City of Eugene Human Rights Commission

City of Eugene Human Rights Commission MINUTES Tuesday, January 19, 2016 5:30 – 7:30 PM Meeting Atrium Building, Sloat Room, 99 W. 10th Avenue, Eugene Present: Human Rights Commissioners: Andrew Thomson, Ken Neubeck, Jennifer Frenzer, Edward Goehring, Chris Nunes, Bonnie Souza, Arun Toke, Edward McGlone Staff: Michael Kinnison and Jennifer Lleras Van Der Haeghen EPD Liaison: Chief Pete Kerns and Lt. Jennifer Bills Planning Commission: Bill Randal 1. Agenda/Minutes Review and Approval Motion: Move to approve the agenda with edit to correct name of the Civilian Review Board. Made by: A. Thomson Second: E. Goehring Vote: unanimous Motion: Move to approve the minutes from November 17th, 2015. Made by: A. Thomson Second: E. McGlone Vote: Unanimous 2. Public Comment Mariah Leung – I have three main points of what I’d like to cover. 1 – At last city council meeting I urged the city council to draft a resolution to support our Muslim Community. I provided them statements that have been made in other places and materials. Councilor Syrett stated a commitment to draft this statement. I am asking for HRC support with this. 2 – I have not heard from the commission about the requirement of endorsing the UDHR for sponsorship. 3 – I see that Showing Up for Racial Justice has again requested funding. I ask that you postpone granting this request. They do not allow for the intersectionality of national and international connections. I have included a copy of a Eugene Weekly Letter re: first SURJ event. 3. Support Requests Carter McKenzie and Sabena Stark – We’re here with Showing Up For Racial Justice and were grateful for film event in November. We are here today requesting the co-sponsorship of space for Hilyard Community Center and $250. The co-sponsorship will allow for the showing of Cracking the Code and in the following month, Southern Patriot. Both events are free and open to the public. 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 |ehroffice@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  M. Kinnison – Were any HRC Members present? Ok it doesn’t look like anyone here was. Jen can you tell us what your experience was? J. Lleras Van Der Haeghen – My experience was that it was a positive movie showing with over 50 people present. There was excitement to continue the conversation from the event with Tim Wise. There were about 8 small groups and mine had a very productive conversation about what we heard. Of course I was not in every small group but all around I heard positive feedback. E. McGlone – I don’t see an itemized Budget here? Carter McKenzie – Film purchase fee, $50 for public use of Cracking the Code, $40 for Southern Patriot, $24 for snacks each time and funding for publicity. E. Goehring – Are you asking for $250 to cover both events? Carter – Yes. E. Goehring – Don’t we have a $200 request limit. M. Kinnison – You have used your own discretion in the amount. Technically a commissioner should participate in the planning process for full co-sponsorship. J. Lleras Van Der Haeghen – That’s true and you have also used your discretion on whether or not someone participates. K. Neubeck – How does the space work? Lleras Van Der Haeghen – They’re requesting your co-sponsorship of space as well. This means that if you co-sponsor our office will call to make the reservation and the cost will be eliminated or nominal depending on if we are able to have staff present or need to pay a community center staff person to be there. If that is the case the cost is $15 an hour. E. McGlone – Do you have a way to pay for that extra fee and will we be the sole financial sponsors of the event if we co-sponsor this event? Sabena Stark – We have in the past covered costs out of our pockets. Yes for this event it is true that the HRC would be the sole financial sponsor. We hope the community will offer donations so that we can continue the educations process. B. Souza – I support this. I think that these films being showed will be beneficial for the community and will help build on existing conversations. Motion: I move to support this funding request at $250. Made by: J. Frenzer Second: B. Souza Vote: Unanimous A. Thomson – who can participate in helping to plan these events? K. Neubeck – I will participate. 4. Parks and Open Spaces Needs Assessment Findings Carolyn Burke, Principle Planner for Parks and Open Spaces and Sandy Shaffer, Youth-Family Section Manager for Recreation Division, participated in the HRC meeting to share the Parks and Open Needs Assessment findings and beginnings of the plan. C. Burke – We’re building a plan for next 10 years of Parks and Recreation. I’m going to share the process, what we’ve learned and where we think we’re going. I’m giving you very brief highlights you can read more online. a. Community engagement a. Pop up events at parks and in parking lots. Qualitative conversations 1:1 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  b. Stakeholder listening session c. Surveys – phone and online d. Latino Community Outreach – Worked with HRNI to develop e. Equity mapping – Community Centers, Pools and Parks to see what areas of the city have access and which do not. 1. Build draft plan 2. Bring it back to the public 3. Refine the plan 4. Bring to City Council for Adoption Findings – Strengths  People love Parks and Recreation in Eugene.  