Human Relations Commission

Human Relations Commission AGENDA FOR REGULAR MEETING July 15, 2021 HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION: Babs Gellman, Chair Tina Meier, Vice Chair Ed Bryant Jason Dunn Jessica Ross-Sutton Donalee Gastreich Dr. Suzanne Leake Dr. Wade Steinhoff Lt. Thomas Wilkison (Representing PD) Dan Borgmeyer, Mayor Tom Besselman, City Council Liaison Chuck Lovelace, Staff Liaison and Secretary/Treasurer Commission Members: On Thursday, July 15, 2021, at 4:30 p.m. the City of St. Charles Human Relations Commission will hold its regular meeting in City Council Chambers within St. Charles City Hall located at 200 N. Second Street, St. Charles, Missouri. I. Call To Order and Call the Roll (5 min.) II. The Pledge of Allegiance III. Welcome Any Guests (Babs - 5 min.) IV. Review and Approval of June 17, 2021 minutes (5 min.) V. Comments from the Mayor (5 min.) VI. Old Business A. None VII. New Business Human Relations Commission Agenda Page 1  July 15, 2021 A. City Education Committee Report Questions/Comments (Tina, Ed, Jessica, Wade - 3 min.) B. Social Media & Marketing Committee Questions/Comments (Babs - 3 min.) 1. St Louis Racial Equity Summit 2021 August 4th-6th (Babs - 3 min.) C. Partnership & Community Outreach Committee Questions/Comments (Jason, Suzanne, Tom, Donalee - 3 min.) D. Administrative Committee Questions/Comments (Babs, Tina - 3 min.) E. Chair Recommendation (Babs – 50 min.) VIII. Comments from Commissioners (5 min.) IX. Next Meeting – The next general meeting will be held on August 19th. X. Adjournment Upcoming General Meeting Schedule: September 16, October 21, November 18 and December 16. NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC: The City of St. Charles offers all interested citizens the opportunity to attend public meetings. If you wish to attend this public meeting and require an accommodation due to a disability, please contact the Office of the City Clerk to coordinate an accommodation at least two (2) business days in advance of the scheduled meeting at 636-949- 3282 or 636-949-3289 (TTY – for the hearing impaired). The City of St. Charles, Missouri fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations in all programs and activities. For more information or to obtain a Title VI Complaint Form, please call the City Clerk’s Office at 636-949-3282 or visit City Hall located at 200 North Second Street, St. Charles, Missouri, 63301. Agenda Posted 7/9/21 @ 5:00 p.m. By: CWL Attachments:  HRC Meeting Minutes June 17, 2021  HRC Updates July 15, 2021  Education Committee July 2021 Report  Social Media & Marketing Committee July 2021 Report  Partnership & Community Outreach Committee July 2021 Report  Administrative Committee July 2021 Report Human Relations Commission Agenda Page 2  HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION - MINUTES June 17, 2021 4:30 pm Zoom Meeting MEMBERS PRESENT: STAFF PRESENT: Babs Gellman, Chair Chuck Lovelace, Staff Liaison & Secretary Tina Meier, Vice Chair Bruce Evans, Director of Com. Dev. Jason Dunn Jessica Ross- Sutton SPECIAL GUEST: Donalee Gastreich Alex Reichert Dr. Suzanne Leake Lt. Thomas Wilkison (Representing PD) Dan Borgmeyer, Mayor MEMBER ABSENT: Ed Bryant Dr. Wade Steinhoff Tom Besselman, Council Member The regular meeting of the St. Charles Human Relations Commission was held on Thursday June 17, 2021 at 4:31 p.m. virtually through Zoom. The minutes for this meeting are as follows: 1. Call to order and call the roll- The meeting was called to order by Chair Babs Gellman at 4:31 p.m. Those in attendance are noted above. 2. Welcome to Guests- Commission Chair Babs Gellman welcomed Alex Reichert to the commission meeting. 3. Review and Approval of May 20, 2021 minutes: Commissioner Jason Dunn made a motion to approve the May 20, 2021 minutes as written. Commissioner Donalee Gastreich seconded the motion. All were in favor. The minutes were approved unanimously. 4. Comments from the Mayor- Mayor Dan Borgmeyer thanked the Commission for their recent work. He recommended, in the future to go through the legal office before issuing training certificates. 5. Old Business- A. Safe Zone Training Debrief/Plans – Commission chair Babs Gellman thanked Commissioner Jason Dunn and those who attended the Safe Zone Training workshop at the St Charles Police Department on June 10th. The training was well received by those who attended. It was agreed that the Commission is interested in sponsoring more such trainings. Commissioners Jason Dunn and Jessica Ross- Sutton will develop a proposal on how that might work and present to the Commission.  6. New Business- A. Committee Updates- 1. City Education Committee- Update and report are attached to these minutes. a. Update on City Training Progress- A meeting was held between HR Director Shanton Fountain, Bruce Evans, Commissioner Tina Meier and Staff Liaison Chuck Lovelace to discuss a possible schedule and pricing for Training. Work is ongoing. 2. Social Media and Marketing Committee- Updates discussed and report attached to these minutes. a. Multicultural Reading Event- Commissioners discussed holding a day camp event at the parks. Commission Liaison Chuck Lovelace will reach out to Park Director Marlaee Britton. 