Human Rights Commission

MORGANTOWN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION March 20, 2025, Minutes for the Regular Meeting At the Morgantown Public Safety Building, 300 Spruce Street, Morgantown, WV ATTENDANCE: Commissioners: Chair, Annie CRONAN YORICK; Vice Chair, Danny TREJO; and Secretary, Ashley SWANSON; Commissioner, Laura FLETCHER Liaisons: Tim HAIRSTON, West Virginia Human Rights Commission Mimi FERGUSON, WVU SGA Local Governance via Zoom Absent: None (3 Vacancies) CALL TO ORDER: A quorum was present, so the Chair called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. WVU SGA Local Governance Liaison Mimi Ferguson joined via Zoom. MINUTES: FLETCHER moved to accept the Minutes for the Regular Meeting of February 20, 2024; TREJO seconded: Unanimously approved. PUBLIC PORTION: (N/A) COMMUNICATIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: ● The Chair supplied the WV NOW agenda with priority bills to watch: SB 579 - Home Rule Reform to void municipal human rights protected classes HB 2381 – Municipal Election Law that would permit a county resident or business owner who has paid any City fees to vote in the municipal election; the voter could vote in multiple elections in the county. ● To commit protests to the record, one must mail, email, or post them to the Legislature’s page for the bill. ● The HRC Annual Report is due by June 30th, 2025 PRIORITY BUSINESS ADDRESSED: ● Approve Meeting Absenteeism and other language to amend the HRC Bylaws ● Confirmed that the HRC will take on the MLCC administration, as decided in the February 2025 HRC Regular Meeting. The MLCC will become a subcommittee of the HRC. ● 2025 Legislative Session Recap ● 2025 HRC priorities ● Proclamations to consider: National Fair Housing Month – April; Youth Homelessness Matters Day - April 16; AAPI Heritage Month – 1  May; Juneteenth - June 19; Hispanic Heritage Month (joint with Sister Cities) - September 15 - October 15; Veterans Day - November 11; International Universal Human Rights Declaration Day - December 10 ● Blessing Boxes – We intend to post Laura’s map to the HRC webpage if the City permits it, and create fliers with a QR code. ● Bonnie Brown will supply the advertising materials for the Human Rights Film Series; we will disseminate the information through social media and print fliers. UPDATES: Chair, Annie CRONAN YORICK: • The Source of Income proposed Ordinance has been on the HRC Agenda every month since September 2024, when we agreed that all members must review the document and offer suggested changes. We cannot schedule public forums until we agree on the proposed language. To date, nobody seems to have read the document that the chair has supplied by email and at meetings several times. Please do this ASAP. • She attended the Annual Forbes Women’s Summit for the week around International Women’s Day. • She plans to prepare the Proclamation for Fair Housing Month – April. Vice Chair, Danny TREJO: • People Over Papers – an anonymous page for publishing information about current ICE Raids locations is available online: https://thedemlabs.org/2025/01/31/people-over-papers-crowdsourced-ice-watch-map/ Secretary, Ashley SWANSON: • Tabled at the WVU Women’s Gymnastics meet for “Women’s Empowerment” on February 28th with Mimi Ferguson. There was less traffic than at the Women’s Basketball “I Belong” game. They used the newly printed HRC fliers. • Attended a legislative session to monitor human rights bills Commissioner, Laura Fletcher: • She will contact Bonnie Brown to coordinate marketing for the Human Rights Film Series via the HRC Facebook page. The Film Series will be shown at 4002 Field Hall on the Downtown WVU Campus. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Wednesday, April 2nd, “A Road to Home” and Wednesday, April 9th, “Daughter of a Lost Bird” • She developed the Blessing Box map and is working to post it on the HRC City webpage. (Annie is unsure if we can post it there because this isn’t a City-sponsored program.) Laura has mapped out all the venues and will keep working on a marketing plan to disperse the information. WVHRC Liaison, Tim HAIRSTON: • The West Virginia Human Rights Commission will meet on March 27th in Charleston. They will vote on the frequency of meetings; they are now proposing only an annual meeting of the Commission. • CCSJ has sold over 1200 copies of Eve Faulkes’ graphic novel, “West Virginians’ Experiences in Civil Rights: How We Have Been Connected All Along”; sales were at in-person events and online through Amazon.com 2 WVU SGA Liaison, Mimi FERGUSON: • WVU SGA went to Charleston to lobby for human rights issues. On WVU Day, they focused on the WV Higher Ed Health and Aid Grant (HB 2737), which would appropriate $400k to establish food banks on college campuses. It was a priority because 50% of WVU students have reported being food insecure, which impacts graduation rates and student success. WVU SGA has been championing this bill for several years. The legislators seemed to listen this time, but the bill remains stalled in committee. • The SGA representatives made a second trip to the Legislature on Monday, March 17th, for Environmental Day, focusing on HB 2233 that would eliminate Category A rankings of our water systems. WV NOW is also monitoring that bill. • The SGA hasn’t been active otherwise because of its recent officer elections. The officers will change soon, so they are finishing current projects. TO-DO: Everyone: • Review the Source of Income proposed ordinance and submit changes and comments to Annie Annie: • assemble “Know Your Rights” information for Ashley • work with the City Communications and IT Departments to get QR codes for our business cards and the Blessing Boxes fliers, and work to get online hosting for the Blessing Boxes map • Draft the Fair Housing Month Proclamation for entry at the April 1st City Council meeting • Prepare the HRC Annual Report, covering July 2023 through December 2024 Laura: • Forward the Human Rights Film Series information to Ashley for posting on the HRC Facebook page. • Clean up the text for the Boxes map. Ashley: • Draft the Know Your Rights flier • Post the Film Series information to the HRC Facebook page ADJOURNMENT: There was no further business. SWANSON moved to adjourn the meeting; TREJO seconded. The Chair adjourned at 9:15 p.m. NEXT REGULAR MEETING: April 17th, 2025 MINUTES: Written by Ashley SWANSON, Secretary, and edited by Annie CRONAN YORICK for approval at the next meeting 3