90% of survey respondents say that Parks and Rec is important to their quality of life  Natural Areas provide beauty and connectivity  Provides many services Challenges  Park Safety and Security – people generally feel safe. People do not feel safe along the river particularly along the river front corridor o 87% of survey respondents are concerned about the impacts of illegal camping and vandalism in Eugene parks. People are looking for a compassionate solution to this.  Equity and Inclusion – We found a special importance to address cultural inclusion so that people feel welcome in these places and Peterson Barn was seen as a highlight. There is an importance of informality with movable picnic tables, shelters, BBQs etc. Need to look at access for lower income families. Heard that cost of services is a barrier for engagement. SW and Santa Clara are underserved by community centers and pools. In benchmarking Eugene against other cities we have the fewest number of public pools per capita. Opportunities  Basic amenities – places to sit, get out of the sun, more trails, restrooms.  Safe access to the river and pools.  More programming. 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  Guiding themes:  Serve the entire community  Care for what we have  Grow responsibly  Integrate with other systems  Invest in partnerships Next steps:  Six public workshops planned with free child care and free food at each. C. Nunes – Question on the illegal camping issues. Is it too early in the process to have you all thinking about strategies? We’d be interested in discussing enforcement v. working with the HRC to find more resources for homeless people and ideas to work with them. C. Burke - We do not have recommendations yet. We wanted to bring this to you early so that you can be thinking about them. This will take solutions from multiple sectors. Parks does have some ideas about what they can do that could be a good starting point. C. Nunes – In the past we’ve weighed in on things like the downtown smoking ban proposal. We struggled with not having things to respond to as a strategy. If you could bring us strategies to respond to that will help narrow down our conversation. C. Burke – We definitely need to keep the conversation open so that when we have recommendations we can bring them back to you. J. Frenzer – It’s definitely a good idea to keep communication open. Is there a way for us to give you ideas? E. Goehring – I realize that you were just hitting high points in your presentation. I am concerned about the list of stake holders and input. I saw nothing that captured input from seniors and people with disabilities. S. Shaffer - Through pop ups we did have 2,000 points of contact. In those moments we spoke with people from those communities. Within recreation we have 150 different partnerships and drew on many organizations and groups. We did intentional outreach to multiple communities. M. Kinnison – I’d like to say that from our perspective this project has been setting the bar on setting an Equity lens to the process and working in collaboration. 5. EPD Update: Professional Stops Chief Kerns – In 2014 the Police Commission provided feedback on a Professional Stops Policy and Collecting Data. A policy of this nature was recommended by a number of community members. The LECC considered it as a potential model to be used throughout the state. When HB 2002 was passed there was a new definition of Profiling in the bill and a process for centralized complaints of profiling to be collected. As an organization we hoped that Sun Guard would be up to capturing the data that we wanted to collect and they have not been able to deliver on this. IT in public works developed an app for data collection that we’re using now. We provided training for 12 officers to collect stops data that complies with the policy as a pilot project. We purchased iphones with apps on each for those 12 officers. Now we plan to exercise the collections of stops data. This will not be a full report because it’s only 12 officers. For 120 patrol officers to collect stops data is a huge capacity issue for us. This is a process for us to understand how much capacity this takes to collect this data so that we can see what the officer’s experience is in reporting, how we can store the data and analyze it each year. After the first 6 months we’ll stop to get input and make modifications to the process. In the second 6 months we will use this modified process. We will take one year of 