Human Rights Commission

MORGANTOWN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION MINUTES Regular Meeting on JULY 18, 2024 At the Morgantown Public Safety Building, 300 Spruce St, Morgantown, WV ATTENDANCE: Commissioners Present: Chair - Annie CRONAN YORICK; Commissioner Danny TREJO; Commissioner Ashley SWANSON via videoconference to vote on officer election and Minutes (7:25 to 7:45 p.m.) Liaisons: Tim Hairston, WVHRC; Brian Butcher, City Council Members of the Public: Don SPENCER, HRC Volunteer Absent Commissioners: None (4 Vacancies) CALL TO ORDER: A quorum was present; the Chair called the meeting to Order at 6:52 p.m. (There was a delay while trying to establish a virtual connection with SWANSON.) ELECTION OF OFFICERS: The Chair confirmed that TREJO would accept the nomination as Vice Chair and SWANSON as Secretary. The Chair then turned control of the meeting to TREJO to elect a Chair for the next Fiscal Year. SWANSON moved that CRONAN YORICK be elected as Chair; CRONAN YORICK seconded. CRONAN YORICK was unanimously elected Chair. SWANSON moved that TREJO be elected as Vice Chair; CRONAN YORICK seconded. TREJO was unanimously elected as Vice Chair. CRONAN YORICK moved that SWANSON be elected as Secretary; SWANSON seconded. SWANSON was unanimously elected as Secretary. CRONAN YORICK then resumed acting as Chair of the meeting. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes for the Regular Meeting on June 20, 2024, were reviewed in advance. TREJO moved to adopt them; SWANSON seconded. The Minutes were unanimously Adopted. PUBLIC PORTION: SPENCER expressed his appreciation for the card of condolence he received from the HRC on the passing of his wife, Carol. (Former Commissioner Bonnie BROWN arranged for the card.). He also thanked the Chair for attending the memorial reception to represent the HRC. He reported his attendance at the CCSJ 6oth Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at its July 13th event at the Farmer’s Market, where he encouraged people to apply for HRC positions. Eve Faulkes and Barbra Howe did an excellent job with the entire project. He stressed that part of our job is to turn human rights into civil rights and that the most important document for the HRC is the Annual Operations Manual. He suggested opening commission posts to people who ‘work or live in Morgantown’. COMMUNICATIONS: CRONAN YORICK reported that Commissioner Bronson HERR resigned from the HRC effective July 18, 2024, for health and other personal reasons. This leaves us with only three commission members. There were no new requests for help from the HRC since the last meeting. UPDATES: Chair – Annie CRONAN YORICK • Attended the memorial reception for Don Spencer’s late wife and signed the guest book as the HRC • Met with the Director of Human Resources, Betsy Plumley, on June 27th to discuss the DEI statistics for city employees; the numbers were not attained. Also, the City’s employment application is currently available online only. Nobody seems available to help applicants navigate the computer system; those without internet access are referred to the public library to complete their applications. • Met with Ms. Plumley and the City Attorney, Ryan Simonton, on July 2nd to further explore employee diversity and employee benefits. She expressed concern that the employee health insurance policy does not expressly cover LGBTQ+ healthcare needs in compliance with the 4th Circuit’s Anderson v. Couch decision that any benefit covered for other employees, for whatever reason, must also be covered for Trans care. Attorney Simonton assured her this was attended to some time ago; no evidence was given. She awaits the disclosure of the DEI numbers and a copy of the health insurance policy. She also addressed other areas where the City was missing points on the 2023 MEI: The Bullying Ordinance must explicitly include Trans kids; it currently does not. She also pointed out that the City requires that all service contracts include an addendum wherein the Provider agrees to abide by the City’s anti-discrimination policies, including protection for Sexual orientation, gender identity, and veteran status. To date, she has only found EEOC anti- discrimination terms in the city contracts; this document does not cover the rights preserved by the City of Morgantown. • Attended the CCSJ 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 reception on July 2nd; WVHRC’s Tim Hairston was featured in the graphic novel prepared for the event. • She met with Robyn Hess to discuss affordable housing & HUD; Ms. Hess recommended meeting with the MFHA for more information. • Attended a seminar on representing LGBTQ+ children in Abuse & Neglect proceedings • Continues