Minutes_Human Rights Commission 6 18 12CITY OF DUBUQUE
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
MEETING MINUTES OF
June 18, 2012
Commissioner Allen called the meeting of the Dubuque Human Rights Commission to order at
4:41 p.m. on Monday, June 18, 2012, at the City Hall Annex, 1300 Main Street, Conference Room II
Dubuque, Iowa.
Roll Call:
Present: Anthony Allen, Chair
Mike Elliott
Kurt Hansen
Miguel Jackson
RRS Stewart, Vice -Chair
Absent: Andrea Beacham Andrea Helgager
Mitzi Krey Judie Root
Staff: Carol Spinoso Kelly Larson
Administer Oath of Office
Commissioner Helgager was not present.
Approval of Minutes
Commissioner Hansen moved to approve the Human Rights Commission meeting minutes of May
14, 2012. Commissioner Jackson seconded. All in favor of approving the meeting minutes as
submitted.
Reports
Caseload Report
The written report for May 2012 was submitted.
Chairperson's Report
Commissioner Allen reported that he has had discussions with individuals involved with the Dubuque
Independent Football League in an attempt to motivate collaboration with the community barbeque.
Director's Report
Kelly reported that UW Platteville is taking registrations for the Midwest Culturally Inclusive
Conference to be held September 7 & 8. Commissioners should contact Carol by July 27 if
interested in attending.
Old Business
Review and discuss current goals and collaborations
Goal #1: Increase opportunities for citizen dialogue and education around human rights
issues. Commissioners Hansen, Elliott, Jackson, Allen, Krey.
Commissioner Jackson reported that they are making good progress in planning for the
Dubuque Community Barbeque planned for August 12th from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Flora
Park. At this time co- sponsors include the NAACP, Pi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity, Black Men Coalition and the Dubuque Independent Football League. They are
seeking additional sponsors. Activities will include softball, volleyball and bean bag
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tournaments, along with other competitions and races. The fees collected for the activities will
be put toward the Ruby Sutton Scholarship Fund. They will meet with Sugar Ray to get a
budget estimate and subcommittee members to finalize other details. The next meeting is
Friday, June 22 at 4:15 p.m. in Conference Room II.
Goal #2: Improve HRC quality. Commissioners Hansen, Jackson, Allen.
The commissioner get- together scheduled for this evening at Commissioner Hansen's was
canceled due to excessive heat. The event was rescheduled for July 9, following the regular
meeting.
Attendance at commission meetings has been stable the last few months with a quorum
being present.
Goal #3: Improve tenant/landlord communication. Commissioners Root and Stewart.
Commissioner Allen will assist.
Commissioner Stewart commented that the committee did not meet as planned. She was
concerned about the lack of attendance at subcommittee meetings. She will contact
Commissioner Root to see whether or not she is willing to actively continue with this group.
Commissioners Stewart and Allen will attend the July 11 Safe Community Advisory
Committee to discuss improving landlord- tenant communications. Commissioner Allen stated
that Jerry Maro of the Landlord Association committed to participating on this subcommittee.
Goal #4: Decrease incidents of bullying and violence. Commissioners Beacham, Stewart and
Allen.
Mediation Initiative: Kelly spoke with Eric Dregne of the Community Foundation
regarding discussion they had in working with Charles Barker. He indicated that they
didn't have any concrete plans at this point, but that they did meet with Mr. Barker
after the sessions that he held in Galena for community members there. The focus of
those sessions was to give community leaders some mediation /negotiation skills to
use in their meetings and their attempts to collaborate more effectively across
organizations in their community. More clarity is needed on what this commission
wants to accomplish, and who they want to reach. If it's about doing something similar
to Galena, then that is more focused on leadership and we could bring Barker in to do
that. If it's more about getting basic skills out to community members in small groups
at a time, that is probably not something we would bring him in to do. Commissioner
Stewart indicated that the subcommittee talked about either doing this as part of the
International Day of Peace or a separate event. This will be discussed at the June 19
subcommittee meeting.
Diversity Conference: Jess Love provided an update from the Diversity Conference
planning committee. The conference will focus on the LGBT community providing
education on a number of topics to junior high, high school, and college students,
professionals, and community members at either Loras or UD. They have confirmed
Zach Wahls as the keynote speaker and are currently looking for funding sources to
cover the $5,000 honorarium. They are estimating the cost to be $20, which covers
lunch and rental of space and equipment. It was suggested that they contact faces &
voices for possible funding. Kelly stated that she could possibly request to carry over
funds, but that may take some time to be approved.
Collaboration with Community Foundation of Greater DBQ and Day of Peace:
Jessica Rose, Program Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion, presented information
on "Speak Your Peace: The Civility Project," a community awareness project that is a
new initiative of the Foundation which focuses on nine tools of civility: show respect,
pay attention, not gossip, give constructive criticism, be inclusive, apologize, take
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responsibility, listen and be agreeable. The goal is to have a nine week campaign
based on the nine tools that leads to the International Day of Peace on September 21.
The actual project on the Day of Peace will focus on the arts so they can incorporate
the schools to showcase all of the work. They are now discussing whether they want
to start the nine day challenge before or after September 21, and then have the kickoff
at the Day of Peace so that the schools receive the full benefit of all nine weeks.
Kelly stated that she invited Jessica to today's meeting to see if there was any
commission interest in the Speak Your Peace Project. She invited Roger, Thom and
Hiram from the DDRC to see if there was any interest in partnering to either work on
the weekly events that are happening or to do a particular program or skills training by
our mediators around some of these topics for the Day of Peace. The Commission
received a letter from Art Roche from the Day of Peace committee asking whether
they want to be listed as a sponsor, and /or do any kind of an event. Commissioner
Allen moved to sponsor the International Day of Peace. Commissioner Elliott
seconded. All in favor.
Commissioner Stewart asked Roger if the DDRC would be interested in partnering to
work on an event. Since he was the only one in attendance, he suggested having
further discussion on the format and time commitment at the next DDRC meeting
scheduled August 7. Subcommittee members and Jessica Rose will attend the
August 7th meeting to discuss potential collaboration with the Speak your Peace
initiative.
Goal #5: Help promote the NAACP. Commissioners Elliott, Root, Stewart and Krey.
Commissioner Stewart proposed joint subcommittee meetings of Goal 1 and Goal 5 as she
feels they are basically working towards the same initiatives with the NAACP. Commissioner
Allen clarified that Goal 5 works toward the NAACP newsletter and conflict resolution. Goal 1
works more toward marketing and education. He concurred they could meet jointly as long as
the matters discussed related to marketing and not the conflict resolution. He recommended
keeping them separate because there are outside committee members who attend Goal 1
meetings.
Commissioner Stewart questioned the status of the NAACP mediation attempt. The
mediation has been declined. Commissioner Stewart suggested maybe a goal setting
session to help talk through some issues with the current board members. Commissioner
Allen will talk to Lynn Sutton regarding this proposal.
New Business
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn by Commissioner Hansen and second by Commissioner Jackson. All in favor.
The meeting of the Human Rights Commission adjourned at 6:07 p.m.
The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 9, 2012.
Minutes approved as submitted:
Minutes approved as corrected:
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