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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, January 22, 2024 Page 4 also explained, speaking to the City Manager, a lot of times those issues are overseen at the State level and not at the Commission. She stated this particular paragraph was a little uncomfortable for her and going back to the job of the Commission to advise the City Council, that advocate part is bothering her. She asked for more information on that from the Commission. Mayor Roe thought the way this was written sounds like the Commission was advocating for people who have human rights issues that the City is being accused of. That is how it is worded. Commissioner Tidball indicated the Commission talked a lot about that sentence and being an advocate for human rights is a difficult position to be in because it almost always involves a variety of different authority structures because supposedly, a violation of a person’s rights has been done by some entity and usually, a group. The Commission did not intend this to sound like the Commission would be involved in legal matters. What he remembers of the discussion is that sometimes it is a very lonely thing for a person to believe they are having human rights problems with an organization, a government, things like that. It was more the feeling that a person like that needed somebody to help guide them through the process and be a communication conduit so the person was in some way supported in the difficulties the person was having. The reason the Commission actually included involving the City was that if the Commission had left that out, it would give the impression that the Commission would get involved in any human rights problem that any citizen had with anybody. The Commission thought that in a role of advising and the ambassadorial role, there was more of a duty to help the communication happen and people understand how to go about doing things. The discussion, if he remembered it right, was that almost all of this legal work gets done by the State Department of Human Rights and is where it should be. There may be a clearer way to word that, but the Commission felt it was part of their mission to help that whole process have good outcomes, particularly as it related to the city. Mayor Roe thought the word ‘city’ should be lower case because when capitalized, it means the city government but what this is saying is the city more broadly but not outside the city limits. Commissioner Francke thought what the Commission envisioned also was that if the Commission is acting as advocates on human rights issues, it is an advocate to the City Council, specifically for resources or anything that the City can do to be of assistance, not because the City is the source. Commissioner Macomber thought it would be rare that someone from the public would come in to one of the meetings, even though they are welcome. But, the Commission does get messages through the inbox for the Human Rights Commission, which also goes to whoever the staff liaison is. The Commission Qbhf!77!pg!354