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Home My WebLink AboutHRC Nov 18 2013 minutes Draft HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION of the City of Palm Springs Minutes from the Nov. 18, 2013 Meeting COMMISSIONERS Present at this Meeting Present FY Year-to-Date FY 2013-14 Excused Absences FY 2013-14 Unexcused Absences Dee Dee Wilson Barton David Brown Jilska Chandrasena Elena Chvany Janel Hunt Jack Newby Wes Rankins Deborah Sutton-Weiss Les Zendle Maddie Barton, Student rep. Sunny Rolfs, Student rep. X X X X X X 0 X X X 0 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 The above roll call record is based on all meeting Minutes from July 8, 2013 thru Nov. 18, 2013 1. Chair Wilson Barton called the meeting to order at 3 p.m. 2. Student representative Maddie Barton led the flag salute. 3. Commissioner Chandrasena recited the Mission Statement. 4. Commissioners Present: Wilson Barton, Brown, Chandrasena, Chvany, Hunt, Newby, Sutton-Weiss and Zendle. Student representative Maddie Barton also was present. Commissioners Absent: Rankins, excused. Student representative Sunny Rolfs also was absent. 5. POSTING OF THE AGENDA: The agenda was posted in accordance with the Brown Act on or before 6 p.m., on Nov. 14, 2013. 6. PUBLIC COMMENT: None 7. GUEST SPEAKERS: John “Keoni” Kealoha Devereaux, Jr., Affiliate Administrator, Autism Society of America, Coachella Valley and Ifthika "Shine" Nissar, former president of the organization were the guest speakers. They spoke about autism and the programs and servic es provided by the organization, which was founded by a group of parents in 1998, Mr. Devereaux said. One in 88 persons has autism, he said. Their organization serves 675 to 800 persons a year, he said. Ms. Nissar spoke about experiences parents and families as well as those with autism have had here in the Coachella Valley. Mr. Devereaux said they have a law enforcement curriculum and will train police, including store clerks , about what autism is all about. He said one of their goals is to educate the public about autism as well as the associated behavior. 8. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM THE OCT. 14, 2013 MEETING: Following a motion from Vice Chair Newby and second by Commissioner Brown, the minutes from the Oct. 14, 2013 HRC meeting were approved 8-0 (Commissioner Rankins absent). 9. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/AND OR VOTE: 9.A Possible expenditure for one or two Commissioners to receive mediation training from Community Action Partnership of Riverside County– Commissioners Brown and Sutton-Weiss are both interested in the training. Following a motion by Commissioner Zendle and second by Vice Chair Newby, the Human Rights Commission Minutes Page 2 of 3 Meeting of Nov. 18, 2013 2 Commission voted 8-0 (Commissioner Rankins absent) to approve funding up to $600 for up to two Commissioners to receive mediation training sometime this fiscal year. 9.B Update from the Community Service Awards ad hoc subcommittee: Chair Wilson Barton said she spoke during the public comment portion of the Oct. 16 City Council meeting regarding nominations being accepted for the awards and she also spoke at a school board meeting about this, inviting people to participate in nominating someone for a Community Service Award. Commissioner Zendle said Vice Chair Newby and Commissioner Sutton-Weiss are serving with him on the subcommittee and will be reviewing the nominations. So far 11 nominations have been submitted. The subcommittee will bring a slate of recommended nominees to the Dec. 9 HRC meeting for approval, he said. At that time Commissioners will be assigned a nominee so they can do research in preparation for the awards presentation at the January meeting, he said. A letter will be sent to the awardees following the December meeting. City Councilmember Paul Lewin will be assisting the Commission at the awards presentation in January, staff said. 9.C Recap of the Commission’s participation in Palm Springs Pride: Commissioner Brown said he and Commission Rankins staffed the booth Sunday afternoon up until closing and they did not get a lot of people coming by, perhaps because it was the last day of the festival. He said they probably saw more out-of-town people. He recommended the Commission not have a booth at the festival next year, but ha ve an entry in the Pride Parade. He said he thinks there would be more visibility for the Commission. Commissioner Sutton-Weiss, who staffed the booth from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with Commissioner Hunt, said she agreed with Commissioner Brown, that no one was really coming to the booth. She said the people