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  data and do analysis of pilot project. Hopefully we will have an idea of whether or not it’s feasible to roll it out to the full department and an idea of how to do that. One discrepancy in the new statute and the trade standard for the definition of Profiling is the use of “solely”. What we really want to know is if there are biases in an officer that will show a bias in policing. The State’s definition doesn’t really help us get to understanding bias trends. We have adopted the states definition for now. This is not as restrictive as a good department should be. I know that the reporting form has been finalized for the statewide process. When I spoke with LECC staff last month she had received 15 reports statewide. None from Eugene, we know this because we would have received them by now. J. Frenzer – Could you give me one more explanation of the reason for keeping the definition for profiling with the word solely in it? Chief Kerns – Until this new statute is interpreted a little bit we want to be sure we used the language exactly. It will be no trouble at all to expand it to be more inclusive and I think the definition of Bias Based Policing covers it. My preference is that we will expand the definition later. I’m pretty confident that we’ve covered what I think is important as a standard. B. Souza – My understanding is that there may be some changes in the law as the year goes on. Are you prepared or willing to change the definition? Chief Kerns – I think that solely should be changed, perhaps to inappropriately. B. Souza – Is that something that you would recommend? Chief Kerns – As Police Chief I can make changes to policies. I plan to update this definition. I first want to be sure that broadening the language is legal. B. Souza – I mean for statewide language. Chief Kerns – The bill required the establishment of a committee that will need to make recommendations to the legislature regarding reducing profiling. One thing they’re thinking about requiring is that each department in Oregon is required to collect stops data. I was included in one of these conversations. We’re all trying to figure out how to affordably do this. E. McGlone - When will we start seeing data from stops? Chief Kerns – It’s public information so if someone made a request we’d comply. My plan is to finish the pilot and roll out a complete report in March 2017. C. Nunes – I really appreciate your work on this it means a lot to me. Is this policy on Professional Stops and Bias Based Policing posted online? Chief Kerns – Yes, it’s on our website. C. Nunes – As a HRC we want to promote the good things that the City of Eugene is doing so I would like to use this document to share your work. The wording for biased base policing here is a little unclear to me. How will analytics happen on this information? The language implies intention whereas the statistics seem most relevant to me in seeing disproportionate trends. Cheif Kerns – I talked to the Brookline Chief who has received the award for being the most transparent department in the US. They have a Bias Based Policing Program and use the same training program for perspectives and ethics in profiling that we do. They also teach implicit bias for their officers and collect data. When they see a change in officers stops data then they call the officer in to meet with a trainer to understand what is causing the shift. I like this approach that Brookline has taken. It’s a conversation and officers in my experience want to do the right thing and even the best intended officers will develop habits they’re not aware of. E. Goehring – I really appreciate the policy that directs officers to help all people regardless of circumstance. In my experience in other cities people were not always cared for. 6. International Human Rights Day Debrief A. Thomson – Thank you all for planning IHRD and showing up. We were a little short on time but it went very well. C. Nunes and I discussed that there are parts that can be dealt with earlier in the year. In the future we 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  should try to do things like securing a venue and other details sooner. Jen from HRNI and I are going to work on putting together a planning guide. C. Nunes- I want to acknowledge that Jen Frenzer did such a great job with the program. J. Frenzer – As soon as we know our theme that is the triggering moment to figuring out the location. Certain themes may work better in different venues. C. Nunes – That is the opposite of what we were thinking. Want to situate venue and catering in advance. We have been waiting to start the planning to involve new commissioners in the process. Should we continue to wait to engage new commissioners until after the work plan is approved? J. Frenzer – I think it’s more important to have the process underway earlier. Pick theme in spring or early summer. A. Thomson – I appreciate the need to have theme before planning the venue. E. Goehring – In the event business we look for a location the week after the event is over. One way cost can go up is the publicity when we don’t start the buzz early. M. Kinnison – I think it’s good to keep it in your strategic planning. C. Nunes - Propose we assign a planning committee at our meeting in February. 