COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS MINUTES JULY 23, 2013 Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) Hearing Room 2550 Ventura Ave., Room Santa Rosa, CA 95403 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gabriel Baum, Gail Jonas, Ramon Meraz, Judy Rice (Chair), Faith Ross, Sam Salmon, Art Warmoth, Ann Zimmer COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Gina Channell-Allen (Officer-at-Large), Evelyn Cheatham (Vice-Chair), Christopher Kerosky Chris Rohde, Dmitra Smith (Officer-at-Large) JR. COMMISSIONERS: None STAFF PRESENT: Laurie McQueen GUEST SPEAKERS: None I. CALL TO ORDER INTRODUCTIONS: Chair Rice called the meeting to order at 5:30 P.M. and read the Commission Mission Statement. Commissioners spoke about their feelings regarding the Zimmerman acquittal. II. CONSENT ITEMS: Approval of July 23, 2013 Agenda. Motion to approve amended agenda to allow for an additional 20 minutes for Announcements. Motion: Commissioner Zimmer Second: Commissioner Warmoth AYES: 7 NOES: 0 ABSENT: 5 ABSTAINED: 0 Approval of June 25, 2013 Draft Minutes. Warmoth gave revisions to Staff for the drafted minutes. Motion to approve amended draft minutes. Motion: Commissioner Baum Second: Commissioner Salmon AYES: 5 NOES: 0 ABSENT: 5 ABSTAINED: 2 III. IV. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDIZED ITEMS: None ANNOUNCEMENTS: Chair Rice announced Laurie McQueen will no longer be supporting the Commission as Staff support. Rice and the Human Rights Commissioners extended their thanks to Laurie for all her hard work over the past 18 months and wished her the best. Chair Rice informed the Commission that Harry Troutt, a former CHR member, passed away at the age of 77. Mr. Troutt was active in several joint ventures with Reverend Coffee involving the Human Rights Awards in Sonoma County. The Commission honored his service. Supporting Materials Note: Supporting materials related to an item on the Agenda and referred to in the Minutes are available for public inspection between 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM, Monday through Friday at 575 Administration Drive, 116B, Santa Rosa, CA 95403. Phone: (707) 565-2693; Fax: (707) 565-3770; E-mail: chr@sonoma-county.org; www.sonomacountyhumanrightscommission.org
Rice spoke about a memo received from Christina Cramer regarding the CHR s ability and license to fundraise for the Commission. The instructions essentially dictate that the Commission may fundraise with specific permission from the Board of Supervisors, potentially involving an amendment to our biennial plan. Rice will report back when she has more information regarding this topic. Rice announced there will be an Action Sheet will be distributed after each monthly meeting. The goal is for Commissioners to act on their items before each meeting and report back to the Commission. Rice mentioned that if anyone foresees a problem with completing their action to contact the one of the Officers. Chair Rice mentioned that she will be driving up to Eureka to address the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission on September 5 th. She will discuss with them CHR activities and events. Rice will be attending an 8-week Citizens Academy with the Sheriff s Department starting the first week in August. This course is held to educate citizens about the workings of the Sheriff s Department and to become more involved. V. OPENINGS AND APPOINTMENTS: Currently there are two openings, one each in the Second and Fourth Districts. VI. VII. SUPERVISOR COMMUNICATION UPDATES: Nothing to report. NEW BUSINESS: CHR Website Development Commissioner Channell-Allen and Chair Rice had a meeting to discuss ideas about a new format for the CHR County webpage. The current website is not user friendly and not very inviting. The Media Committee plans on speaking with the County ISD Department to see if the CHR can have the CHR webpage link to an outside website. Rice asked Warmoth and Kerosky to recruit an Intern or Volunteer who is web-savvy to construct a new webpage. Commissioner Meraz mentioned he may know someone and will get back to Rice with the information. International Human Rights Day 12/10/13 Chair Rice discussed that Warmoth and Rohde will be constructing a Resolution before December 10 th for the International Human Rights Day and possibly present to the Board of Supervisors. Rice requested that the Commissioners share their ideas about other ways we can recognize this day. CAHRO Conference (California Human Relations Organization) Chair Rice discussed CHR s participation in the first Northern California CAHRO Conference on September 27 th in San Francisco from 10:00 am 3:00 pm at the Trans American building. Rice has had discussions with Ann Noel who is in charge of this event, and they would like the Sonoma County CHR to be featured speakers at this conference, highlighting current activities including Sonoma Counter Points and Talking Points; Junior Commission, and Immigration and our museum project. Rice requested Commissioners to share their ideas on what CHR should speak about and forward to the Commission Staff for next month s discussion. Rice requested that Commissioners notify her if they plan on attending. We would like for the Jr. Commissioners to attend as well. Newsletter Chair Rice and Channell-Allen discussed a CHR email Newsletter and they felt that with the several events coming up, a newsletter would not be as effective as other forms of media. Zimmer suggested that the CHR announcements could be a part of the CHR Facebook page. Warmoth suggested we look at the webpage with the idea that whoever works on the webpage can also structure and maintain the newsletter. His suggestion was for us to look at the media package more holistically to come up with different mediums of publicizing CHR news. Rice agreed to put this item on the agenda for August for further discussion and a vote. CHR Commission Minutes_S:CHR_CSW\CHR\CHR Commission meeting\agenda & Minutes Page 2