3. Partnership & Community Outreach Committee- Updates discussed and report attached to these minutes. 4. Administrative Committee- A report is attached to these minutes. a. 2021 Preliminary MEI Score. Tabled due to time b. Meeting in Person- After some discussion, a motion was made by Commissioner Jason Dunn and Seconded by Commissioner Tina Meier to begin meeting in person effective July 2021. All were in favor. The motion passed unanimously. Commission Liaison Chuck Lovelace will check available of Council Chamber for meeting space and report back to the Commission. 7. Comments from Commissioners- None 8. Next Meeting- The next general meeting will be held on Thursday, July 15th, 2021. This meeting will be the first in-person since lifting COVID restrictions. Meeting location to be determined. 9. Adjournment- After final discussions and there being no further business, a motion was made by Commissioner Jason Dunn and Seconded by Commissioner Jessica Ross-Sutton to adjourn the meeting. All were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 6:18 p.m. ______________________________ ___________________________ CHUCK W. LOVELACE III, SECRETARY DATE  HRC Updates July 15, 2021 Babs Gellman – Chair ● Committee Reports: Just a reminder that the intent of having Committee Reports contained within the meeting packet is that all Commissioners read them prior to the meeting, to save time within the meeting. The time allotted on the agenda for each Committee is for questions and comments Commissioners outside the Committee may want to raise and/or for any updates to the report that occurred between submission and meeting date. And, if there are specific topics on which the Committee needs full Commission input, or feels a need to raise a heightened awareness, the Committee should request time on the agenda by Monday before the packet is distributed. Chuck Lovelace – Secretary/Treasurer and Staff Liaison ● Budget: 2021 Total Annual Budget: $1,000.00 Remaining Budget total as of June 9th: $802.20 Spent Last Month: $0 Remaining Budget total as of July 1st: $802.20 Page 1  JULY 2021 Report Education Subcommittee of the Human Relations Commission City of St. Charles, Missouri Education Committee Members: Tina Meier, Ed Bryant, Jessica Sutton, & Wade Steinhoff 1. No monthly Education Committee meeting happened. 2. Jessica created a trainings matrix to present to Shanton Fountain. Once we hear back from Shanton, we will report to the commission. (The matrix is below)  A B C D Diversity MU Extensions Inspire e- Safe Awareness Cultural. learning Zone Awareness- Partnership Nav. Differences (DAP) 1 Will Provide Multiple Yes Yes Yes Yes trainings/day 2 Available to Train Yes Yes Yes Yes Between(6:30am thru 6:00 pm/start) 3 Max persons/per training 45 35 NA 20 4 Platform Virtual In-Person Virtual In- (virtual, in-person, hybrid) person 5 Length of training 2 hours 3.5- 4 hours NA 4 hours 6 Provide Handouts? Yes Yes NA online SF will need prior to approval 7 Tiered training? Not listed Not listed NA No (Exc. level?) 8 Cost $1,900/45 $18,500/550 Approx. No cost $ 22,900/538 employees $11/person or a employees total of $5920 9 Quarter to implement NA NA NA NA (2,3,4) 10 Experience with working Yes Yes Yes NA with large organizations or municipalities? END OF REPORT  Social Media & Marketing Committee Report July 8, 2021 To: HRC Commissioners From: Babs Gellman Social Media & Marketing Committee Purpose: Deliver messaging focused on fulfilling HRC’s purpose, and news about HRC activities, to ensure the community is aware of, and engaged with the HRC. Social Media & Marketing Committee Members Change We have been advised that Staff Liaisons are unable to sit on any Committee the Commission forms. Therefore, Chuck Lovelace will no longer be a member of this Committee. I cannot express what a joy it has been working with him on this Committee and how much he has added to all the efforts this Committee has undertaken. I will miss him! Events GOAL: Hold three events/activities over the course of the year, to promote awareness of the HRC and increase community engagement. Multicultural Event After last month’s meeting where the Commission voted to hold an in person Multicultural event in August, Chuck and I decided that the result of that conversation enlarged the event from what we originally had in mind (on-line FB readings). Not that that was a bad thing at all. However, we realized that we already had too much on our plates to support an in-person August event. Therefore, I reached out to ask if other Commissioners could form an ad-hoc Multi-Cultural Day Event Sub-Committee. Too few responses to the email were received to form that ad-hoc committee, so we are not holding this event in August. Fair Housing For several months we have been attempting to gather information on educational opportunities as a potential Social Media and Marketing sponsored event. We had contacted EHOC (Equal Housing and Opportunity Council) to see what might be available and the related details, and have followed up several times, without response. We are now looking at other avenues to obtain the information. Again, we will ask for Commissioners to approve this training once we have the additional details. Community Services Summit