11/10/1975 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

So he felt there was no substantial risk that multiple complaints couldn't be dealth with or that the city attorney's office would be precluded from bringing a case based on any cause other than brought by the complainant. He added that e if this thinking was found to be erroneous, the ordinance could always be brought back to the Council for consideration of procedures that deal with multiple com- plaints. Councilman Keller asked about the question of religious discrimination brought up by Mike Phillips. Mr. Phillips said that the Human Rights Commission recom- mended that discrimination complaints based on religion be referred to the human rights council rather than to the commission on minorities, which apparently will deal primarily with racial discrimination. He thought that unless there was a fairly broad based group handling complaints, there would be a tendency to seek decisions in terns of a "target" group, and the minorities commission, it seemed, would deal particularly with minorities' problems. Councilman Bradley asked what the present Human Rights Commission would suggest to eliminate any defects they might see in the present Commission. Mr. Phillips re- sonded that one thing would be to alter the membership of the Commission. Member- ship provisions now call for nine to fifteen members; there now exist six vacancies with further vacancies occurring in January. In his time as a member of the Com- mission, he said, there had been no member appointed who could be identified with feminist interests. Only since March of this year, he said, had there been membe~s specifically interested in problems of the aging or the handicapped. He thought~ appointments to the existing Commission that would encompass all of these groups would provide an advocacy role for those people Also, he thought the advocacy role should be separated from the judicial process in the existing Commission. e Mayor Anderson commented that the Council could delay action on the ordinance for two weeks or as long as it wished to deliberate. The purpose of this meeting primarily, he said, was to receive public testimony. Councilwoman Beal suggested that the ordinance, before it is adopted, be amended, changing the name of the senior citizens commission to commission on aging; to provide for at least one-third of the membership on the commission on aging to come from the elderly group itself; to provide for one member in the senior age group on each commission. She also suggested that members of the Mayor's Committee on Aging be considered for membership on the ~ommission on rights of the aging. Councilman Murray asked whether the Council could legally define by age the member- ship on a commission. Mr. Long answered that it was a legislative matter, that the Council could set qualifications for membership by age. In response to Mayor Anderson's inquiry about the number on each commission, Mr. Murray said he thought nine was a satisfactory number. Mr. Keller agreed, and the Mayor commented that if the various groups thought their numbers should be expanded, the ordinance could be amended later. Mrs. Beal moved second by Mr. Murray that the proposed commissions have nine members each. Motion carried unanimously. I-B-3 Mayor Anderson turned to appointment procedure, pointing out that the Council bylaws provide procedure for appointments to various boards and commissions. He thought there might be occasions when the Council would rather not go through an interview e process and instead have a Council subcommittee make recommendations. For that reason, he suggested that the Council, through its own procedures, could handle appointments to these commissions rather than having a procedure spelled out in 11/10/75 - 9 58+