7. Elections for Chair and Vice Chair A. Thomson – We need to solicit nomination for the Chair and Vice Chair seats. As you read in the email I sent you I am not eligible to be chair again because I have served two terms. E. Goehring – Nominate Chris as chair and Andrew as co-chair. C. Nunes – We’ve talked about this and I think it could work out well. Vice Chair requirements are much less and you still get time with the Mayor and City Manager. A. Thomson – I agree, I will do the vice chair role but encourage other people to consider the role as well. E. McGlone – I would agree that the Vice Chair is a great opportunity for people to learn and grow into the Chair position. K. Neubeck – I nominate J. Frenzer for Vice Chair, there should be a woman in leadership and a lot of education will need to be done with the new Mayor and continued work with the City Manager. J. Frenzer – I accept the nomination. C. Nunes – Nominate Ken for Chair K. Neubeck – I am honored but decline. Homelessness is such a big issues and it’s an opportunity to establish a relationship with new Mayor, City Manager and educate them on issues. E. McGlone – Jen would do a great job but I have heard feedback that we’ve been a little one track minded on homelessness. I would encourage that we don’t get zeroed in on one issue only and look at the big picture as well. A. Thomson – I know that Jen you’re very involved and I want to make sure that you’re not stretched too thin because the things you’re currently involved with are so important. J. Frenzer – From what I understand there are not as many responsibilities of the Vice Chair. Chris can you tell me more about that? C. Nunes – Both attend quarterly City Manager and Mayor meetings and there are agenda planning meetings once a month. Writing letters was Andrew’s job, I know that it’s a lot of labor. Andrew did a lot of extra work and analysis to make those letters effective and the Chair is the spokesperson. M. Kinnison – You have a work plan item are there any things there? C. Nunes – Relationship building and check-ins with each other were important. A. Thomson – Think you’d be a great Vice Chair Jen. Just wanted to help you think about capacity. J. Frenzer – I am very interested in keeping the work group functional which is a lot of work. Motion: Move that we close nominations Made By: A. Thomson Second: K. Nuebeck Vote: Unanimous 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  Motion: All in favor of Chris being chair – Made By: A Thomson Vote: Unanimous A. Thomson – Now for vice chair, all in favor of Jen as vice chair? I see 5 votes for Jen. All in favor of Andrew? I see 2 votes. We now have a new Chair and Vice Chair – Chris Nunes and Jen Frenzer 8. Joint Work Session Debrief and Next Steps M. Kinnison – If you look in your packet pages 23 and 24. Outreach has begun to people who have a great deal of experience in homelessness. Page 23 is the message that just went out to the stake holders and the stakeholder list is 24. The list was first populated with people that Ken and Jen had recommended. We added to the list for local people who could offer information. K. Neubeck – Is your office the main conduit for information? M. Kinnison – Yes we will package and hand it off to the City Manager. B. Souza – Not clear about how we will engage Eric Tars in this model. M. Kinnison – He has been reached out to directly with an email. B. Souza – I was imagining him coming here and sitting down with staff to discuss what needed to be done. M. Kinnison – We’re anticipating that based on the information we get there may be more follow up. B. Souza – Have you had direct contact with Eric, Jen or Ken? J. Frenzer – Before we got started we had talked with Eric. He let us know that he had received the email today. We had connected with him about the process of what the National Law center could offer in consultation. One of the things they were going to offer was to help with the orchestration for the consultation cost and expenses. He realizes that for some communities who have a lot of changes to make a city could incur a sizeable consultation cost. They also have pro-bono attorneys that we would have access to. I like the letter and think it’s very exploratory. M. Kinnison – The HRC is listed as a stakeholder and we invite you to draft your own responses to be captured with the feedback. J. Frenzer - I am excited about the person from California and her expertise on criminalization in particular. K. Neubeck – K. McCullough is very much keyed into the rights of people who are homeless and