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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Ames Human Relations Commission - AHRC Minutes 4-27-2017MINUTES Ames Human Relations Commission Conference Room 235 City Hall, 515 Clark Avenue Thursday, April 27, 2017 1. Call to Order John called the meeting to order at 5:31pm. All commissioners and several community members present. 2. Public Forum None 3. Approval of Minutes Regular Meeting of March 23, 2017 and the Special Meeting of March 27, 2017 John moved to approve, Joel seconded. Heidi asked about the recipient of the Home for Everyone award. Approved 5-0 4. Inclusive Ames Subcommittee Cheryl Binson from the Inclusive Ames stated that the Ames Progressive Alliance (APA) and others were sponsoring an implicit bias training. She also surfaced that an Inclusive Ames subcommittee was investigating bystander training and that Joel had provided a connection for them to continue their work. She also said that yard signs for the community would also be coming via APA. One Human Family signs are also available and sponsored through the Ames Interfaith Refugee Alliance. It was also surfaced that the YWCA Stand Against Racism group had an event at 5pm today and looked well attended. Ames Interfaith Refugee Alliance event at the library was a success on Tuesday. Rumsfeld delegates were in attendance at that event and commented positively on the large turnout of the meeting. No report from the Inclusive Ames subcommittee. 5. Safe City Resolution Amy had talked with Rick Exner and Rick put together the resolution and used the Iowa City resolution as a model. Rick stated they had met with Brian Phillips at the city and had a good conversation regarding the resolution. Brian was curious about what Iowa City had experienced since passing. Rick and others contacted Iowa City and it has been business as usual for the city. Specifically the federal government hasn’t stopped working with Iowa City. Another concern surfaced was if the community most affected would find it useful or not. They followed up at an event at St. Cecelia and discussed the proposal. Everyone who voted said that it would be a good thing and feel that this resolution is a good direction forward. Anneke asked if any conversations had happened with the Ames Police Department. No conversation about this specific resolution, but that the police doesn’t spend time on immigration issues currently. Rick said he met with the Chief of Police and didn’t have an issue with the resolution. Anneke asked if anyone has met with the county or discussed with them regarding the change in ICE detainer policy. Commissioners commented that no conversation directly with the county on the issue of detainer policy change. John discussed a Supreme Court decision regarding the issue of local law enforcement’s role in enforcing federal law. ICE detainer requests are not warrants signed by a judge. ICE has recently been publishing localities that are not in compliance with detainer requests. Amy brought up the Ames Community School District resolution and how that may have bearing on how this resolution may be presented to city council. John mentioned that the ACSD has a much more complex situation than the city resolution and responsibilities. Rick stated that they had met with several council members and the mayor. Across the board members have been positive about the resolution. Joel moved that the resolution should be approved and support community representatives in their presentation. Heidi seconded. Amy was wondering about presenting this to the council itself. Joel had a reservation about that and suggested that the community folks should present it themselves as he didn’t want to co-opt any plans for community members to bring it to City Council. Amy suggested that maybe the commission should do a report instead of presenting the information. Joel stated that his concern was more about not co-opting the community members work, but if the intent from the community members was to have the commission present it, he did not have a problem doing it. John stated that he believe the most politically effective way to bring it forward was to have many community citizens at the presentation as possible. Amy proposed an amendment that the commission put together a letter to support the community members in presenting this resolution to the council. Cheryl Binson provided a point of clarification that at the Feb 23rd the Commission supported the community’s work on this project. Community members have had many conversations with counc il members, police, etc. Cheryl state it was their hope that the commission will bring the resolution to the city council as that would be the best course and would be supported by citizens. Heidi asked about the role of the Inclusive Ames Subcommittee. John stated that the Inclusive Ames Subcommittee’s task is to maintain a liaison to Inclusive Ames and their role is to attend events and bring back information to the Commission. Joel considered Amy’s amendment a friendly amendment. Joel then withdrew his original motion. Amy then moved that the AHRC support the resolution and present it to the city council for their consideration to adopt. Heidi seconded. Anneke had asked if the council had questions who would be the folks to answer those questions. John said that the questions would be different going to him instead of a community group and would be happy to field those as they are asked. Motion approved 5-0. John asked who would draft the letter to the city council. Amy volunteered to do this. Rick Exner offered to assist Amy in the development of the letter. Cheryl and Rick thanked the commission for approving and engaging. 6. AHRC Annual Report and Presentation to the City Council The Commission discussed several typographical errors that needed to be corrected before bringing it to City Council. Heidi brought up a correction to page 5 of the report. Anneke was curious on page 3 about the “Know Your Rights” orientation sessions for students. Heidi talked about the different sessions and that the commission does them for international student orientation and a different set of sessions for the city and for ISU. Amy had some corrections and would follow up with Heidi. Joel provided some suggestions to the partnership section. Joel and Amy provided some suggestions for the Ames Civil Rights… section. Joel will add in language to the municipality index section. Heidi clarified that the report should be a January – December (fiscal year) report and that the commission should start working on it in November for the next fiscal year. John asked about how to deliver the report. John asked that commissioners be present when it is presented at the council meeting. Anneke stated that the council may have many questions to ask the commission. 7. Commissioner Comments Anneke discussed the racial/ethnic gaps identified in the school district. The Inclusive Ames group thought it would be useful to have government involvement and asked if it would be okay for her to be a commissioner representative. John suggested that it is okay if she told folks she was on the commission. Amy had discussed the dual role of citizen and commissioner. Heidi passed around a documents to commissioners so the commission doesn’t lose information on what has happened and provided an overview of what had happened throughout the year. Heidi stated that the commission needs to review its strategic plan as it expires in June. Heidi wants to add it to the May meeting agenda for discussion. Discussion regarding the strategic plan. Amy suggested that the commission have another meeting before May to discuss the strategic plan. Heidi suggested the commission have a telephonic meeting next week to approve the annual report. John suggested that the commission could have an electronic meeting and said he would contact Cathy to see if that would be possible. Heidi said that she would contact Cathy to set up a meeting on Thursday, May 4 to discuss and approve the annual report. 8. Next Meeting: May 25, 2017 9. Adjournment Amy moved to adjourn at 6:43pm.