they did talk to were not from the area. She agreed that the Commission would be most visible at the parade. Commissioner Zendle said he and Commissioner Chandrasena staffed the booth Saturday morning and several people stopped by. He said if the HRC needs to expose the Commission, and that is a question they need to answer, the parade would probably be a more effective way. On the other hand, he said, the Commission’s booth was in a little cul de sac with other City of Palm Springs departments and it is support for the event. Commissioner Chvany said it worked for her to stand in front of the booth, and look welcoming and if someone came over, to give them something they looked interested in and share more personally about what it was. Commissioner Hunt said she and Commissioner Sutton-Weiss organized the information on the table in terms of topics which made it more approachable. She said they used the free pens as an anchor to pull people in and talk to them about the Commission. She suggested putting the information in a bag for the people to take home and sort through what they need. Chair Wilson Barton asked what is the best use of the Commission’s resources. She asked if having a booth at the event was really impacting people; are people being educated; is it elevating the Commission’s profile in the community to the people the HRC can be serving and helping? Vice Chair Newby suggested contacting the Pride Festival organizers regarding the placement of the HRC’s booth and informing them that because of the booth’s location, the Commission believes it didn’t get a lot of traffic. He also said it depends if you sit behind the booth or if you are in front, greeting people and handing them a free pen, that way you are going to have more participation. Vice Chair Newby said he thinks participating in Pride does fit within the Commission’s Mission. He said he likes the idea of the Commission being in the parade rather than having a booth at the festival. Chair Wilson Barton said participating in the parade is less of a time commitment than staffing the booth for two days. 9.D Participation in the Black History Month Town Fair on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 and the expenditure for a booth: The cost to have a booth at the town fair is $200 and the application deadline is Feb. 7. Hours of the town fair are noon to 6:30 p.m. There also is a parade that same day. Following a motion by Vice Chair Newby and second by Commissioner Brown, the Commission voted 8-0 to table this item until the Dec. 9 meeting. (Commissioner Rankins absent) 9.E. Invite the Palm Springs High School ROT C to present the colors at the Jan. 13, 2014 Community Service Awards meeting: Chair Wilson Barton said she contacted the ROTC cadets at Palm Springs High School and they will post the colors and lead the pledge of allegiance for the Jan. 13 Community Serv ice Awards meeting. Commissioner Brown volunteered to coordinate this. 9.F Ongoing calendar review, topics and discussion – Commissioner Hunt volunteered to work on getting the Jan. 13 Community Service Awards meeting promoted on PSCTV, the City’s gove rnment channel. Human Rights Commission Minutes Page 3 of 3 Meeting of Nov. 18, 2013 3 Commissioner Zendle, who is working on the topic of religious intolerance, asked Commissioners whether they would prefer having an interfaith program or focus on one faith that is having some issues of intolerance. He said he has been in co ntact with an Arab American Islam and thought of inviting him to speak at a Commission meeting about Islamophobia. Commissioners said they favored an off-site, interfaith dialogue program. Vice Chair Newby said Islamophobia is on newspaper front pages now and suggested inviting a guest speaker to address that at a Commission meeting. 10. STUDENT COMMENTS: None 11. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS: Commissioner Hunt spoke about the ongoing anti-bullying efforts at Raymond Cree Middle School and invited Commissioners to attend an anti-bullying kickoff event on Dec. 16 from 8:40 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. Chair Wilson Barton said she spoke to the Ophelia Project class at Raymond Cree last week, a program for at-risk girls at the middle school. 12. STAFF COMMENTS: Staff distributed the business cards that the Commission approved at its October meeting. 13. AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE DEC. 9, 2013 HRC MEETING: Palm Springs High School Principal Ryan Woll will be the guest speaker next month. 11. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lee A. Bonno Staff Human Rights Commission Liaison Director of Neighborhood & Community Relations