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Home My WebLink AboutMinutes Human Relations Commission - 06/06/2002 SUMMARY MINUTES:NON-QUORUM MEETING HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION MEETING June 6,2002 Commissioners-Present Commissioners-Absent Chairperson:Mr.Oscar Hinojosa, Sr. Vice Chair:Dr. Sylvester Peterson Ms.Laura Aguifaga Ms.Betty Black Dr. Stuart Elovitz Mr.Daniel Gonzales Mr.Richard"Dik"Johnson Ms.Wendy Lai Mr. Joey Maldonado Ms. Crystal Lyons Ms. Amy Rhoads Mr. Gustavo R Valadez Ortiz Mr.Errol Summerlin Ms. Stephanie Saenz Ms.Ruth Silva Ms.Nancy Vera Staff—Present HRC Legal Advisor-Present L.David Ramos Mr. Joseph Harney(Absent) Wanese Taylor Butler June Shultz The Human Relations Commission held an informal meeting, on June 6, 2002 at 5:00 p.m., in City Hall, 1201 Leopard St., Council Chambers, Corpus Christi, Texas. This meeting was a non-quorum meeting. The following are summary minutes of the meeting. ATTENDANCE: Roll Call—Absences: Dr. Peterson,Ms.Black,Mr. Gonzales, Ms. Lai,Ms. Lyons, Ms. Saenz, Ms. Silva, Dr. Valadez Ortiz and Ms.Vera. Excused Absence Requests:Not Applicable—no action could be taken. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: Unable to take action on May 2,2002 minutes. PUBLIC COMMENTS/PRESENTATIONS/INTRODUCTIONS: 1. Introductions: None at this time. 2. Presentation:None at this time. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: No report at this time. COMMITTEE REPORT Housing Committee: Commissioner Johnson has agreed to act as the new Chairperson for the Housing Committee. He e-mailed 7-8 members to schedule a meeting on the upcoming direction of the subcommittee. There are various issues under discussion. They will meet in the Human Relations Conference Room. Commissioner Johnson attended the monthly meeting of the Housing Coalition — discussion on going beyond the community ... multi-county organization. Commissioner Aguinaga suggested contacting Danny Noyola regarding the 1/8-cent sales tax issue. Commissioner Maldonado spoke with Mr. Noyola regarding the upcoming meeting about housing issues. There will be a Forward 1 QED Corpus Christi Meeting on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the Furman Building,regarding opposition to the new baseball field. The Chair cautioned the Commissioners about non-involvement in politics. The Chair introduced the new Assistant City Manager,Margie Rose and invited Ms.Rose to address the Commission. Ms. Rose gave the Commission a brief overview of her career background. The Commission welcomed her to the City. Committee for Persons with Disabilities:No report at this time. Education Sub-Committee:No report at this time. OLD BUSINESS: Reminder of the June 28th CCHRC Annual Training Conference. Registration Forms and Agendas were provided as handouts. Regarding those persons, who were going to be Moderators, please let Ms. Shultz know the time they would like to be scheduled. Also to let the Office know who would be attending the Conference. A memorandum was issued to City Staff and mail-outs were sent to the Chamber of Commerce members and various other entities. (NOTE: Moderator Schedule Information -Ms. Rhoads indicated 1:00 p.m.;Dik Johnson indicated 10:15 a.m.;Joey Maldonado indicated 3:00 p.m.) NEW BUSINESS: No Action Items. Dr. Elovitz mentioned Commissioner Lai's accomplishment of being Valedictorian of her class. He suggested the Commission send a letter of congratulations. Dr. Elovitz also mentioned Dr. Amatula's accomplishment and suggested a letter of congratulations. General discussion ensued. Dr. Elovitz mentioned including information on the Truancy Conference on the next Agenda. ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: Mr. Ramos provided the Administrator's Report. (Several handouts were distributed in advance of the meeting.) Mr. Ramos discussed the EEOC/I'hPA Conference he attended. He discussed the contract and the various time frames for the contract, production period, etc. He provided a statistical breakdown. The case age has gone down and is well within the contracting principle requirement. The production period is what determines next year's contract. Which runs from 6/1/01 —5/31/02. We had very good figures and staff has done a good job. ADA Report — statistics began in September. The Department addresses: enforcement, accommodation requests (i.e.: Solid Waste Services) (Mr. Ramos gave a brief background review); Technical Assistance (mainly to contractors);Public Meetings on Accessibilities—have held six, one more pending(being held from 6:00 p.m. —7:00 p.m. The purpose is to solicit information from the public regarding the ADA Transition Plan and Self-Evaluation Process, obtaining citizen comments and concerns.); ADA curb cut requests (the office is now receiving those requests); outreach and education (we've held twelve sensitivity training regarding People First Language and Diversity, as well as other training in previous months);we are continuing to schedule training. There was further review of the ADA report. Other misc. reports were reviewed (i.e.: 3rd Quarter Performance Measures Report). The Department's Training Calendar was provided for review. Mr. Ramos noted that training was being provided to Texas Workforce Commission, due to the number of referrals from their office to ours. Often they are erroneous referrals and are areas not within our jurisdictional authority. Training was being provided to educate their staff on types of referrals our office can address. The Chair asked Mr.Ramos if they were working on a new complaint form? Mr. Ramos indicated yes. He provided background information on concerns raised by the CFPWD. The Complaint Form would address Title II concerns and be a standardized process that all citizens or entities would use. They initially added the Citizen Grievance Process to the existing Human Resources Grievance Policy,because all information is disseminated from them. The CFPWD didn't feel it was the proper place for it. A committee was formed, which included the ACM, Human Relations Director, Human Relations 2 Analyst, and Legal Representative. They drafted the process and form. It is being reviewed by the City Manager. Once it is officially approved, it will be implemented and be beneficial in our area to address ADA Complaints and/or ADA Accommodation Requests. Mr. Ramos also briefly reviewed the information being received at the recent Public Meetings on Accessibility Issues. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Commissioner Summerlin, who represents Coastal Bend Legal Services, let the Commission know upcoming merger with Texas Rural Legal Aid(TRLA)at the end of the month. They will be merging with other entities to represent 68 counties and will be the largest Legal Aid in the country. They provide service to the poor, elderly, disenfranchised, etc. They will provide service to 1.4 million, have an $18 million dollar budget, utilize the services of 100 attorneys, etc. There was general discussion about specialty units, 20 different departments under 6 Department Heads. 20 practice areas with experts in them,with opportunity of co-counseling as teams,which will have a better impact. There are income and asset guidelines,as well as restrictions on types of cases that are handled. The Corporate Office is in West Loco. Commissioner Summerlin will be a Deputy Director. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:56 p.m. The next meeting will be held on July 11, 2002 in the Sixth Floor Conference Area of City Hall. Oscar Hinojosa, Sr.rehairperson Date 3