Oct 2021 The HRC has had a table at this event in the past: http://www.communitycouncilstc.org/community-services-summit . Details regarding possible participation have not yet been shared but I wanted to get it on our radar. Community Council have shared:” For 2021, we will have virtual speakers hosting live Q&A sessions as well as an in-person Exhibit Hall. Exhibit Hall attendance times will be assigned so we are able to maintain social distancing protocols and limit the number of people in the building at one time.” The Community Services Summit is a collaborative training at which educators, social workers, first responders, health/mental health professionals and others serving children and families attain information about issues affecting our community and the local Page 1  Social Media & Marketing Committee Report resources available to help. Last year, more than 550 professionals participated in the Summit, learning about such issues as substance abuse, suicide prevention, trauma informed, human trafficking, homelessness, child abuse, therapies and interventions and more. Along with expert-led, skill-building workshops, Summit participants receive beneficial information from health and human service providers in our extensive Resource Hall.” Equity Fair July 17th The event is being sponsored by: In Purpose Educational Services and the Missouri Equity Education Support Group who describe themselves as… “a group set up to oppose the push in the MO Legislature to severely limit equity and inclusion education in the state.” Because of the short lead time, an email was sent out on June 30th to determine if the HRC wanted to hire a table at the event and a majority responded that we should proceed with obtaining a table at the event. Plans are underway. St Louis Racial Equity Summit 2021 August 4th-6th From the website at https://www.racialequitystl.org/: “The 2021 Racial Equity Summit is designed to build on the success of the inaugural summit in 2019 when over 500 advocates for equity gathered together. This year the event will move to a virtual platform, allowing more people to participate in sessions while adhering to safe gathering policies. Curriculum tracts will be available for all levels: from beginners in this work, to nonprofit leaders, to seasoned organizers.” General attendance price is $120; that applies to anyone who is able to pay full price. There is a discount for being a “community activist”, a label I believe applies, which reduces that to $20.39. Our budget for 2021 includes $200 for education. Using that, we could pay for attendance for up to nine Commissioners. Alternatively Commissioners could pay for their own attendance. Currently no one has submitted a request to spend the education funds. At our Jul 15th General Meeting, I will ask Commissioners 1) To vote on spending money from the education funds for Commissioners to attend 2) Identify if they can/want to commit to attending the virtual event 3) Resolve any issues should more than nine Commissioners wish to attend. St. Charles Jewish Festival August 15, 2021 Rabbi Landa shared information with me regarding the upcoming St. Charles Jewish Festival. It has been “organized by the Chabad Jewish Center of St. Charles County and the St. Charles Jewish Family Network. Attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy Jewish music and kosher food, and learn about Jewish holidays, rituals and traditions in a fun and meaningful way. Fore more information, visit: www.JewishStCharles.org/Festival” When I asked if there might be an available table I could ask the Commission to consider hiring for the event, the Rabbi advised it does not seem like they will be having outside vendors/booths this year. He felt, however, there will be other ways for the HRC to partner and that he would be in touch. Of course, any involvement propositions will be brought to the Commissioners to vote on, though we will not be meeting again until after the festival. Page 2  Social Media & Marketing Committee Report Respect, Harmony and Understanding Week This was held on-line via FB April 19-23. Website GOAL: Redesign the HRC City website to provide more information regarding the HRC and our work to the public. Make it user friendly, accessible and relatively easy to maintain. Recommended changes delivered to the Commission by the end of April. Chuck Lovelace and I worked this past month gathering more detail to add to the site before going live, and provided a good deal of material to Media. We were scheduled to meet on July 8th with the City Media Department Director to review how the site looked, having been updated with changes discussed at our last meeting, and the additional information we have provided. However, that meeting has been moved to July 12th. Facebook GOAL: Increase HRC Facebook Page likes by 10% by year end, to further broadcast the message and mission of the HRC and educate and engage the community. Extend the Facebook reach by adding a feed to the website. Our FB page likes inched up 2% from June 1, 2021 to July 1, 2021 (see Appendix A) and 41% from the beginning of the year. Our page likes at month end were 344. Number of posts in June (33) mimicked the prior month (see Appendix B). Age & Gender had