FERGUS FALL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Transcription

1 Members present: Nancy South, Richard Kagan, Jill Fazio, Bob Johnson Unable to attend: Maryjane Westra, Matt Hoekstra, Cindy Skalsky, Nancy Schuelke, Tim Jensen February 18 th, 2009 The meeting opened at 12:10 p.m. Jill Fazio was welcomed to the Commission after informing the group Mayor Leland had appointed her as a voting member of the. Ms Fazio currently works with our local United Way, and has an extensive history of supporting human rights, women s rights and other related efforts. Welcome, Jill! Richard had put together minutes from the January meeting in lieu of the Secretary s absence. Minutes were reviewed & approved without additions or corrections. First order of business was to review the document Bob received from Mayor Leland. It s basically a history of the Commission, which was originally called a Community Relations committee. Bob noted that term limits were originally set at 3 years in 1976, but amended in 1999 to just 2 years. Discussion followed and a general agreement was reached to inquire with the Mayor s office on the matters of term lengths, re-appointments, and appointing a City Council member to the Commission who has time available to attend the monthly meetings. China Night: Richard presented two receipts related to the event, including the invited guest, Professor Bill Huntzicker. The 2 receipts totaled $ Bob agreed to try & contact Maryjane so these invoices can be paid. Nancy briefed the group on the Great Debaters movie held last month on campus. She stated mostly students made up the audience, and a slightly higher number saw the preview earlier in the day on campus. Richard also presented information on a Human Rights related weekly newspaper article. He had talked with the Daily Journal, set up some guidelines and briefed the Commission on his intent. He indicated the Mayor & the Daily Journal were supporting his idea. Richard also requested a budget for books & references. The outline will be available to members not present at the March meeting. Discussion was held on the topic of submitting an annual report to the City Council & Mayor. No one was sure if that had been done at this point in time. Bob will determine if a report will need to be formatted to encompass 2008 events. Other topics addressed included trying to determine if the Commission has any authority in the City s grievance process or if we re basically a resource & referral entity, and if it s feasible for the Commission to do a web tv presentation on channel 1. Next meeting: Drafted and submitted by,

2 Members present: Nancy South, Richard Kagan, Jill Fazio, Bob Johnson, Cindy Skalsky, Nancy Schuelke Unable to attend: Maryjane Westra, Tim Jensen March 18 th, 2009 The meeting opened at 12:05 p.m. Secretary report: Bob had formatted and distributed Feb. meeting minutes. The group voted on a change in meeting times to 8:00 a.m. It was decided to keep meetings at a Noon start. Treasurer s report: Maryjane was not in attendance. Bob will contact her to see if she can attend the April meeting. Richard indicated he had been paid for his expenses related to China Night. Mayor Hal Leland took time to attend today s meeting. Bob Johnson had requested his attendance to assist the Commission in determining what issues or efforts the city of Fergus Falls would prefer to see addressed. Mayor Leland distributed some topics he deemed appropriate to review or report on, including: Inventory diversity issues at Hillcrest, MN-State and ISD #544. Community education on Human Rights and how to engage the community Staying abreast of local Human Rights at all times. Mayor Leland added that women and children are particularly at risk with increased unemployment and financial problems Submit minutes of all FFHRC meetings to Lynne Olson, who will route them to the Council Thanked Richard Kagan for his weekly Human Rights newspaper articles No funds will budgeted by the City for the FFHRC in 09 or the foreseeable future. o The Commission can utilize existing funds previously allocated o The FFHRC was the only entity funded by the City o Special funding could be feasible in the event a grant was accepted and required the City Administrator to serve in an administrative capacity o 2010 will most likely see additional cuts in services and possibly city staff A discussion by the Commission ensued after the Mayor s briefing and how to implement it. Nancy Schuelke shared her perception & experiences of being Hispanic in this and surrounding communities. Drafted and submitted by, Next meeting date: April 15 th, Noon at City Hall upstairs Council room

3 Members present: Nancy South, Richard Kagan, Jill Fazio, Bob Johnson, Maryjane Westra, Unable to attend: Tim Jensen, Cindy Skalsky, Nancy Schuelke April 15 th, 2009 The meeting opened at 12:05 p.m. Secretary report: Bob informed the group no March minutes had been formatted. He indicated that confusion over Matt s tenure with the group and the fact Matt was Secretary played into this. Bob will format the March minutes and distribute them soon. A decision was made that Secretarial duties will be rotated from meeting to meeting to facilitate this need. Treasurer s report: Maryjane gave a financial report, including: -$300 / MN State to subsidize The Great Debaters movie in February -$68.25 / dues, MN Human Rights Commission -$ / payment for the FFHRC banner Maryjane indicated the present balance in funds stands at $2, A discussion followed the report about fiscal resources and needs for additional funds, as well as reporting to the City of remaining fund usage. Additional funds could potentially come from grants, donations or some type of fundraising efforts by the Commission. Confusion on FFHRC term timelines remain. Bob stated he had no choice but to honor the 2 year terms described in the City s last statements on this matter. Maryjane indicated she would give the group plenty of lead time to find her replacement before she moves out of the area. She will also ask Mayor Leland to name a replacement for her seat on the Commission. Bob agreed to format an distribution list so FFHRC members can communicate readily. Nancy South distributed an agenda of events by C.A.C.T.U.S on campus, April 27, 30 th & May 1 st. Richard asked if she would also post this information in the Daily Journal. The Commission members agreed to format a set of questions to assist in implementing the Mayor s request to do an inventory of Human Rights related issues with FF educational institutions. These questions will be sorted and finalized at the May FFHRC meeting. Marjane suggested we include a couple of non-profits, the City and the Hospital in this inventory. The feasibility of following up with Survey Monkey for a more comprehensive feedback platform was also determined to be a viable addition to the initial inventory events. The MN HRC will also be asked if they have any type of interview tools already developed. Drafted and submitted by, Next meeting date: May 20 th, Noon at City Hall upstairs Council room