VIII. OLD BUSINESS: Prosecutorial Discretion at ICE Commissioner Warmoth provided a handout with information regarding this item that will be attached to the minutes, and he suggested we have a discussion led by Commissioner Kerosky in August. Warmoth suggested we consider having Kerosky as the guest speaker to fully discuss this item in the format of a public hearing. He also suggested we invite other interested parties to attend the meeting to share their views and input. All were in favor of having Kerosky speak. DREAM Act Commissioner Warmoth requested this item be moved to August when Kerosky is present. Budget Chair Rice will discuss proposed expenses under another project. AB 1234 Public Service Ethics Training Online training is available at: http://localethics.fppc.ca.gov/login.aspx. Staff announced who is due within the next month to complete their Ethics Training, and will provide an updated spreadsheet for the Commissioners each month. Commissioner Meraz will need to complete his Ethics training by the end of August. UPDATES FROM OFFLINE COMMITTEE MEETINGS Coordination Community Outreach (Channell-Allen, Meraz) - Speakers Bureau (Rice, Channell-Allen) Rice mentioned she and Channell-Allen discussed the parameters and structure of the Speakers Bureau. The purpose of this outreach is for the Commission to become more visible informing the public about the CHR, and engage the community with human rights issues. Potential speakers will be vetted. We have already made contact with the Press Democrat and are in the process of contacting other media centers to participate. Some of the topics of discussion will be: CHR Generic informational, Immigration, and others. - Newsletter (Rice) This item was discussed earlier. - Tabling and Events Calendar Zimmer is currently working on venues for speaking events. She also followed up with volunteer Jane Missakian who is very interested in working with Zimmer to set up these tabling and speakers events. Commission Support: Volunteers/Interns (Kerosky, Zimmer) Task Forces, Ad Hoc Committees, Liaisons Sonoma Talking Points ad hoc (Rice, Channell-Allen, Smith, Rohde, Zimmer) Rice acknowledged the assistance of Commissioner Meraz in setting up the venue at the Hyatt Vineyard ballroom which seats 400 for a drastically reduced fee of $1,000. Additional expenses will be for audio/visual equipment, printing of flyers, and other incidentals. The date projected for the event is October 5 th and Rice will provide information for Staff to set up the contract. Rice discussed the main topic which is the impact of human and sex trafficking here in Sonoma County. Our chief objective will be to educate audience members about the prevalence and impact of human trafficking in the County. 1) Topics: Who is affected; how to prevent it; what happens to the victims; and what happens to the perpetrators? 2) Target audience: Sonoma County residents, particularly parents, grandparents, and youth between 12 and 20. 3) Potential speakers: Former victim from Crossing the Jordan; Chris Mahurin from Law Enforcement will speak about the stories, statistics, how victims are found and removed from their situation; Social Worker to speak about what it s like working with victims and what kind of county resources are available; D.A. s office will speak about how the crimes have changed in how it s currently viewed, punitive measures, how it s being fought particularly with the new casino opening. CHR Commission Minutes_S:CHR_CSW\CHR\CHR Commission meeting\agenda & Minutes Page 3
4) Moderator: Chair Rice and Channell-Allen will moderate the Q & A. 5) Marketing: Every middle and high school in Sonoma County, every Parent/Teacher organization. There will be featured stories in the local newspapers: Argus Courier, Press Democrat, Sonoma-Index Tribune, and other weekly newspapers such as the Bohemian, Pacific Sun, Sonoma State Star, The Patch. We will be working with a host of radio talk shows, Verity, Family Justice Center, District Attorney s office, and Crossing the Jordan. Commissioner Jonas spoke about a human and sex trafficking problem among illegal immigrants. Jonas suggested someone at least look at the statistics to see if the problem is significant enough to consider this for the agenda. Jonas will follow-up on this item and report back to the ad hoc committee. Motion to approve up to $1,000 to cover the audio/visual equipment, graphic design and printing of the flyer, and other Marketing costs to prepare for the Sonoma Talking Points event on October 5th. Motion: Commissioner Warmoth Second: Commissioner Meraz AYES: 7 NOES: 0 ABSENT: 5 ABSTAINED: 0 Economic Rights Task Force - (Warmoth, Cheatham, Zimmer) Warmoth spoke about two agenda items that will be added for August. He