has worked on the Right to Rest bill. J. Frenzer – This is a model of a way that this process can be duplicated in other communities. The other people on the list are excited to see this process. M. Kinnison – Another update is that The Housing First Resolution is being drafted and will be sent to you all for input. Will go to council in the coming months. (ADDITION: Date of potential Council meeting on this topic are 2/22 and 3/14) K. Neubeck – We obviously made an impact and there are actionable items that have been started on. I think we should stay right on top of this so that so that we can be sure they move forward in the way that we want them to, particularly around criminalization. J. Frenzer – I would like to have one of you come to the Homelessness Work Group to give an update. J. Lleras Van Der Haeghen – I can plan to be there. 9. February Events BIG and NAACP A. Thomson – In the past we’ve been having you decide who wants to be present M. Kinnison – It’s a question of interest and budget. Our office and EPD will be present. C. Nunes – I enjoy attending both events of these events. This is just like any other budget request we get and I think this aligns very well with our work. When we’re there it’s a great point to network with people. And it’s good to keep connections alive. How many people did we send before? M. Kinnison – 2 or 3 for past events. B. Souza - I am interested in the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner. 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  E. McGlone – I will likely be at both events for my work duties. A. Toke – I’m interested in attending. C. Nunes – I am interested in both of those. A. Thomson – Ken and Chris are interested in the BIG Event. Motion: Move to approve that Chris and Ken attend BIG Event Made by: A Thomson Second: A. Toke Vote: Unanimous A. Thomson - Bonnie, Arun, Chris and Jen are interested in the NAACP Freedom Fund. Motion: Move to approve the attendance of Bonnie, Arun, Chris and Jen attend the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner. Made by: A. Thomson Second: E. McGlone Vote: Unanimous E. McGlone – I have a few more announcements about events coming up: Feb 4-6 Is the Queer Film Festival. Feb 21st – LGBTQ + town hall hosted at the Den at the Way Ward Lamb from12-2pm 10. Police Commission Discussion A. Thomson – The Police Commission is interested in there being working agreements adopted for boards and commissions. You can go to page 29 to see the draft. They’re looking for us to co-sign this letter to send to City Council. E. Goehring – Just a little background. It recently came to the attention to the chair of the Police Commission that they have no standards to hold Commissioners to. We learned that most commissions have no standards of conduct with the exception of the HRC. There is no way for the any sitting commissioner be removed to my knowledge. Obviously you cannot remove someone who has been appointed without some just cause. There has to be some standard that has been violated by a person one or more times. This is about setting standards across the board so that everyone has an understanding of how people should be working together civilly. I encouraged the Police Commission to look to our model and they have voted to adopt our model. I would speak in favor of our signing on the letter. Motion: Move to approve the letter and sending it to city council with the Police Commission. Made by: A. Thomson Second: E. Goehring Vote: Unanimous 11. Commission Liaison Updates B. Souza – The only thing I’ll share is that there was discussion around resuming recording of the Civilian Review Board meetings. Since the meeting ran over they tabled it so that it should happen at the next meeting. E. Goehring – Police Commission is working on standards of appearance. Uniforms, haircuts etc. It’s extremely precise. There is a new vest that officers are using to relieve the weight of the belt. A lot of the gear will be up on a vest. I like the shift of having a Taser and gun more distinguishably in different places. The gun will still be on the hip and the Taser will now be on the front of the vest. 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  Bill Randal – Nothing to report from the Planning Commission as we haven’t met since November. 