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Ms. Taylor did not think people parked in handicapped spaces on purpose. Mr. Poynor disagreed, <br />saying that when spaces were signed it was difficult to argue it was not intentional. Ms. Taylor <br />believed warnings were better than tickets. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor asked if the commission addressed cases where a citizen believed that the City was <br />abrogating their housing rights, for example. Mr. Poynor said yes. He said that the HRSS had <br />good experience with City departments in responding to such complaints. The HRSS also <br />addressed cases of housing discrimination. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor said that a constituent expressed to her that the commission was not interested in <br />women's issues, and regretted the lack of a women's commission. She asked if the commission <br />was comfortable that the majority of Police Commission members were men. Ms. Hall said that <br />the commission could do many things better. She did not recall an instance where the <br />commission had been asked to take action on a women's issue; the Human Rights Education & <br />Outreach Committee had considerable links to women's support services. She added that the <br />commission was more than willing to act on women's issues. <br /> <br />Mr. Farr said that the commission was responsive to complaints, but not proactive enough in <br />making people aware of the program and their options. <br /> <br />Mr. Van Steenbergen observed that the HRSS worked on eight gender-related cases in the last <br />year. The most recent issue concerned harassment. He agreed more work needed to be done. <br /> <br />Mr. Dalton said that he was aware of the council debate over the Police Commission, and said his <br />appointment was due to his long-term interest in police issues. He believed that having balanced <br />representation of the community at-large was always a good idea when trying to determine how to <br />provide public service. Each group needed to keep in mind how much it looked like the <br />community it was serving, and that included gender balance. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor asked if the commission cooperated with other groups working on similar issues. She <br />asked if there was an antidefamation league in Oregon. Mr. Kelly said there was a state group. <br />Mr. Van Steenbergen called her attention to page 13-14, which was a list of the commission's <br />community partners. <br /> <br />Mr. Torrey said that the council wholeheartedly felt the commission was important. He said that <br />the riot the previous Friday illustrated its importance. He was convinced that the Police <br />Commission would be expected to discuss the topic of what constituted an appropriate response. <br /> <br />Mr. Torrey said the commission must find a way to reach out during the next census period to get <br />people to be counted. He said that it was a tough challenge. He asked the commission to find <br />out what the City and commission could do to assuage the fears of the Latino community. He <br />said that if the City did not count all the minorities in the community, it would lose dollars that it <br />could spend to assist the minority communities. <br /> <br />Mr. Torrey pointed out that there was no other community he was aware of that respected diversity <br />as much as Eugene, and it was willing to identify problems that would otherwise not surface. <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 23, 1999 Page 4 <br /> 5:30 p.m. <br /> <br /> <br />