mentioned they are working on a general mission statement to present to the Commission. They are trying to set up a meeting with Oscar Chavez who is now the Assistant Director for the County Human Services Department. - Right to a Healthy Diet (Warmoth, Cheatham, and Zimmer) Warmoth mentioned that he and Ann discussed having a luncheon meeting at Worth Our Weight of about six to ten representatives from local organizations. They would like this to be considered for a vote to cover the costs under the budget. Rice asked Warmoth how this is justified as this is not the Commission s common practice to provide food for meetings. Rice requested this be further discussed in August under Budget. Junior Commission Task Force (Smith, Rice, Rohde, Baum, Cheatham) Rice spoke about several changes happening with the Jr. Commission including a change in the mentoring program. The Jr. Commissioners as a group have selected several ad hocs they are interested in. A description of each ad hoc will be provided for the Commissioners to choose from. We want to propose that one of the Senior Commissioners mentor each of the ad hocs to provide guidance to the Juniors. Rice requested Commissioners notify both Smith and herself about which ad hoc they would be interested in to provide guidance and mentoring. The Juniors also discussed at length the effect of slanderous Facebook pages that demoralize youth, and what they can do to motivate change. The Juniors would like to educate schools about this problem, and post on their own Facebook page making a statement against the destructiveness of these actions. Sonoma County Museum Project Task Force Ross spoke about the timeline for the human rights history exhibit to run for six months at the end of 2014 into early 2015. Ross and Rice have been working with several ethnic groups of Sonoma County to gather interest for participation. They met with Phyllis Rosenfield from Listening for a Change who has done a lot of oral history projects with these groups. Ross requested from Sonoma County Museum a breakdown of the original quote agreed upon for six months at $20K, but the fees had risen to $52,550 for only three months. It was Ross impression that the museum doesn t seem interested in facilitating our needs for the exhibit, and the joint decision of the Commission was to withdraw from the agreement with the County Museum. Ross has begun to search out other venues and will report back to the Commission. Rights of Immigrants Task Force (Warmoth, Jonas, Baum, Meraz) Warmoth informed the Commission that when Kerosky returns, the task force will meet for further discussions on their direction and report back in August. Contributions of Latino Community ad hoc Warmoth and Meraz met with John Haig of the County Community Development Commission, to discuss plans for Roseland Plaza. The County wishes to develop the plaza over the next several years, creating a permanent site to hold events in celebration of the diversity in the County. Warmoth and Meraz will be working with CHR Commission Minutes_S:CHR_CSW\CHR\CHR Commission meeting\agenda & Minutes Page 4
other organizations who want to also be a part of this development and will keep the Commission updated on the project. - Cinco de Mayo Liaison ad hoc Warmoth already reported on the Roseland Plaza which will be the location of next year s Cinco de Mayo event. - North Bay Organizing Project Liaison (Position Open) Warmoth is still working on filling this position. Disability Issues Liaison Commissioner Zimmer mentioned the Human Dignity Film Festival is scheduled for October 9th. Zimmer has been working with the Summerfield Cinemas to get the venue. The subject of the films will be about individuals with visible disabilities. They will be partnering with the Disabilities Service Center to develop flyers that will be posted. Human Trafficking Liaison Commissioner Zimmer informed the Commission the HTTF meeting takes place normally on the last Thursday of the month from 2-4:00 pm at the FJC however, there have been some changes in the dates for July and August. Zimmer gave the following excerpts from the last HTTF meeting on July 11: - The D.A. s office has received a 2-year Federal grant for a dedicated prosecutor specifically for Human Trafficking cases. - Crossing the Jordan has acquired a 35-bed facility that will be developed for victims of Human and Sex Trafficking. This will allow for them to house victims overnight after they have been picked up off the streets and place them into a secured environment. - Sonoma County s Law Enforcement will be participating in the annual FBI attempt to find minor victims of Human Trafficking; this year it will take place the end of July. - Next HTTF meeting will take place on August 1 st at the Family Justice Center. IX. AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT COMMISSION MEETING: 1) CAHRO Conference Planning Sept. 27th 2) Prosecutorial Discretion at ICE (Kerosky, speaker) 3) DREAM Act (Warmoth, Kerosky) 4) Website discussion (Channell-Allen) 5) Budget (Rice) X. ADDITIONAL PUBLIC COMMENT: XI. XII. NEXT MEETING: The next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 5:30 P.M. at the Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) Hearing Room. ADJOURNMENT: Chair Rice adjourned the meeting at 7:15 PM. CHR Commission Minutes_S:CHR_CSW\CHR\CHR Commission meeting\agenda & Minutes Page 5