CC Minutes - 10/10/00 Work Session

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commission, and thanked them. She also thanked Helen Towle for her efforts as Human Resources Liaison. Ms. Middleton commended Mary Walston of the City Manager's Office for her support for the program and commissioners. She recognized Lauren Chouinard, Marilyn Mays, and Melissa Pearson of the Human Resources and Risk Services Department for their affirmative action efforts and continued reporting on diversity efforts. Ms. Middleton asked the council to consider how the commission could assist it, and how the commission could have more contact with the council. Ms. Rich thanked the commission staff, Greg Rikhoff, Mary Feldman, Francisca Johnson, and Jennifer Fu, for its efforts. Those present applauded the effort of staff. Mr. Farr, the council's liaison to the commission, said that he had never felt the importance of his work as a councilor more so than when he served on the commission. He noted that his term as liaison was soon ending and recommended the position to other councilors. He praised the professionalism of staff. Mr. Farr said that the City's investment in the commission was a small amount that leveraged many other community efforts. He encouraged the council to consider increasing the commission's funding. Mr. Farr did not think that the entire scope of the commission's work could not be accurately reflected in a work program and said it was amazing how much the commission got done with a small amount of money and volunteerism. Noting his own past term as liaison, Mr. Meisner said that every councilor should take an opportunity to serve on the Human Rights Commission as well as on the Police Commission. He appreciated the contacts he had made through the commission. Mr. Meisner said that the work of the commission was impressive and he had been pleased by the quality and number of applications the City received for recent commission openings. It had been difficult to choose commissioners because of the high quality of candidates. Mr. Meisner said he hoped the council was able to continue funding for the anti-hate crimes effort but pointed out that the funding would not be available if some of the ballot measures related to taxation were passed by Oregon voters in November. Mr. Meisner noted a conflict between the forum on the resolution making Eugene as a Human Rights City and International Human Rights Day and the council's attendance at the annual National League of Cities Conference in Boston. Regarding the Human Rights City resolution, Mr. Meisner said that the National League of Cities' major initiative was entitled Undoing Racism. He said that league members had been talking to cities around the country about racism and human rights issues. He thought that Eugene could already be considered a human rights city because of its active commission, its ongoing work program, and the fact no other cities he was aware of had human rights staff. Mr. Meisner said that Eugene was already doing things that other cities were not, and he considered it to be unique in its efforts. While things were not perfect, Eugene was taking a proactive approach and the community was a better place for it. He indicated he would possibly seek the assistance of commissioners in the league's effort. Mr. Kelly said that the commission was doing very important work and doing it well. He thanked the commissioners for volunteering and encouraged the commission to keep up the great work. Regarding Ms. Middleton's question about how the commission could work better with the council, Mr. Kelly said that he thought things were generally going well and the commission did a good job of reaching out to the council when it wished to, for example, propose a resolution be MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2000 Page 3 Work Session