12. Work Group Lead Updates J. Frenzer – Work group started off the new year with a lot of project ideas. It’s very likely that there are budget needs. I need to get a temperature check on what the budget is and which things you feel most strongly about these ideas. Events would be spread from February to June. May is when our videographer of the homeless would be available to do a first Friday film event. Venue proposed – Atrium or Library. Jana Thrift received a grant from Wayne Morse Center to document rest stops, policies etc. This is an opportunity to do some community education. A lot of the films are 3 or 10 min interviews. We also want to show the film “Under the Bridge” with THRIVE. There doing an ambassador training tomorrow. The movie is available 2/1/16. Youth homeless event is still being planned hoping to have this June. Wanting to have it outdoors with music, tabling and resources. I would also suggest that we write a letter of support for public shelter. The mayor has brought this up a number of times we need to support her on this. E. McGlone – It would be nice to have a presentation about value, cost and comparatives for other cities of a public shelter. I would need this information in order to be able to vote on a letter of support with full understanding. E. Goehring – I was the project manager for the first public shelter in San Francisco. There were some unexpected problems and expenses that came up with that. Should be taking it up in the letter to be sure it’s a good thing and within our means right now. J. Frenzer – One of our resource people for that could be Jacob Fox with HACSA. He created a shelter in Portland. He would be a good resource person because he knows what we have and don’t. I can offer to make contact with him and Poverty and Homelessness Board (PHB). Don’t know if you’ll ever get a precise number for the number of people who we have shelter for. A. Toke – The annual count is happening this month. K. Neubeck – We will have the info on the number of people who were captured in the count in May. E. McGlone – What council is going to expect from us is to make the case. It would be good to have this information. J. Frenzer – I doubt we will be precise in this letter. The Mayor is asking for a community wide collaboration. We would be endorsing the mayor’s comments. M. Kinnison – I would recommend you talk about this with the Mayor in your quarterly meeting. J. Frenzer – One last project to work on is a brochure with PHB it’s an area the work group could be editing. Need to know if there is any budget for these projects. M. Kinnison – Do you have ball parks for what these projects would cost? J. Frenzer – I think we could spend $400-500 hundred dollars on the Youth event, film could be expensive but could make due with $200. All of the events outside of the youth event will cost around $200. M. Kinnison – You have about $2,100 left. Need to keep in mind the cost of Human Rights Institute, additional costs from IHRD not yet reflected in budget, etc. when planning out how to use the rest of your budget. J. Frenzer – I don’t know whether or not PHB has a budget. C. Nunes – I think the Mayor has stated the Homelessness is one of their priorities so it seems like an important thing for us to find a way to fund. M. Kinnison – Is it too late to decide on some of these at the next meeting? J. Frenzer – No not for the things that are further out. For under the bridge it’s flexible. M. Kinnison – You have to vote to spend any money. We could have a complete budget updated with additional projected budget at the next meeting. Jen you could bring a more specific budget for the events. J. Frenzer – ok A. Thomson – I’m in favor of all of them so long as the budget provides. M. Kinnison – I wanted to let you all know that I saw your request for Right to Rest event. K. Neubeck – We would need a venue and potentially some finger foods. M. Kinnison – The recommendation of the city attorney is to not have the HRC participate in this type of event. K. Neubeck – We support education on issues all of the time. 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc  M. Kinnison – Yes you do, the concern here is about the fact that this was a legislative bill and will likely be one again. This bill is not part of City Council’s stated legislative priorities and as agents of the city HRC should avoid contradicting Council’s priorities. K. Neubeck – It’s a community power point presentation about the Right to Rest bill. This body voted to endorse the campaign. J. Frenzer – It sounds like he is basing his information is on testifying. Is he saying it because we’re not allowed to do testimony? M. Kinnison – No it’s based on advocating positions that do not support Council’s priorities. There are policies that specifically speak to the role of agents of the city in advocating on legislative matters. K. Nuebeck – I would like to see the communications that were sent about this. B. Souza – Can we have the City attorney come to the next meeting to offer clarification? M. Kinnison – We can request that but I can’t guarantee an audience will be granted. I will seek more clarification on the City Attorney’s position and let you know. C. Nunes – I would like that, it would help us understand the rule. J. Frenzer – Would we be hosting the event? K. Neubeck – CALC would be hosting the event we would be supporting it. M. Kinnison – Let me gain clarity about this and get back to you. 13. Announcements 99 W. 10th Avenue, Suite 116, Eugene, OR 97401 541.682.5177 | ehrcenter@ci.eugene.or.us | www.eugene-or.gov/hrc