Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Subramani said that the upcoming mental health and human rights conference to be held October 20, 2006, at the University of Oregon was the culmination of three years of dedicated work by commissioners and community volunteers. Ms. Urbina said developing the work plan was a very difficult process for the commission as it reviewed the issues faced by the community and the things that had to be accomplished. She said commissioners initially tried to reduce the list of tasks to a manageable number given the volunteer nature of the program but soon realized that all issues were critical and nothing could be removed from the work plan; therefore, the commission was asking the council to approve a two-year work plan for FY07-08. She thanked the mayor and councilors for taking a bold step by adopting the priorities on race and homelessness. She said the commission had strong ties to both the homeless community and Communities of Color and asked that the council keep the commission involved on those priorities. She said the commission was also looking at establishing the City of Eugene as a human rights city as part of its two-year plan. She asked Accessibility Committee chair Hugh Massengill to discuss accessibility in the community. Mr. Massengill read the names of Accessibility Committee members and said they had worked remarkably hard during the past year on issues such as accessible pedestrian signals and assistive listening devices in public facilities. He said the committee would continue its efforts under the upcoming work plan to ensure the City provided the most accessible public information possible to the community. He said the committee would also explore the definition of accessibility with respect to access to services and perhaps expand its charge to include the concept of a human rights city. He saluted the committee members for their dedica- tion. Ms. Urbina briefly discussed the commission-planned activities regarding immigration. She said immigra- tion was a painful issue in the community and the commission was planning to become an ally to organiza- tions like CAUSA, which was a statewide immigrant rights organization. She said the national debate over immigration was causing some people in the community to treat immigrants as less than human and the commission would work with its allies on a multi-pronged approach to the community including education of the Latino community about their rights and education of the community at large about the myths that existed about immigration and immigrants. Ms. Urbina invited everyone to attend the three-day open house to be held at the Human Rights Center during the Eugene Celebration. She thanked recognized Human Rights Program staff for their dedication and hard work, thanked the City Manager, the Mayor and the City Council for their support and advocacy for human rights and for the new Human Rights Center, which was an asset to the community. She also acknowledged and thanked many others in the community who had supported the commission and its work. She concluded by reading a call to action by Reverend Martin Niemoller called “I did not speak out.” Ms. Ortiz said she looked forward to the joint meeting with the Human Rights Commission because she was passionate about the issue. She gave credit to staff for helping commissioners accomplish their important work. She commended the new Human Rights Center and said it would provide better program access to people in the community. She was pleased to see the dedication to Dwight Souers. Ms. Taylor asked if the commission considered the impact on human rights of the Patriot Act and making a recommendation against parts of it. Ms. Urbina said the commission had not addressed the Patriot Act at this point. Mr. Subramani added that the commission discussed how the legislation impacted the City but had not looked at it from a national perspective. MINUTES—City Council September 11, 2006 Page 4 Work Session