CITY OF LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA

Transcription

1 COMMISSIONERS President: Rosa Russell 1 st Vice President: Dr. Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, Ph.D. 2 nd Vice President: Mark Rothman Members: Leni I. Boorstin Daniel Campos Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca Courtney Morgan-Greene James Herr Nirinjan Singh Khalsa Irene Tovar CITY OF LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA Housing + Community Investment Department Human Relations Commission CITY HALL, ROOM N. SPRING STREET LOS ANGELES, CA (213) Fax: (213) Executive Director : Patricia M. Villasenor patricia.villasenor@lacity.org ERIC GARCETTI MAYOR HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION MINUTES August 10, noon 2 p.m. 200 N. Spring Street, City Hall 10 th Floor, Room 1060 Los Angeles, California I. CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL Meeting was called to order by President Russel at 12:13 p.m. Commissioners Present: Rosa Russell Mark Rothman Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca Nirnjan Singh Khalsa Commissioners Absent: Daniel Campos James Herr Dr. Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, Ph.D Leni I. Boorstin Irene Tovar II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Tabled for the next meeting since quorum was not met. PUBLIC COMMENT ON ITEMS NOT LISTED ON THE AGENDA James Wen made a public comment asking the commissioners for support for a pledge called Transform California that is hosted at City Hall for support to the transgender community. W.S. commented on his attendance at the Transgender Advisory Council. III. IV. COMMISSIONERS REPORT 1. Protocol Procedures 2. Committee Assignments 3. Review and Sign Letter for City Council Tabled the above items since quorum was not met. PROJECT UPDATES 4. Race Relations Status Report

2 Patricia Villasenor explained that this in progress and need to meet with both partners, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). Currently, the team is looking for dates in September to canvass the regions to get an idea of the baselines of the area. 5. Indigenous People Day Update Ms. Villasenor explained that the team is working with Commissioner Salgado-Rivera and his colleagues to draft this report and currently speaking with council offices to give them a projection of the timeline. Francisco Ortega started off by apologizing for the miscommunication regarding the monthly commission meeting and this agenda item. He explained that this is a meeting that occurs every month for commission updates and this item will be reoccurring until a decision has been made. The next hearing will be in fron of Parks, Arts, and Rivers committee. It is the council s decision on whether it will replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People s Day. The HRC report will include history and the communities input, not a recommendation. It is to present history and what has been historically done. On July 26 th, Francisco facilitated an Indigenous People s Day Dialogue. It was a very well attended event by both the Italian-American community and the Indigenous community. This was the first opportunity for both of them to come together to share. It was an intense and expressive dialogue. The next meeting is to be determined, with a bigger venue, better agenda and more guided questions. President Russell stated that the elected officials need to be aware of what is happening and having their representations at these dialogues. PUBLIC COMMENT: Ann Potenza, president of Federated Italo-Americans, explained that the dialogue was wonderful to start the conversation but it is a conversation with many layers. The Italian-American community is involved because of Columbus s ethnicity but it is also larger scale and hopes to invite others to this dialogue (European colonization). The Italian-American community supports Indigenous People Day as it stands in the motion; however, opposes the decision to replace Columbus Day. She noted that Native American Heritage Day was made as the 4 th Friday of November and that could be the national holiday date. Angela Mooney D Arcy started with explaining that they are on the Tongva nation. She stated that she would like to have outside facilitation for the upcoming dialogues and possibly hold debates versus dialogues. There is an issue for the Indigenous People community with Columbus day because of who it represents. Eric Q made a public comment by explaining his history: ancestors came from Southeast Mexico and is a member of an Indian movement. He quoted councilmember O Farrell, it s not intent or diminish, but record Columbus never set foot on US He said that as an educator, it is a big issue because education is centered on euro-centric point of view. He has students that are indigenous and do not even know it. He could get in trouble for teaching the indigenous history. Mr. Torabian commented that the genocide that made the indigenous community victims should not be celebrated. It is shameful that there is a discussion on this and talking about the destructions and alienation of a group of people. It is painful that they are on Tongva territory. Creating an Indigenous People s Day is cool but it is not a priority of his and hopes that his descendants are not surrounded by people who celebrate Columbus Day/genocide. 6. Law Enforcement Interaction with Women and Girls Status Update