little change (Appendix C) and Top Cities & Countries saw a small increase in the St. Charles area (Appendix D). Reach per Month is now added (Appendix E). Far fewer Commissioners provided post materials last month. Thank you to those who did. It would be very much appreciated if Commissioners could send their posts to me as we had all agreed. Chuck has added July’s HRC Meeting as an Event on FB. June FB Posts were primarily dedicated to Pride Month and included recognition of Juneteenth. Maximum reach for any single post was 2.1k, that being the Pride Month proclamation made June 1. We asked followers to “Share Your Pride” and were pleased to see a Reach of 450 as well as some participation. City Newsletter/E-Newsletter I, via Chuck, will continue the practice we have established of asking Media to share HRC hot- topic FB posts in the e-Newsletter. The next paper Newsletter deadline is August 16 for a September publication. I cannot commit to having anything ready to include at this time. Two potential ideas are announcing the roll-out of our new FB site (if indeed we are ready by then) and/or creating a poll to gather input regarding the HRC and our work. While I like the idea of a poll I think it may be tricky and is ambitious. Should anyone have any ideas for topics or be willing to help me create something for publication, please let me know. Page 3 Social Media & Marketing Committee Report APPENDIX A Page 4 Social Media & Marketing Committee Report APPENDIX B Page 5 Social Media & Marketing Committee Report APPENDIX C Page 6 Social Media & Marketing Committee Report APPENDIX D Page 7 Social Media & Marketing Committee Report APPENDIX E Page 8  WAS - Partnership and Community Outreach Committee Subcommittee NOW – Building Awareness, Alliances, and Appreciation - of the Human Relations Commission City of St. Charles, Missouri Topic: July Report 1. The committee met and updated its name and purpose. a. Awareness – Raise awareness to HRC, diversity, inclusion, mental health awareness b. Alliances – build and nurture alleys in the community c. Appreciation – recognize and show appreciation to local individuals or organizations how support our mission and work 2. The committee set new goals a. raise awareness of HRC - Each quarter we will reach 4 new organizations b. Build & nurture alliances – 4 per quarter c. Show Appreciation - look to show appreciate quarterly and to all submissions for Human Relations Award. 3. Changed our monthly committee meeting to the Last Thursday of the month at 8:30 pm for summer. 4. Commissioner Gastreich reached out to Lindenwood – Assoc. VP of Student Affairs, Diversity, and Inclusion a. Zoom call with Kelly Moyich and Orrie Covert - receptive and appreciative b. They too, have offered Safe Zone Training in the community and can be a backup option if we find Jason Dunn is not available. c. They intend to be a part of all festivals and major events in the community going forward – floats in parade and presence d. They are looking for ways to invite community to some on campus events.  Administrative Committee Report July 6, 2021 To: HRC Commissioners From: Tina Meier Babs Gellman Committee Purpose: Create an infrastructure and processes to enable the HRC to run efficiently and effectively Administrative Committee Members Change We have been advised that Staff Liaisons are unable to sit on any Committee the Commission forms. Therefore, while Chuck Lovelace will still be involved in helping us organize the HRC meetings and generally supporting the HRC. he will no longer be a member of this Committee. We will miss him dearly! Budget Chuck is continuing to work with the vendors to order both promo items and aprons for 2021. Strategic Plan We will discuss a recommendation being made by the Chair, and supported by the Vice-Chair, at our July meeting. We believe that discussion, and potential ongoing discussions, will evolve into what we will call our Strategic Plan. No Changes Since Last Report HRC Hub GOAL: Create an on-line hub accessible to the Commissioners, for the purpose of storing and collaborating on their work, and to provide easy access to non-public Commissioner resources. This will make our work easier and produce informed, cohesive, better quality, work. Officer Hub pilot to be completed by Jul 1. The Administrative Committee has been using Google Docs for many months and considers the Pilot complete. No recommendations, or further action will be taken, until the website is completed, so we can get a better picture of what will not be shared on the website, and of that, what needs to be kept on some shared space. Commissioner Handbook GOAL: Create a Commissioner Handbook to provide written requirements, guidance, policies, procedures, and standing plans for the HRC, so that we approach and carry out our work with the same understanding, speaking and acting on behalf of the Commission. First draft completed by Sep 1. Nothing further to report. Page 1  Administrative Committee Report MEI Updates GOAL: Develop a process to ensure the Human Rights Campaign is kept apprised of actions taken by the City of St Charles that would impact our Municipality and Equality Index (MEI). Plan completed by May 1. This goal was completed by Apr 5th. Page 2