Minutes - 8.8.19Richfield Human Rights Commission
Monthly Meeting Minutes
August 8th, 2019
Members Present: Brett Stursa, Bob Mulcahy, Katie Goodemote, Carrie Chillman, Michele
Thompson, Sarah Musgrave, Todd Diede, Tasha Ostendorf
Public Safety Liaison: Mike Flaherty
City Council Liaison:
School Board Liaison: Paula Cole
1.Meeting called to order by Chair Brett Stursa at 6:30pm.
2.Motion to approve Agenda: Diede/seconded Chillman; motion carried.
3.Motion to approve Minutes: Chillman/seconded Thompson, motion carried.
4.Open Public comment: None
5.Reports:
a.Chair’s report: City has clarified how we can spend our $500 budget. City
manager approves before we make purchases. See paperwork on Google Drive.
Request from city that we move to electronic agendas and meeting minutes.
Would want to have a couple of paper copies on hand in case of public visitors.
Flaherty could also leave meeting to print one if he needed to. Going forward,
let’s try printing two copies of the agenda only. Should put reminder in
communications. Flaherty to make sure open meeting laws don't interfere with
this.
Last meeting for current youth commissioners. Flaherty to check on process for
gaining new youth commissioners.
Two human rights lawsuits in the new right now. See MDHR website for more
info.
b.Secretary’s report: None.
c.Vice Chair’s report: None.
d.School Board Liaison report: School board voted to approve Hope Church
decision. Emotional moment. Every time the board meets, we review three to five
policies. All potentially relevant to the HRC. Maybe Tim could share school board
agenda with us before our meetings to facilitate discussion before decisions are
made. Cole encouraged us to work with the liaison to ensure a backup can come
to meetings. Cole to ask admin that agenda is shared with us when it becomes
available.
e.Public Safety Liaison report: None.
6.New Business
a.Diana Chaman Salas/Joint Community Police Partnership/Unity in the
Community: Chaman Salas led an informative and inspiring presentation on the
JCPP. Stursa noted that next year we hope to be a part of Unity in the
Community. Possible for us to have access to bias and other relevant kinds of
training? GARE has lots of resources we could potentially use. First Tuesday of
the month Minnesota Immigrant and Refugee Network. Chaman Salas to forward
information to us. If the RHRC has ideas of how to partner on youth mentoring for
vulnerable populations, let’s talk.
b.Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation: Motion to approve: Ostendorf/seconded
Chiilman. Approved. Diede and Ostendorf can receive it at the city council
meeting. Flaherty to report back on timing; it’s in the pipeline. Ideal to proclaim in
the month of the proclamation rather than before.
c.Penn Fest – Sept. 15: Application has been submitted; we will be notified the
week before of details about booth location. We have supplies leftover from last
year. Chillman to print out copies of commission applications. Goodemote
working on RHRC history quiz board; showed prototype mock-up--looks great!
Volunteers from 12:30 to 4:30 (2 hour shifts): First shift: Stursa, Chillman,
Mulcahy, Second shift: Diede, Goodemote. Chillman to send out email to
commissioners who are not at this meeting to round out shifts.
7.Unfinished Business
a.Proclamation committee (Stursa, Eastlund, Mulcahy, Apodaca, Trautmann):
Done for year. Next month will start planning for next year. Thompson to join
subcommittee.
b.Housing committee (Eastlund, Chillman, Mulcahy, Stursa, Diede, Anderson):
Waiting for approval. Shooting for a full day workshop in October.
c.History project (Mulcahy, Chillman, Eastlund, Stursa): No report
d.Census committee (Chillman, Eastlund, Diede, Musgrave, Anderson, Ostendorf):
No report
e.Penn Fest committee (Chillman, Musgrave, Goodemote): See above.
f.Renaming Columbus Day committee (Stursa, Diede, Ostendorf): Exploring
partnership with American Indian Education Department of Richfield Public
Schools.
g.Naturalization Ceremony committee (Eastlund, Stursa, Diede, Anderson,
Thompson): Narrowed down to a couple of dates.
8.Announcements/Open Forum: Musgrave noted that Advocates for Human Rights is
always looking for volunteers for State Fair booth. Stursa added that they are also
partnering with law firms and U of M to observe deportation process and looking for
volunteers. They provide mentors.
9.Next meeting: September 3rd, 2019, 6:30pm
10.Motion for adjournment: Thompson/seconded Musgrave, motion carried. Meeting
adjourned at 7:56pm.
Submitted by Bob Mulcahy 8/10/19