to attend most city council meetings to voice human rights concerns • She will participate in the July 23rd focus group for the Civilian Police Review Board; all HRC members are encouraged to participate. Vice-Chair – Danny TREJO • He couldn’t attend his scheduled public forum meeting for the Civilian Police Review Board because he was tied up with a client’s child advocacy meeting, but he rescheduled for a later date. • The WV Supreme Court recently replaced its coordinator for translation services. The services have been woefully insufficient; he is optimistic that things will improve. He is certified as a Court interpreter and is called to serve in many counties, but he cannot interpret for his clients in Court because of potential conflicts of interest. There is a great need for interpreters in Morgantown for all services. Attempts to coordinate with the WVU Law School Clinical Program have been unsuccessful. Secretary – Ashley SWANSON • Given that the City employment application is only available online, the HRC should consider starting a program to assist people with their résumés, computer use, and employment applications. She added that employers must keep employee drug testing results separate from the rest of the employment record. • We recently got administrative control of the HRC’s Facebook page; she is working to update it. She has posted an ad asking people to apply for positions on the HRC. LIAISONS: WV Human Rights Commission - Tim HAIRSTON • There hasn’t been much activity with the State Commission because it has been chronically understaffed. They now have five commissioners and will have officer elections on July 31st. Morgantown City Council - Brian BUTCHER • Shared the draft ordinance against ‘Source of Income Discrimination in Housing. There is no federal protection for this kind of discrimination, but twenty-two States have adopted it; WV is not one of them.  HUD supports it but has not yet acted on it. At issue is whether landlords and lenders can bar applicants from housing because of their income source, Currently, prospective renters are being turned away because their main source of income is welfare, alimony, Social Security, Veterans’ benefits, and other steady sources that do not require employment. He would like the HRC to sponsor public hearings and focus groups to hear from Morgantown residents who have experienced this kind of discrimination so we can present the proposed ordinance to the Council with supporting evidence of its need. • The Request for Proposals (RFP) has gone out to get bids to install lockers in Morgantown for Unhoused persons. These lockers will alleviate the burden on the affected residents, who must remove all their belongings from the shelter every morning and carry them around all day until the shelter reopens in the evening. • The WV Coalition to End Homelessness distributes all the funds to the homeless shelters in forty-four WV counties, including Monongalia; they have already distributed all the money and cannot contribute more to the Morgantown shelter. Barlett House lost its funding earlier this year. The City worked diligently to find another organization to administer the shelter. The State has approved a one-time allocation of $126,000 for Catholic Charities to assume shelter administration; the Council is working to finalize the service contract. DISCUSSION: ( no votes for action were taken because only two commissioners were present) • Change of Residency requirement for HRC commissioners: TREJO is not opposed because we need more commissioners; CRONAN YORICK sees the benefit of a change but opposes it for now. • We should support a Source of Income ordinance. CRONAN YORICK wants to see changes in the language to reflect that we can only require non-discrimination for legal sources of income; we can’t force landlords to accept tenants whose income is derived from criminal activity. Councilman BUTCHER asserted that “all money is green, and it shouldn’t matter.” We are willing to conduct public forums and hearings, but we likely can’t do that before the winter. • The HRC should support getting more translators for people seeking government services. • We should continue demanding DEI information from the City Administration; DEI is a large part of the HRC’s mission. • The HRC should continue to reach out to other commissions and organizations to collaborate on human rights initiatives. ADJOURNMENT: There was no further business, TREJO moved to adjourn; the Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m. The next Regular Meeting is scheduled for August 15th at 6:30 p.m. at the Public Safety Building. Minutes by Annie Cronan Yorick for adoption at the December 19, 2024, meeting.