HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Ames Human Relations Commission Minutes 04/24/2025Minutes
AMES HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
Conference Room 235
City Hall, 515 Clark Avenue
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Call to Order: Vice Chair Annabella Marquez called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m.
Commissioners Shawn Kenny, Sarah Nolin, and Zhengyuan Zhu and Engagement Coordinator
Casandra Eames were also present. Commissioner Pablo Suarez Beltran joined the meeting
telephonically.
Welcome New Commissioners: New commissioners Nolin and Zhu were introduced.
Selection of Chair and Vice Chair for April 2025 – March 2026: Marquez gave an overview
of the responsibilities of the positions. Marquez and Suarez Beltran nominated themselves for
Chair and each spoke to their reasons for wanting to serve. Voting was conducted by secret
ballot, and Marquez was selected as Chair.
Suarez Beltran expressed interest in serving as Vice Chair. Moved by Marquez, seconded by
Kenny, to select Suarez Beltran as Vice Chair. Motion carried unanimously.
Public Forum: No one came forward to speak.
Approval of Minutes from March 27, 2025: Moved by Marquez, seconded by Kenny, to
approve the minutes. Motion carried unanimously.
Budget Update: Eames noted that this would be a standing agenda item moving forward. Staff
shared a cost estimate for purchasing a pop-up canopy for outreach events for future review.
Update on Connecting with Charles Pearson: Marquez and Eames shared information about a
bus tour on June 20 showcasing Civil War/Civil Rights history in Ames coordinated by Charles
Pearson. Commissioners were invited to attend and partner in future endeavors to share the
diverse history of Ames. Staff will seek further information from the organizer.
FACES Planning Update: Marquez provided an overview of the history of the multicultural
celebration and the commission’s efforts to bring back the FACES event. The updated acronym
proposed by Suarez Beltran is Fostering Acceptance, Cultures, Ethnicities, and Solidarity. Suarez
Beltran will be emailing several cultural groups in the community. Zhu shared his experiences
organizing the AAPI celebration and discussed matching the event’s scope to its budget.
Engagement Opportunities from Belonging in Ames Survey: Eames shared that she had
begun offering surveys about sense of belonging to student and community groups when she met
with them. The meetings inspired her to suggest adding a standing agenda item to invite these
groups to take turns attending a meeting and connect with commissioners. The commissioners
embraced the suggestion and discussed groups that could be invited. Eames planned to share
contact information for some groups with Marquez to reach out and issue invitations.
Update on Review of Municipal Code Chapter 14 – Human Relations: Eames reviewed the
ongoing discussions around revising the code to better match the actual activities of the
commission. She noted that the revised powers and duties in the packet reflected the language
from Ottumwa’s code. Staff is still researching options for addressing the removal of protections
for gender identity in state code. Cities can have more protections than the state code, but the
state will not investigate and enforce those additional protections. Cities that investigate locally
can enforce further protections. Staff will contact some of these cities.
Upcoming Events: The Quarterly Meet & Greet will be held May 3 at Back Alley Houseplants.
The Iowa HRCs Gathering will be held on June 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Ames
Public Library Rotary Room. The next step is sending out a registration form. The
commissioners developed a draft agenda for the event to send along with the registration form,
emphasizing the goal of the gathering was to connect with other commissioners.
The Juneteenth Celebration is scheduled for June 14 at Bandshell Park from 12:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Marquez volunteered to be the point person and Eames shared that the commission had already
been registered. Commissioners were encouraged to brainstorm activities to engage people.
Commissioner Announcements: Staff shared that 700 copies of the Trailblazers coloring book
had been printed in its first year. Suarez Beltran shared his progress on drafting images for the
second volume. Marquez volunteered to help him develop text to go along with the images.
Kenny noted that Richard Deyo, who attended several past meetings, had passed away. Marquez
shared that she was exploring opportunities for collaboration with the Catt Center for Politics and
the student government at Iowa State University. Zhu announced that the AAPI event will be
much smaller this year; more information will be coming soon.
Next Meeting: May 22, 2025
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.