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12-06-2016Members Present: Mark Westergaard Debbie Eng Yamilez Ordonez Will Ruckel Richfield Human Rights Commission Monthly Meeting Minutes December 6, 2016 Jeff Wright Logan Schultz Carrie Chillman Chara Blanch Mike Howard — City Council Liaison Mike Koob — City Liaison Sara Gumke Ben Sunderlin Swopnil Shrestha Kirsten Klosinski Guest: Sarah Musgrave — Observer Guest Speaker: Amanda Koonjbeharry, Hennepin County Administrative Manager — No Wrong Door Initiative 1. Meeting called to order by Chair Mark Westergaard at 6:30PM. 2. Agenda approved. Motion Eng/Second Wright. 3. November minutes approved. Motion Eng/Second Ruckel. 4. Open Public Comment. None. 5. Guest Speaker: Amanda Koonjbeharry, Hennepin County Administrative Manager — No Wrong Door Initiative Ms. Koonjbeharry discussed No Wrong Door's mission of providing support and resources to youth who have been or are being sexually exploited. One strategy has been to have these youth viewed by police, human services, and the correctional system as victims rather than offenders. The goals of The No Wrong Door Initiative are: 1) Prevention 2) Education, Training and Public Awareness 3) Identification/Assessment 4) Service Delivery 5) Shelter/Supportive Housing and 6) Prosecution of those who sexually exploit youth. 6. Reports a. Chair's Report Trafficking Event sponsored by RHRC and held on November 3rd at Richfield High School went very well. Over 70 students (and others) attended the event. Madeline was an excellent speaker with much knowledge. Thanks to the Richfield Honor Society for assisting with the event. The Richfield Sun Current ran a large news article on the event the following week. RHRC Officer Elections will be conducted at our next meeting in January. Commission/Board recruitment is in process. Mark and Will have reapplied as their current terms are expiring. It is not known if Simon plans to reapply. Mark, Sara, Jeff, Debbie and Grace (the high school student who asked RHRC to consider supporting the CEDAW resolution this past October) will be meeting with the City Council in a working session on January 24th to: 1. discuss the CEDAW resolution adopted by RHRC this fall 2. present the findings of RHRC's recent demographic survey (copies available at today's meeting) 3. invite city council members to participate in our April 24th reading event at Augsburg Library b. Treasurer's Report Jeff stated that he would be closing RHRC's account in the coming month per RHRC agreement on liquefying the account. Will has ordered RHRC shirts and will need to be reimbursed from these funds. Commissioners briefly discussed if there would be an on-going need for a Treasurer position. c. Secretary's Report - Debbie and Kirsten will be presenting RHRC's new Google Docs files at the January meeting. d. Vice Chair's Report - No report under Vice Chair's Report as items will be discussed under Unfinished Business. e. Liaison Reports - City Liaison: RHRC Annual Attendance Report is needed by next week. Mark will compile the report as Debbie will be out of town. Mike K. discussed commission vacancies and youth appointments. Youth appointment application dates have apparently been revised (Debbie requested more information regarding this). School Board: No Report. City Council: Mike informed commissioners that Councilwoman Garcia would like RHRC to develop a Sanctuary Cities resolution to be brought to the City Council for consideration. Chara stated that St. Paul has completed one and she will send it on to commissioners. A subcommittee (Jeff, Swopnil, Kirsten, Carrie, Mike H) was created to seek other cities examples (ie. Northfield) and develop a Sanctuary City resolution. Mark and Debbie will assist as needed. 7. Unfinished Business a. Inclusiveness Resolution — The City Council has requested that RHRC partner with the council in adopting a Resolution Supporting Richfield as a Safe, Welcoming, Equitable and Inclusive Community. Commissioners reviewed the proposed resolution and agreed to support as written. Motion Eng/Second Blanch. Motion passed/Resolution on file (Google Docs). b. Ongoing commissions recruiting project — Commissioners reviewed findings of the 2016 commissions/boards recent survey. Preliminary survey findings of the commissions/boards compositions include: more women, younger members, more parents, and more individuals identified as English being their second language. The survey will be presented by Mark to the City Council at a working session on January 24th. Survey is on file (Google Docs). Sara and Jeff will continue on this project. Mike H. reports that some outreach and recruiting efforts as suggested by RHRC have been implemented. c. February 215t Naturalization Event update — On-going. RHRC sub -committee (Swopnil, Mark and Debbie) met prior to today's RHRC meeting to continue to fine tune details. d. Frank White will be reading from his book, They Played for the Love of the Game: Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota, on February 18th 8. New/Future Business a. RHRC's Read -In Event will be held on April 24th at Augsburg Library. b. Fred Amram will be speaking on the Holocaust and Genocide on April 28th at Augsburg Library. Mark mentioned that it would be helpful if RHRC could contribute to a speaking fee for Mr. Amram. Motion Blanch/Second Gumke: RHRC requests that Mike Koob, RHRC City Liaison, contact Richfield City Manager Steve Devich to request a $200 speaking fee for Fred Amram. Motion passed. c. Book Reading "The Boy who Said No'. Logan informed commissioners that he has been reviewing The Boy Who said No and other reading materials and suggests that other commissioners look at the readings also. Logan suggests that RHRC use FaceBook and other social media to post readings/stories as an educational outreach. d. Islam 101 in May — to be scheduled 9. Open Forum and Announcements a. Ben brought a yard sign from a Richfield resident that read: To our NEIGHBORS & COMMUNITY MEMBERS, no matter your COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, GENDER, or what RELIGION YOU PRACTICE: YOU are part of what makes our city and state GREAT YOU are wanted & you are APPRECIATED. The resident still has a few signs available if commissioners are interested. Commissioners discussed having a fundraiser and purchasing more signs for our community. b. Chara mentioned 2 social media sites commissioners may be interested in: Richfield Social Justice Community and RespectCollective.com. 10. Next meeting is January 2, 2017. 11. Motion for Adjournment. Motion Blanch/Second Schultz. Meeting adjourned at 8:15. Minutes Submitted by: Debbie Eng Secretary