 17th . They hope to finalize details this week. It will be held at the Bayfront Convention Center. Mr.Ramos has contacted Secretary Martinez's Office to request his presence as the Keynote Speaker, but they have not received confirmation yet. A possible alternate Keynote Speaker is the Regional Director from the Ft. Worth HUD Office. Several people are lined up. Topics to be touched upon are mortgages, banking, lending, disability issues,etc. They will have a speaker from the San Antonio HUD Office, and Mr.Ramos will also be participating. The Seminar will tentatively be held from 9:00 a.m.—4:30 p.m. Some speakers have confirmed, and some are pending. They anticipate having an Agenda and Brochure by March 15`s. The Council of Governments(Richard Bullock's Office)will be handling the registration. We're handling arrangements for the Bayfront Convention Center. This is a joint endeavor with COG, HCD, Human Relations, ACI and the Housing Coalition. It is anticipated that the registration fee will be $30.00 per person. The fee includes registration and lunch. The next Housing Coalition meeting is scheduled for March 19,2002 at 10:30 a.m.,to be held at COG Office on Leopard St. Committee for Persons with Disabilities: Commissioner Crystal Lyons indicated that the CFPWD met yesterday. A PSA is being worked on. Last Friday, they met with Ted Nelson and Lee Sausley for interview information and taping for viewing on Access Channel 10. The PSA will cover"People First" language and information on Human Relations. It will be up a ten (10) minute segment. CFPWD is suppose to hear from the City Manager on the City's ADA Grievance Procedure. It was postponed from this month due to his attendance of a funeral. There seems to be a problem about the application of the grievance process, and they are trying to work through that. The Transportation Plan is coming along— some members going to randomly look at what's being turned in. (Ms. Lyons provided background information to the new Commissioners.) However,the big thing that is most exciting is the infomercial for ADA awareness. Chair Hinojosa asked Ms. Lyons to explain the history of the CFPWD, evolving from the prior Mayor's Task Force, which was an informal group. A new ordinance was established to develop the Committee, which was approved by the City Council. Education Sub-Committee: Commissioner Aguifiaga provided background information for the new Commissioners. They are presently working on education outreach of High School and Middle School. They've held two meetings since the last Commission meeting. Commissioner Aguifiaga provided handouts on the first meeting and reviewed the information with the Commissioners. The second meeting was held with Cynthia Wilson-Ferris of CCISD. There was discussion on their main focus—teen dropout rate. Suggestions were discussed. Information was taken from the initial meeting. Ms. Wilson-Ferris was in favor of the proposal. There was discussion that the Youth Summit would be a weekend event. She wanted to speak with Administration and would get back in touch with us. Ms. Wilson-Ferris also mentioned a Diversity Meeting, chaired by Sam Kane that she participates with. She suggested coordinating this with the Diversity Group,to put on the Youth Summit. Ms. Lyons asked how the event would be funded? Commissioner Aguifiaga indicated that we would solicit sponsors, which is how prior summits have been funded. Ms. Lyons asked if the Diversity Group was NCCJ?Commissioner Aguifiaga didn't know. Ms. Lyons indicated she thought that it might be NCCJ. She suggested that we include NCCJ. Chair Hinojosa asked Commissioner Aguifiaga to review the names of the Education Sub- Committee for the new Commissioners. Commissioner Aguifiaga is the Chair, other members include: Wendy Lai, Stephanie Saenz,Daniel Gonzales,Nancy Vera,with City Staff support by David Ramos, John Broomfield and June Shultz. There was discussion about Youth Commissioners. Chair Hinojosa asked if they were trying to get potential Youth Commissioners from other schools? City staff support send letters out to each High School in all the local School Districts seeking applications for Youth Commissioners. Appointments are made by the Mayor and City Council. Chair Hinojosa asked how the present Commissioners found out about it. Commissioner Lai indicated that one of the School Counselors approached the top ten students. Commissioner Saenz indicated that she learned about the Commission from Dr. Elovitz at a YOU meeting. Applications need to be sent to the City Secretary's Office. Regarding the Youth Summit,Ms. Wilson-Ferris indicated that she wanted to be involved in sharing of the 2 information to the students. It could go through Counselors or the Principal. Commissioner Saenz said it would be better to send the letters to the Counselors. Ms. Lyons expressed a concern to ensure that we consider the other local school districts. Commissioner Vera mentioned that when distributing the information,it would be good to also consider distributing the information to teachers. A tentative date for the Youth Summit is October 2002. Commissioner Aguifiaga discussed holding dry run outreach meetings at Ray High School. Commissioner Aguinaga made a motion that the