CC Minutes - 09/11/06 Work Session

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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. Ms. Taylor asked if the commission discussed the rights of people it might regard as bigots and considered recommending that some of those people be added to the commission. Mr. Subramani pointed out that anyone could apply to be appointed to the commission and it was the council, not the commission, which made those appointments. Ms. Bettman thanked Ms. Urbina and Mr. Subramani for a comprehensive and passionate presentation. She appreciated the commission’s work and was aware of the level of commitment and amount of service it required. She was impressed by the extent of the commission’s efforts throughout the community and the services provided on behalf of the City. She said without the volunteer service hours, the City would not have the quality of human rights outreach that it enjoyed. She would be happy to approve the very ambitious work plan and agreed that many of the issues were ongoing and could not be set aside and dealt with in a year. She commended the working agreement for commissioners and felt the City should adopt it in general. She asked what needed to be done to bring the Hate Crimes Conference to the City of Eugene. Mr. Rikhoff replied that the organizing a conference was a major undertaking and thought that a conference in 2009 or 2010 would be a reasonable goal. He noted that the conference in Portland was excellent and staff was working to bring some of those speakers to the community. He said there was significant anti- Semitic activity occurring in the community and a strong educational effort was being developed. Mr. Papé thanked the commission for its acknowledgement of Dwight Souers, who he regarded as one of the most thoughtful, deliberate and discerning individuals he had ever known. He remarked that one of the most positive experiences of his time on the council had been his service on the Human Rights Commission. He asked for clarification of the table of case data for the Human Rights Support System (HRSS) that appeared on page 23 of the annual report. Ms. Leyva-Johnson said that the table included Paso a Paso advocacy cases to show a more complete picture of HRSS activities. Mr. Rikhoff explained that the HRSS was created to address discrimination and harassment and the table represented incidents in which HRSS case managers were involved in both positive and negative situations to bring about a positive result. Mr. Kelly commented that the Eugene City Council was among the first in the country to pass a resolution objecting the certain parts of the Patriot Act when the legislation was first enacted. He said it would behoove the City to revisit the issue with reauthorization of the act pending. He echoed Ms. Bettman’s remarks about the working agreements on page 19 of the annual report. Ms. Ortiz acknowledged James Dean for his extraordinary work as a volunteer with the Human Rights Program. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Ortiz, moved to approve the Human Rights Com- mission goals and work plan for FY2007/2008. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES—City Council September 11, 2006 Page 5 Work Session