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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,April 24, 2017 <br /> Page 14 <br /> Keely Vandre, 2458 Holton Street <br /> Ms. Vandre submitted written comments, attached hereto and made a part here- <br /> of. <br /> As an employee of the University of Minnesota, Ms. Vandre stated that she had <br /> been drawn into residency in Roseville based on its interest in diversity, including <br /> her relief that the city had an HRC to protect human rights. As a social worker <br /> and mother, Ms. Vandre stated that she expected to see no less from Roseville, <br /> and if consideration was given to removing "human rights" from the title, it would <br /> serve to send a harmful message. Ms. Vandre asked that the City Council under- <br /> stand the negative impact that such a change would signify, and asked that it be <br /> kept in the title and intended action of the ordinance. <br /> Frank Strahan, 1260 Shryer Avenue <br /> Specific to the name change and ordinance language, Mr. Schwin stated that it <br /> appears that the City Council was repeating past errors in not providing sufficient <br /> direction in naming this commission, as well as in not obtaining community sup- <br /> port for deleting"human rights" from the title. <br /> Eric Tomlinson, 221 McCarron's Street, CEC Commissioner and late addi- <br /> tion to the Task Force <br /> While having come into the Task Force later in the process, Mr. Tomlinson noted <br /> that a name was not the all in all for the tasks intended for this commission. Mr. <br /> Tomlinson opined that this involved more than the role of merging; but with the <br /> many comments heard tonight about the importance of "human rights" to the <br /> community, offered his support for adding it to the new commission's title. <br /> Julie Strahan, 1260 Shryer Ave <br /> Ms. Schier questioned why, in a time of so much interest in community engage- <br /> ment and understanding how it works, the City Council would choose to remove <br /> those opportunities and reduce the size of a commission with ample work before <br /> it. Rather, Ms. Schier suggested redefining the CEC, especially if additional can- <br /> didates are waiting in the wings to serve their community in this role. Ms. Schier <br /> suggested the City Council take advantage of tapping into that resource by involv- <br /> ing as many people as possible, especially when the City Council itself didn't rep- <br /> resent the diverse racial image of its constituency. Ms. Schier opined that the city <br /> needed to find ways for people to engage rather than taking away human rights <br /> and an opportunity to grow them. <br /> Michelle Manke,3032 Simpson Street, CEC Commissioner <br /> While the City Council may have voted unanimously to merge the HRC and <br /> CEC; Ms. Manke stated that she was still seeing a division, causing her concern at <br /> this point as to whether or not the combined commission would succeed. With <br /> the HRC being dead set in what they wanted, and the CEC never having been giv- <br /> en the opportunity by the City Council over these last few years after the initial <br />