Human Rights Commission

City of Morgantown Human Rights Commission Meeting Minutes for October 18, 2018 Present: Jan Derry, Chair Kristen Cooper, Secretary Marlene Robinson, Vice Chair Jacob Powers Kate Levine-Freedman Tim Hariston (Liaison with State HRC) Don Spencer (Program Assistant) Kristen Jones (Volunteer) Meeting called to order by Jan Derry, Chair, at 6:33 PM. The agenda was distributed. There were no additions to the agenda. Pubic Session: Maya Billins from Morgantown attended the meeting and offered her services as a volunteer. Minutes: The minutes for September 2018 were distributed and reviewed. Jacob Powers moved that the minutes be accepted as written. The motion was seconded by Marlene Robinson, and the motion passed unanimously. Communications: Jan Derry provided an update on the DOJ program. Suzanne Buchanon has been replaced and her replacement was not completely aware of the DOJ’s possible community forum on hate crimes. He suggested we visit a site with materials on the topic. The DOJ is in the midst of changing policy on hate crimes. He is willing to meet with the Commission in November. Don Spencer said he invited Andrew Stacy (communications expert from the City of Morgantown) to attend the Commission’s November meeting to discuss promotion of the upcoming Human Rights Day Awards. Jacob Powers reported that the Commission’s Facebook page is getting more attention (48 views). He plans to share a link on his personal page to see if that will be shared further. The possibility of paying to boost awareness of the page was briefly discussed. 1 Tim Hairston from the State Human Rights Commission had nothing new to report. A list of questions that were submitted to the League of Women Voters was reviewed. The questions were specifically related to human rights. Jan Derry asked if the candidates’ responses are being recorded and Don Spencer suggested she consult the League’s website. Don Spencer spoke about the Human Rights Film Festival that is a WVU/Community Program. There is a new person in the Division of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at the University – Misha Poore – and she is seeking people who are interested in serving on a organizational committee. It was noted that Diversity Week at WVU came and went without much exposure. Jacob Powers noted that an announcement to employees came late in the week, but he heard that the parade was a big success. Priority Items: The Human Rights Day is December 10th and it will be recognized by the Commission with our annual awards and reception which will take place on December 4th. Nominations for the group award were introduced and discussed. Those nominated included The League of Women Voters, The College of Law Innocence Project, Mountaineers for Progress, Empty Bowls, The Interfaith Committee, and Scotts Run Backpack Program. It was decided that in an election year it would be nice to recognize the League of Women Voters for all of their hard work in Morgantown. For the individual award the nominees were Eve Faulkes, David Fryson, and Barbara Fleischauer. The merits of each person were discussed, and it was noted that all three are strong supporters of the LGBTQ community and other important human rights issues. In keeping with the “election year” idea, it was decided that Barbara Fleischauer would be the ideal recipient. Jacob Powers moved that the Commission approve the selected candidates (League of Women Voters and Barbara Fleischauer) as the award recipients for 2018. Kate Levine-Freedman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Logistics for the Awards ceremony were reviewed. Several commissioners and volunteers agreed to bring various food and drink items for the reception at the Aull Center. Invitations will go out of people who have attended town meetings and attendees from last year’s ceremony. Jan Derry will notify the winners. Kristen Cooper will arrange to have the plaques made. Don Spencer suggested that we do a write-up/description of the awards and solicited assistance from Kristen Cooper and Kate Levine- Freedman. Don Spencer will contact Misha Poore to see if she will be our speaker for the ceremony. Progress Reports: 2 Jan Derry announced that the sub-committee that will present the Diversity Equity Inclusion plan to the City Manager is still in the midst of pinning down an exact date for the meeting. Jan will follow up with the City Manager and arrange the meeting within 2 weeks. The results of the MEI were discussed. This year Morgantown received a score of 80 which is a significant increase over the score in the 30-40 range in past years. It was noted that the jump in score was due mostly to the adoption of the Human Rights Ordinance which was made possible via the support of the Commission as well as other groups such as Fairness WV, WVU’s LGBTQ program, League of Women Voters, Mountaineers for Progress and many others. The MEI scores were officially released on October 8th. It was suggested that we put out a press release about the score and also arrange to present the score to the City Council. Jan Derry will ask for the City Manager’s opinion of how and when to go about that. New Business At a recent Interfaith Committee meeting Ace Parsi discussed his plans for a Compassionate City Award. The award would be presented in August 2019. A general discussion about the meaning of “Compassionate City” took place. It was asked if the city needed to designate itself as a Compassionate City in coordination with the award and how would that commence as far as the criteria and implementation. A sub-committee lead by Judith Wilkinson will meet with Ace Parsi to discuss these questions and concerns. Committee members include Kate Levine-Freedman, Karen Kunz, Judith Wilkinson and Jan Derry. The Gun Resolution was reviewed. The Bullying Ordinance was reviewed and it will be discussed with the City Manager when the MEI discussion takes place. The Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance will be revised by Don Spencer to include “accessibility”. Announcements An addition to our annual calendar will be the LGBTQ-Youth Anti-Bullying Day on the third Thursday of October. The idea of creating a Human Rights bookshelf in the public library was discussed. Jan asked that everyone send her titles of books that would be appropriate for inclusion. Police Chief, Ed Preston, will speak at the November Commission meeting. Don Spencer will send him a copy of the recent hate crime article so we can get his response/impressions. The next meeting is scheduled for November 22nd. The meeting adjourned at 8:38 pm. 3 Submitted by Kristen Cooper 4