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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 10/10/00 Work Session MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room, City Hall--Eugene, Oregon October 10, 2000 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Pat Fart, Betty Taylor, Scott Meisner, David Kelly, Gary Rayor, Gary Pap~, Bonny Bettman. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Nancy Nathanson. CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION A.Annual Work Session with the Human Rights Commission The City Council was joined by Human Rights Commissioners Andrea Ortiz, Marcy Middleton, James Dean, Sara Rich, Willie Blasher, Jr., Steven Deutsch, Ed Ruttledge, Jean Grendler, Norma Dominquez, Jennifer Self, and Mo Young. Commissioners and councilors introduced themselves. Mr. Fart arrived at the meeting. Ms. Ortiz and Ms. Middleton led the discussion. At the request of Ms. Ortiz, commissioners noted the time they had served on the commission and their commission assignments. Ms. Middleton briefly discussed changes in commission composition over the past year, observing that the commission was an evolving body made up of diverse members that addressed a variety of issues in many different approaches. She emphasized the need for building trust among members and staff. Ms. Bettman arrived at the meeting. Ms. Dominquez briefly discussed the observer/negotiator team concept, which was begun as a response to the problem of violence at protest events. She noted the participation of several councilors in the Observer Program and on negotiating teams. Ms. Dominquez said a "Gang of Four" had been formed to create a more permanent structure. She invited councilors to contact her for more details. Mr. Blasher briefly overviewed the commission's work in police and community relations and noted the convergence of issues addressed by the Human Rights Commission and Police Commission, including videotaping by police, use of pepper spray and tear gas, racial and youth profiling, and the mall exclusion and prostitution ordinances. He noted his recent appointment as the commission's liaison to the Police Commission. Mr. Blasher also noted the role of the Human Rights Support System (HRRS) in developing the citizen assistance and mediation components of the police complaint process. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2000 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Middleton discussed the commission's work in developing strategies to prevent hate crimes, which included the formation of a coalition suppported by the Community Alliance of Lane County. She reported that the State Anti-Hate Crimes Conference would be held in Eugene in February 2001 and encouraged councilors to attend. Ms. Middleton reported on the commission's educational activities related to hate crimes prevention. Mr. Deutsch commended the councilors for their responsiveness to the issue of hate crimes and for making the issue a priority. Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Dean discussed the activities of the Human Rights Support System during 1999. Ms. Rich discussed the commission's budget and reviewed commission expenditures over the past year. She referred the council to a series of wall charts showing commission-sponsored events and awards, the commission's community connections, and liasons. Ms. Middleton reviewed the goals of the commission's fiscal year 2001 work program. Ms. Ortiz reviewed the goals of the HRRS for the upcoming year. Mr. Dean discussed the proposed work activities of the Accessibility Committee for the coming year. Mr. Blasher discussed police issues the commission planned to work on in the upcoming year in cooperation with the Police Commission and Police Department, focusing on a proposed annual review of police complaints. Racial profiling, improved relations between the community and police, hate crimes, and officer training were other topics of interest to the commission. Mr. Rutledge discussed the commission's efforts to create a permanent City-managed Observer Program and noted an upcoming meeting with Chief Jim Hill and experts on mediation scheduled for October 13. Ms. Middleton discussed activities related to the commission's anti-hate response effort. She said the commission requested clarification on the status of the council's allocation of funding for a hate crimes response: was it a one-time allocation or an annual allocation? Ms. Rich provided an update on the proposed resolution to make Eugene a Human Rights City, and said that a forum on a resolution making Eugene a Human Rights City was scheduled for December 10, the same day as the International Human Rights Day event. Ms. Middleton acknowledged the efforts of the mayor and council in endorsing and funding the commission's work and the passage of the resolutions related to immigrant justice and Ballot Measure 9. She acknowledged the City Manager for staffing the program sufficiently and City staff for their diversity efforts. She commended Mr. Fart's contribution to the commission. Ms. Middleton recognized the leadership of Police Chief Jim Hill in taking on the profiling issue, for improving relations with the minority communities, and for consulting with the commission. She also recognized Police staff Tim McCarthy for his presentations, trainings, and commitment to the Human Rights Program. Ms. Middleton acknowledged Tom Turner and Steve Svenson for their work as Police Department liaisons to the commission. She said that Police staff Yolanda Fain, Jim Fields, Sam Kamkar, Ed Tsui, and Ron Roberts had shared their experiences with the MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2000 Page 2 Work Session 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 adopted. He suggested that a three- or four-bullet memorandum summarizing the previous meeting could be useful for the council. If councilors found something of interest, they could seek more information. Mr. Farr acknowledged that such a tool had been discussed the previous year, and he would follow-up. Mr. Kelly was pleased to hear of the commission's follow-through on the protest response. He thought the Observer Program had worked quite well. He asked for more information on what was being planned between now and next May as incidents were likely to occur. Mr. Rayor commended the commission's presentation. He said that the sponsoring such a program went beyond the normal role of government and was probably the greatest calling a government could have. Mr. Rayor said that the commission was a great group, and he was impressed with the work of both the commission and staff. He commended the commission for its response to protests during the summer and was pleased to hear more was being worked on. Mr. Rayor