Human Rights Commission

October 28, 2021, Meeting Minutes Commission Attendance Ash Orr - Chair Jan Derry - Vice Chair Rozzy Lauderback - Secretary Bonnie Brown Don Spencer Tim Hairston Brian Butcher - City Council Representative / HRC Liaison Public attendance Delegate Danielle Walker Laura Jones Mollie Kennedy - ACLU WV Council member Danielle Trumble 1. Call to Order and Approval of Agenda * Chair Ash Orr made a motion to edit the agenda and move the Commissioner Updates to the bottom of the agenda. Vice Chair Jan Derry seconded, motion passed. * Agenda approved post-edits 2. Task / Project List Updates - led by Vice Chair Jan Derry * DEI - Jan and Don will follow up in 30 days in regard to the DEI * Indigenous Peoples’ Day Resolution - Ash and Bonnie gathered letters of support from community members, courtesy of our City Clerk. Commission began discussion on next actions on the IDP Resolution, as well as discussed Tuesday night’s council meeting. - The statements from Mr. Oliverio felt as if the main focus was on Columbus rather than how this Resolution would make the Italian-American community feel. Comments from Mr.Oliverio felt targeted and hurtful towards the Indigenous community members present at the council meeting. - Council member Butcher stated he had specific updates from council members as to what they would like to see for this Resolution to move forward. Council member Dave Harshbarger’s suggestion is based around President Biden’s Proclamation. Harshbarger, alongside other council members, wants to see a large education piece in conjunction with this resolution. This led to questions of what this educational piece would look like - suggestions of new, accurate historical markers were mentioned. Other council members are also seeking a compromise that would allow Columbus Day or Italian Heritage Day to be recognized alongside Idigenous  Peoples’ Day. - Don suggested we create a proposal for us to discuss at the November HRC meeting. We could take time to research how other Italian-Americans are celebrating their heritage without celebrating Christopher Columbus. - Mollie suggested we could tag-team an Italian Heritage Day in August in conjunction with the large festival that is held in our region during the month of August. - Laura stated that she is “appalled” by what happened at the city council meeting on Tuesday. She is not interested in white-washing or watering down of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. - Ash stated that by compromising and creating a second resolution to encourage council to pass the IDP, these actions would be performative of the commission, and would weaken our original IDP resolution. Ash also stated we, as privileged white individuals, should be using our privilege to uplift and protect our Indigenous community members rather than being complicit in putting their trauma out on full display. - After further discussion, Ash made a motion to create a working committee that would focus solely on research and brainstorming of our IDP Resolution. The working committee will be meeting on November 15th via City of Morgantown Zoom at 6pm. Committee members include: Bonnie Brown, Brian Butcher, Ash Orr, Rozzy Lauderback, Mollie Kennedy, Don Spencer, Laura Jones, Jan Derry. This working group will be strictly brainstorming and discussing with no voting permitted. This group will be a safe, open space for Indigenous folks to join and discuss what they would like to see happen with this resolution. - Tim Hairston stated that in the past, Black and POC community members have been afraid to come forward due to repercussions and intimidation. - Mollie followed Tim’s remark by stating that our city council has a long history of subjecting our vulnerable community members on a public platform, noting council’s history of asking said community members to publicly share their traumas. - Council member Butcher mentioned that the working committee’s goal could perhaps be to reach out to groups wanting an Italian Heritage Day and asking them to create their own resolution. - Don suggested we move on to the Public Portion and come back to the Project / Task list afterwards. 3. Public Portion * Delegate Danielle Walker - “very distrubed by the dismissive, derogatory, and demeaning rhetoric”, referring to Tuesday night’s council meeting. Delegate Walker felt as if the only respect in that council room was towards Christopher Columbus and those who were religious. She made mention of the two men who spoke in opposition mocking her and her generational trauma. She is also not okay with how the HRC was blamed for the homeless issues, especially by the two men who are not active within our community. * Mollie Kennedy - Mentioned the openings on the review board and encouraged individuals to apply. Suggested that she and Ash get together to discuss more training on racism and bias for our city, as there are “clear, ongoing issues in our city”. * Laura Jones - Volunteer with Mountain State Harm Reduction. Made mention of how the new law criminalizes harm reduction in West Virginia. MSHR is holding  focus groups across the state to understand what is going on within the drug using community. Their goal is to change the stigma around drug usage in the state of West Virginia. 4. Remaining Task / Project List Updates - Jan read through the remainder of the list. * Friendsgiving / Trans Day of Remembrance at WVU - Will be held on 11/18 at the WVU LGBTQ+ Center. Ash will be speaking on behalf of Pride, Jan will speak on behalf of the Commission. If for some reason Jan cannot make it, Rozzy has agreed to be the back up speaker for the HRC. * Priorities of recommended Human Rights Priorities for Local Legislators - Items for this list include: Preservation of the Morgantown Human Rights Commission; Support of the NDO; Statewide Crown Act. - Ash motioned to keep and submit this itemized list to our local legislators, Bonnie seconded it, no discussion followed, all voted in favor of this list. * Human Rights Day Celebration - Organization nominated: Mylan Puskar Health Rights. Individual nomination: Bob Priner of PACE Enterprises. Bonnie will be reaching out to Bob and Ash will be reaching out to Health Rights to inform them of nomination. The HRC agreed to ask Rev. Zac Morton to be the speaker at the event. Ash will reach out to him. - Don asked to purchase posters and to have them mounted for the event. Asked for $300 in total. Ash made a motion to approve $300 for Don to spend on posters and mounting, Bonnie seconded. No discussion. Motion passed. - The HRC will be holding a working meeting on Friday, November 5th at 1:30pm via Zoom to discuss and finalize plans for the celebration. No voting will be occurring. 5. Approval of September 2021 Minutes - Jan made a motion to accept the September 2021 HRC Minutes as is, Ash seconded. No discussion. Motion passed. 6. New Business * Appointing Council Member Brian Butcher as the Council Liaison for the Morgantown Human Rights Commission. Ash made the motion to appoint Council member Brian Butcher, Jan seconded. No discussion. Motion passed. 7. Looking Ahead * 11/ 5 - HRC Working Meeting to Discuss Human Rights Day Celebration via Zoom at 1:30pm * 11/15 - Committee to discuss IDP meeting via City Zoom at 6pm. Ash will be reaching out to the City Clerk and Andrew Stacy * 11/18 - Trans Day of Rememberence at the LGBTQ + Center; Regular HRC meeting 8. Meeting Adjourned at 8:53pm