Commission accept the recommendations (Items 1 — 4) submitted by the Education Sub-Committee, and was seconded by Vice Chair Peterson and Commissioner Maldonado. Discussion ensued. A question was raised about how the survey would be distributed. Commissioner Aguifiaga indicated that it would be handed out after each training to obtain feedback. Commissioner Maldonado indicated that we should specify all the school districts for future reference. Commissioner Aguifiaga indicated that we were only starting out with CCISD, but would continue with all the school districts. Vice Chair Peterson proposed that they should spend a day on college campuses, such as Del Mar. Vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously. Commissioner Aguifiaga mentioned that tentatively the initial education outreach efforts would be held at Ray, Carroll and Moody High Schools. OLD BUSINESS: Transition Plan —Ms. Lyons and Mr. Ramos provided an update. We are at the stage of Committee members coming in to look at what's been brought in. The Core Group meeting, presenting the information to the City Manager and the Public Forum to obtain input from the public. Eventually they will bring the information to the Mayor and City Council. FY 2002-2003 Budget—The Human Relations Department is now in the first phase of looking at next year's budget issues, revenue estimates, expenditures and putting information together to present to the Assistant City Manager,Deputy City Manager,City Manager,Mayor and Council. In the past, it has been brought to the Commission's attention and we ask for the Commission's input on upcoming projects, issues, concerns for the budget. Once the City Manager has reviewed the Budget information, it is prepared to go before the Mayor and City Council. We will also be including supplemental budget proposals this year. We can't provide the same level of service at last year's budget,due to increased levels of responsibilities. We need to add new staff. Commissioner Valadez Ortiz asked Mr. Ramos to provide previous budget information for the past five years. Mr. Ramos agreed to provide it — he will have it mailed out to the Commissioners prior to the next meeting. NEW BUSINESS: At next month's meeting,the Deputy City Manager,Mr. Noe, will provide a report on the EEOC contract. We are presently at the six month's stage. He will discuss production issues, the average case age and provide a brief presentation looking at the present contractyear,production phase and next year's contract. Commissioner Valadez Ortiz asked if EEOC requirements do not apply to the Commission. Mr. Ramos clarified jurisdiction issues for the new Commissioners. New Commissioners Training—Mr. Ramos asked the new Commissioners to call the Human Relations Department to schedule an appointment time to share information and training with the new Commissioners and/or any interested Commissioners. General discussion on scheduling the training and anticipated time duration. ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: Mr.Ramos provided the Administrator's Report and reviewed the information. Commissioner Silva asked how the contract figures were determined? Mr. Ramos explained the "Production Phase",which is the period of time that is used to arrive at numbers of production of intakes and case resolutions for the previous year. The production phase runs from June through May and a formula is used to determine what your next year's contract will be. The City Human Relations Department is a FEPA (Fair Employment Practice Agency). The EEOC-San Antonio Regional District 3 f`. 1 Office looks at our allocations. We receive $50.00 per intake and $500.00 per case resolution. Chair Hinojosa asked about the HUD funding. Mr. Ramos explained that HUD has entered into a three year Interim Agreement with us, to allow us to become "Substantially Equivalent'. We are in the Capacity Building Phase of developing a Fair Housing Program that is "substantially equivalent" to HUD's. We receive a flat fee of $115,000.00 per year, for three years. We are obtaining the necessary computer equipment,training,and becoming proficient in handling HUD procedures and investigative process. Commissioner Valadez Ortiz asked if one of the tasks of the Commission is to provide education and training in the City of Corpus Christi. Mr.Ramos indicated yes. PUBLIC COMMENTS: During the Public Comments segment, introductions were shared by all attendees for the new Commissioners. Commissioner Vera asked Mr. Ramos if the information was resent to CCISD? Had he obtained information on the Grievance Procedure? Mr. Ramos indicated that he bad not received information form CCISD. He spoke with Dr. Chavez and Robert Garcia is suppose to provide the information. He will provide a copy of the information once it is received. Commissioner Vera asked to have this issue (Information Request) placed on next month's Agenda, under Old Business, for discussion and possible action. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Valadez-Ortiz made a Motion to Adjourn,which was seconded by Commissioner Lyons. A vote was taken to Adjourn and passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at approximately 6:30 p.m. /Ao4// � Oscar Hinojosa, S e,Chairperson Date 4