noted that some people in the community had created an alternative police review board and he doubted that the Police Commission could reach out to that group in as an effective a manner as the Human Rights Commission. He suggested that the commission consider such outreach. Regarding the issues of racial profiling and anti-hate education, he said they were serious and worthy of the commission's attention. Mr. Rayor said that he would appreciate any e-mail messages from the commission and could communicate with the commission through e-mails directed through staff. Mr. Pap8 thanked the commission for its efforts. He said that the commission did fabulous things for Eugene and he agreed with Mr. Meisner that the effort was fairly unique. He especially appreciated the commission's work on hate crimes and its presentation to the council on the hate crimes ordinances. Mr. Pap8 said that the commission's work during the protests on June 18 was commendable, and he believed the effort kept a volatile situation relatively calm. He thanked staff for its work. Mr. Pap8 said that he would appreciate any updates the commission wished to share. Mr. Pap8 believed that during the ten years the commission had been in existence in its current structure, the community had become a more tolerant place. He said that although the council spent much of its time on essential government services like police and fire services, he considered the commission an inspiration for what could be done in the community. Ms. Bettman thanked the commission for its work and said what the commission did represented a high priority for her. She appreciated the commission's commitment and found the presentation very informative. Ms. Bettman thought the proactive nature of the commission's work was very important to the success of the Human Rights Program. She invited telephone calls and e-mail contacts from commissioners. Ms. Bettman said that she would be interested in knowing more about trainings offered by the commission. Ms. Taylor liked the update memorandum suggested by Mr. Kelly. She wanted to know if satisfactory outcomes resulted from the commission's investigation of police complaints. She asked for information about where more regulations were needed or where regulations were unfair or unneeded, or interfere with individual rights. She noted her membership on the Human Development Committee of the National League of Cities and invited the commissions to contact her if they had suggestions. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2000 Page 4 Work Session Ms. Williams, who arrived at the meeting, introduced herself. Mr. Fart challenged the council to spend one-on-one time with the commissioners and get to know what the commissioners were thinking. Mr. Rayor invited comments from the commissioners on ordinances such as the special response fee that the council would be considering later than evening. Mayor Torrey said that the commissioners were great role models in the area of human rights. He believed that another group that could be considered role models were small children, who were naturally unbiased. He said it would be a great service if the City could reinforce that lack of bias and maintain it into adulthood. Another such group was the developmentally disabled. Mayor Torrey said that he maintained a vase of roses at council work sessions in recognition of the slogan of a group of developmentally disabled students: R (Respect), © (Others), S (Self), and E (Environment). He suggested that was what human rights was all about. Mayor Torrey said that he would like to see the City address the lack of access in the Council Chamber, particularly for staff. He thought the lack of access sent the wrong message to City staff. He acknowledged the cost, but thought the City had to "walk the talk." Regarding the topic of racial profiling, Mayor Torrey said he hoped the commission would acknowledged the chief's efforts in a letter, copied to the press. He said that the council should do the same. He said that racial profiling was unacceptable. Mayor Torrey noted that he would be present at the conference on December 10. Ms. Ortiz thanked the council for the joint meeting, saying that the council's approval and comments it made her feel more comfortable with the program's direction. Ms. Middleton also thanked the council and acknowledged the efforts of other organizations with similar missions. Mr. Dean noted that the Committee on Accessibility was working on accessibility issues at City Hall. Ms. Taylor moved, seconded by Mr. Farr, to approve the Human Rights Commission Goals and Work Plan for fiscal year 2001. The motion passed unanimously, 7:0. The council took a five-minute meeting break. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2000 Page 5 Work Session B.Election of Officers Mr. Rayor moved, seconded by Mr. Kelly, to nominate Ms. Taylor for president for the remainder of the term. Mr. Fart referred to Eugene Code Section 2.009 and asked if it precluded Ms. Taylor's serving as president the next year as well. City Attorney Jerome Lidz believed that Ms. Taylor would be eligible to serve as president again because she was filling out an unexpired, rather than full term. Mr. Fart objected to any councilor serving consecutive terms as president. Mr. IV]eisner pointed out that two-thirds of the council could vote to reelect a councilor as president in spite of the text in the referred-to section. However, he shared some of Mr. Fart's concerns regarding the length of the term for the council president. Mr. Kelly suggested that for the two remaining months of the year the office of president be left vacant, and that Ms. Taylor as the vice president assume the duties of the president in the interim. Mr. Fart supported that approach. Mr. Lidz said that Mr. Kelly's suggestion removed all legal doubt from the issue. He said that the code was to govern the council's own selection, and he tended to interpret that as allowing the council a range of discretion to act as it deemed most appropriate. He said that the fact the council could take action with a two-thirds majority vote also addressed the issue. Mr. Rayor said it appeared that Ms. Taylor's election now would require that she be elected by a two-thirds majority in January. He asked Ms. Taylor her preference. Ms. Taylor did not object if Mr. Rayor withdrew his motion. Mr. Rayor, with the consent of Mr. Kelly, withdrew his motion. Mr. Johnson asked if the council wished to direct staff to draft code language related to council office vacancies. The council indicated it was not a high priority. The meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jim Johnson City Manager (Recorded by KimberlyYoung) MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2000 Page 6 Work Session