Laserfiche WebLink
Roseville Human Rights Commission <br />Meeting Minutes August 14, 2007 <br />Page 5 of 6 <br />examples; raising the HRC visibility; clarifying services available through the HRC; and <br />surveying citizens to provide the HRC with a pulse for citizen concerns. <br />Educate community members on diversity issues; that prejudice and intolerance are not <br />welcome in Roseville <br />Discussion included attracting citizens and gaining wider attention for diversity issues through <br />well -known speakers; identifying what annual budget was available to the HRC; noting that <br />Commissioner Oftelie was a technical grant writer for the Bremer Foundation; Commissioner <br />McKenzie's enthusiasm for pursuing a Bremer grant by coming up with novel ideas; discussion <br />of Coming Up Roses and Rosefest activities; potential speakers; and the need to develop a <br />program with consistent partnership opportunities. <br />Establish City help desk to provide community communications <br />Physical disability access <br />Commissioner McKenzie opined that the City was exemplary in handicapped accessibility. <br />Organize mentoring opportunities, serving newcomers to the community and work with <br />school districts to address needs of newcomers (i.e., focus group) <br />Commissioner Bosch told commissioners of a recent experience and resulting solution to their <br />frustrations. Commissioner Bosch noted that issues were often created due to cultural and /or <br />translation problems and the need for resources within the community to provide a listening ear, <br />to facilitate language translation or to serve as a tutor or cultural liaison with cultural <br />communities, to build bridges and offer support for specific cultural needs. <br />Commissioners questioned if the Police Department or City staff had a list of translators to call if <br />assistance and /or translation was warranted. <br />Discussion included identifying and developing community demographics, using the School <br />District for relevant data, desire for the HRC to review the "Welcome Packet" with <br />Commissioner Bosch endorsing the usefulness and impressive packet and determining focus <br />topics through a community survey. <br />Additional areas of interest and involvement for a survey included GLTB issues from a <br />community perspective, women's shelters and domestic violence issues and Police Department <br />training for those issues, need for identifying specific group trends and proactive involvement of <br />the HRC in teaching about various values and cultures. <br />City Manager Malinen endorsed the need for a community survey; however, he noted that a <br />survey had been met with resistance among some Councilmembers. Mr. Malinen noted the <br />availability of a standard and accurate survey through the International City Manager's <br />Association (ICMA) and encouraged the HRC to encourage interest among Councilmembers and <br />reinforce their support for those areas of interest specific to the HRC and their objectives, noting <br />the recommendation for a survey that from the community visioning process. Mr. Malinen <br />volunteered to review specific HRC issues in the ICMA survey. <br />