4 Members present: Richard Kagan, Cindy Skalsky Unable to attend: Tim Jensen,, Nancy Schuelke, Jill Fazio, Bob Johnson, Maryjane Westra, Nancy South, May 20 th, 2009 Note: No minutes were recorded at the May meeting. The following text was forwarded to me by the Commission s Vice-Chair, Richard Kagan. Cindy and her friend will be attending a seminar on cultural diversity and polling. They will prepare a poll for use in October. Please forward the following invitation to the Commission. Thanks. Mr. Kagan, I want you to know that the focus group in Fergus Falls (which we had to reschedule because of the floods) has been scheduled for June p.m. at our Fergus Falls office at 731 Western Ave. N. Please bring or invite other members of the Human Rights Council. I hope to see you there. Thank you. Judy Donohue, Senior Human Resources Manager Lutheran Social Service of MN / X253 judy.donohue@lssmn.org Formatted & submitted by, FFHRC

5 Members present: Jill Fazio, Bob Johnson, Nancy South Unable to attend: Tim Jensen,, Nancy Schuelke, Richard Kagan, Cindy Skalsky June 17 th, 2009 Meeting opened by Chair Bob Johnson at 12:00 p.m. without a quorum. Bob reviewed what he had been informed of about the content of the FFHRC May meeting, which none of those in attendance today had been able to attend. Bob stated he would put together a brief overview of the May meeting so something is on record that the meeting was held. Bob shared that Maryjane had dropped off a box of FFHRC items, but he could not find any financial related documents that addressed the current balance of the group. Nancy informed Bob that the account is in Bank of the West. Bob will follow up. No Treasurer was appointed, due to lack of a quorum. Bob also informed the group that Mayor Leland had called. Mr. Leland had fielded a call from the MN Human Rights Commission. The Mayor stated that this person indicated some funding, possibly a mini-grant, is available. Bob had followed up with phone calls to obtain more information on this. To date, no one had returned his calls. Nancy reported she had downloaded the MN HRC mission and value statements. The group agreed that reviewing that and formatting a new mission statement would be a good goal to achieve later this year. Please take a look at these statements via this link The FFHRC will not be meeting in July or August. Please send your survey questions to Bob. He will format a list of them to be discussed and the Commission will than choose which questions will be used for the community survey. Next official meeting date will be on Wednesday, September 16 th at Noon in the City Hall. Submitted by, Bob Johnson,

6 FF Human Rights Commission / September 16th, 2009 Members Present: Bob Johnson, Richard Kagan, Cindy Skalsky, Nancy South, Jill Fazio Other Attendees: Dawn Koennicke President Bob Johnson called the meeting to order. Previous minutes were approved. Nancy South reported there is $2, in the treasury. Discussion ensued regarding the survey that was requested by Mayor Leland. In his words from the June meeting he was looking for a Diversity Inventory. However the suggested questions centered more around Human Rights knowledge. It was decided that the survey would be administered to the following institutions: M State (Nancy), Walmart (Richard), Hillcrest (Bob), Hospital (Jill), Fergus Falls High School (Cindy). Questions also centered on whether the Fergus Falls Police Department should be included to have a government entity. It was decided that if one of the other groups declined then the Police Department would be asked. There was much discussion regarding who at each of these places should be surveyed it was decided that anyone with supervisory authority should be asked, including those who oversee student activities. Dawn Koennicke suggested that the results of the survey be published in the newspaper and for online print as a launching point for education about Human Rights. Cindy Skalsky also stated that there are 10 schools who participate in a Cultural Collaborative and are required to do a cultural inventory. They complete the ICS Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory. The meeting then focused on discussion regarding the questions. The following questions are a work in progress and should be reviewed by the city prior to administration. The commission agreed to review the questions and Jill Fazio with any further correspondence prior to the October meeting so she could also present them to the city beforehand. (See handout of survey) Cindy Skalsky spoke about the Confucius grant for ISD #544. It would include $30,000 plus start up money for 5 years. It is a grant to have Chinese students attend #544 and the first student will arrive next week. Bob Johnson shared that there is a school essay and poster contest for k-12 and the deadline is March 31, Richard will do an article regarding socialism and the history of that implication for his next article. Meeting adjourned. Respectfully Submitted Jill Fazio Human Rights Secretary