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Mr. Brown suggested that as the council's liaison to the HRC he had sometimes been remiss in bringing <br />the council's attention to those various areas of concern that might involve the HRC. <br />Mayor Piercy said that she and the council members planned to be more diligent in their attendance and <br />participation with the HRC but further hoped that the Commission would not hesitate to communicate <br />with the council as the HRC's work plan progressed. <br />Ms. Hamilton responded to Mayor Piercy's previous comments regarding HRC input on downtown <br />development strategies and stated that Chief Kerns had invited her to participate in various discussions of <br />how the downtown area might be improved. <br />Mr. Beecher asked what forms of communication the council members wanted the HRC to use as they <br />moved forward. Mr. Pryor suggested that the HRC might use emails, telephone communications and any <br />other regular communications channels so that no important information would be missed by the council. <br />Mr. Clark left the meeting. <br />B. WORK SESSION - Hate and Bias Incident Response and Anti -Hate Resolution <br />Ms. LeMasurier offered a presentation entitled "Responding to Hate" and noted that the council had <br />requested that the City's Equity and Human Rights division provide updates on how hate and bias <br />response protocols enacted by the City had affected human rights concerns in Eugene. <br />Ms. LeMasurier generally described how the City had applied a number of best practices to its clear and <br />strong leadership commitment to the preservation and improvement of human rights for all citizens of <br />Eugene. She noted that the coordinated Hate and Bias Incident Response plan and the Anti -Hate <br />Resolution would serve that commitment. <br />Ms. LeMasurier briefly discussed the ways in which the Hate and Bias Incident Response Plan was <br />expected to benefit the City. She believed the plan could easily be adjusted to serve the needs of other <br />local agencies working to preserve and maintain human rights. <br />Ms. LeMasurier reported that the Hate and Bias Incident Response Plan had been developed as one of the <br />primary action items of the Equity and Human Rights division's Diversity and Equity Strategic Plan. She <br />further noted that the specific action item had been recommended by the City Council's Community <br />Committee on Race. <br />Ms. LeMasurier briefly discussed the general definitions and characteristics of hate and bias crimes in <br />relation to the guidelines described in the Hate and Bias Incident Response plan. Included in her <br />discussion, Ms. LeMasurier clarified that the Eugene Police Department did not normally respond to <br />complaints of non - criminal hate activity and that such instances were typically left to other forms of <br />community response. <br />Ms. LeMasurier briefly commented on the roles of community and government responses to instances of <br />hate and bias activity. She maintained that the role of facilitating sensitive responses to such instances <br />could be shared by local leadership and the community. She described several ways in which the role of <br />the City Council and City leaders could be defined in relation to the guidelines described in the plan. <br />Ms. LeMasurier cited three separate and recent hate and bias incidents in the community as well as the <br />various response methods that had been employed. <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council June 30, 2010 Page 4 <br />Work Session <br />