3 Ms. Villasenor informed the commission that this is in suspension for the moment as the team is deciding on how to move forward with this issue by looking to see what other cities have done so it is not replicated. Also, want to create a more focused group. 7. Youth Ambassador Program: Status & Reason for Suspension FY During the month of August is usually when the Youth Ambassadors would be introduced to the board but, unfortunately, there is no more money to support this program. Until the program is funded, it will be in suspension. The past fundraising efforts have helped a total of 90 ambassadors for 6 years. Without funds, the commission also can not plan and host the annual Iftar event or any other events. Part of the agenda for Strategic Planning meeting will include fundraising and have it be a pivotal issue to sustain community based programming. President Russell suggested writing and sending a letter informing the councilmembers of the lack of funding so they can hopefully support to locate the funds. Commissioner Rothman volunteered to draft a letter and also recommended having all the commissioners call city council regarding the issue. V. CITY HRC STAFF RELOCATION UPDATE 8. Relocation Update Ms. Villasenor explained that the move is about 85% complete with only a couple of big items still at City Hall. Anticipating about another 2 weeks for the move to be 100% completed. VI. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 9. Muralizando Partnership Item tabled since Commissioner Campos was absent. 10. City HRC Response to Recent Officer Involved Shootings & Black Lives Matter Mr. Ortega explained that an officer involved shooting occurred yesterday, August 9 th, which killed a 14- year old boy in Boyle Heights. There is debate whether or not the child had a gun during the incident; however, Mr. Ortega spoke to the owner of a store near the shooting that claimed that a gun was discovered outside the store s door. The community is upset with the violence occurring in the community while the media sheds more light on police violence (shows two different narratives). The team will continue to work with partners regarding this issue. President Russell has noticed that there is much more graffiti in communities now than ever. Mr. Ortega explained that there has been a 30-40% increase of gang violence across the city. Ms. Villasenor talked about how studies have shown an increase on hate crimes and violence since the start of the election campaigns. Mr. Ortega stated that the team is trying to work with the Black Lives Matter group and bring them to the table for discussion but, unfortunately, those efforts have been unsuccessful. Melina Abdullah, spokesperson for the group, refuses to sit with the Mayor because she wants him to come down to speak to the group. Mayor Garcetti has been open to sit and discuss with them but no luck yet. Recently, the group submitted 9,000 signatures to fire LAPD Chief Beck. The commission wondered what solution firing Chief Beck would provide. VII. TRANSGENDER ADVISORY COUNCIL (TAC) 11. Review of Minutes and Agenda 12. TAC Monthly Status Update Report Shirin Buckman gave an overview of the 5 different committees: Data Collection Committee

4 The council collected more than 200 surveys that asked for demographics and needs assessments. The committee recently completed a draft analysis that Ms. Buckman will send to the commissioners. TAC will work with the Williams Institute to get local statistics as they just released a study. The committee is also working with O Farrell s office regarding a pending resolution which asks the Census Bureau to add a transgender count on the next census. Job/Employment Committee The Council hosted a job fair that had 130 participants. All the employers were trained before the fair. The committee will work with Economic & Workforce Development Department (EWDD) to see if they can jointly host a job fair. The council is currently working with the Personnel and the Mayor s office to add a transgender option on job applications. Voter Empowerment Committee TAC is partnering with Elite Women Voters to host a Know your Rights event regarding voting on November 8 th. Law Enforcement Committee Assistant Chief Girmala will talk about the implementation of the 2012 LAPD Policy (Bulletin 1.12) at the next meeting that talks about interaction with transgender individuals. Housing Committee At the last meeting, the council met for Strategic Planning and created the housing committee. The Voter Empowerment and Data Collection committees will be debunked; however, surveys will still continue to be distributed. 13. Discussion on Amending the LA Municipal Code to de-criminalize topless sunbathing on Venice Beach Melissa Diner serves on the Venice Neighborhood Council for the last 4 years and brought this topic for discussion. She explained that CODE LA Municipal chapter 17.3 Beaches specifically calls for female areolas. VIII. NEW BUSINESS 14. LA City Homeless Strategy Plan Presentation Alisa Orduna, Homelessness Policy Director, stated that the $64.8 million is actually a one time fund and seeking for new revenue services. The City Homeless Budget Flow: the general fun is $64.8 million and $47 million is from selling and the resale of properties. Ms. Orduna explained that one of the challenges of tenant-based is the discrimination of not wanting to accept section-8 vouchers. President Russell asked if there is a special project on getting tenants to agree. Ms. Orduna explained that they have landlord incentives like providing them with a security deposit and giving them holding-fees, rental fee for the month to hold it for a possible renter. The county is taking a lead on this initiative as they are the ones that provide most services. Looking at the people that are homeless for prediction and one result is to raise wages. LA Rise-Social Enterprise Program provides non-traditional work opportunities. Tensions within neighborhoods are high due to homelessness. The team is looking at those living on the streets and having communities to agree to bring services to their neighborhood. There is an ordinance currently in place to share the public areas: the sidewalks should be clear and it calls for limitations of items on the street. There is only 1 storage facility in DTLA right now. President Russell asked if they are looking for locations to take people off the freeways. Ms. Orduna explained what New York City is doing. They have a program called Right to Shelter but people are getting stuck there for about 2-3 years so the City of LA is looking for more permanent housing. One of the problems is that people do not want to go to shelters; we can t force homeless people into a shelter. We

5 need to be having and opening up more conversations for deeper outreach. The strategy plan is to expand outreach and case management services; the city now has 50. Want to get the message out and have the homeless community feel safe, welcomed and relaxed when coming to shelters. Commissioner Khalsa questioned if they are relaxing the regulations for churches within the homeless strategy plan. Ms. Orduna answered that yes they are. For housing, they are extending the shelter crisis and having a council motion make it a one year around program. The churches will still have to register and meet the fire-code requirements. Commissioner Rothman asked about programs working with victims of domestic violence. Abigail Marquez answered stating that the housing department (HCID) does manage the domestic violence programs and is currently collaborating with LAHSA to ensure the protection of the victims, which mostly are homeless. The Mayor s office conducted a study to look at the gaps and found that there are only 9 shelters. There is a need of more domestic violence shelters. Commissioner Rothman asked on what is rapid rehousing? Ms. Orduna explained that it s looking at different factors including IQ level, prior employment, etc. to see where to house the homeless person. An example is finding a shelter/housing that will provide the correct services to become stable for someone with a lower iquity and sleeping in a car. Commissioner Dela Cruz-Viesca expressed her concern that most of these strategies are short-term programs and this is an on-going problem. Priority is given to families and children; however, most homeless people in LA are single adults. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 2:22 p.m.