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MINUTES – Eugene City Council September 12, 2018 Page 1 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Harris Hall, 125 East 8th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97401 September 12, 2018 12:00 p.m. Councilors Present: Emily Semple, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark, Claire Syrett, Chris Pyror Councilors Absent: Greg Evans Mayor Vinis opened the September 12, 2018, Work Session of the Eugene City Council. 1. WORK SESSION: Marginalized Voices Report and Recommendations Equity Accessibility Analyst Katie Babits, along with Bonnie Souza and Ib Hamide of the Human Rights Commission, gave a report about marginalized voices, specifically findings from the WeCU Work Group. Council Discussion • Appreciate the amount of thoughtful work that went into the report and presentation, and thankful to everyone that was involved organizing and participating. • This work is helping us move towards the goal of helping the community understand each other’s experiences and creating a safe and welcoming community. • Believe it is important that the council take a position to support the recommendations put forth by the WeCU work group. • Supportive of the recommendations, would like to dig deeper on the second recommendation and think about what message we should be sending when putting together a rapid response. • Can use the communication opportunity to alter the unconscious actions or complicity that occurs, can help change the frame of reference. • Most interested in the rapid response recommendation because it seems like something that would be cheap and easy, but want to know what it would look like or entail. • Interested in hearing more about what a multicultural center looks like, what it would do, and how it would be operated. • Question asked about a group that used to help people understand each other that presenter Ib Hamide had been a part of. • If the City develops a cultural liaison position, that person should also act as a Sister City liaison. • Consider using Ceremonial Matters portion of the council meeting as an opportunity to invite individuals to come and inform people about special holidays, etc. • We neglect the relationships with the Native Americans who were here before all of us and we should learn more about their customs. • Questions asked about what would constitute an “other threatening act” and when a response would be solicited. • Challenged the Human Rights Commission members to think of that definition differently and think about how we can stand together more frequently on all fronts. • Interested in other goals including the website and want to hear from the work group what they imagine having on the website.