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Roseville Human Rights Commission <br />Meeting Minutes September 11, 2007 <br />Page 4 of 7 <br />Mr. Miller concurred; noting that there were a number of employee groups interacting with a <br />diverse population on a regular basis. <br />Chair Delmore opined that the Parks and Recreation Department seemed to be very open and <br />able to work with a diverse clientele. Chair Delmore further opined that if looking for a baseline <br />the HRC needed to know what training had been provided to -date and then look at that data. <br />Commissioner McKenzie noted that tonight's dialogue was encouraging and opined that the <br />HRC was attempting to produce inter -group harmony, allowing different people to say it's <br />"O.K." to be in Roseville and to be comfortable with other people. Ms. McKenzie further opined <br />that this provided the baseline and the HRC was recognizing that baseline and looking for a <br />better way to do it. <br />Additional discussion included providing diversity training that would make people more aware <br />in their various encounters; advances made in the City of Chaska Police Department's <br />"Changing Face" program after several negative attempts; need to provide incentives (food!) to <br />get people to attend training or community gatherings; underwriting by the business community <br />and /or vendors; key players to partner with the HRC, including the City Council and Mayor. <br />Commissioners again noted the need for the demographic information and data to be provided by <br />City Manager Malinen, tweaking of the comment form and determining how recently sensitivity <br />training had been done among City employees. <br />Commissioner McGehee opined that there was no follow up on the other side of the table and the <br />HRC needed to see a method for receiving the information through cooperation of the City and <br />Police Department in order to make any diversity training program operational and effective. <br />Commissioner Bosch suggested a written rather than verbal request for the information. <br />Chair Delmore sought a volunteer to draft a letter. <br />Discussion on the content of the letter and recipients ensued including encouraging results of the <br />City of Chaska model, whether the letter would be addressed to the Police Department and <br />members of City Government or an open letter to the City Council asking for their involvement; <br />and wording the letter to provide information on training and seeking who and how many <br />specific departments would send to such a diversity training program when offered. <br />Commissioner Venters volunteered to draft a letter, and Commissioner Bosch volunteered to <br />review the draft and provide comment. <br />Commissioner McKenzie questioned Mr. Miller on where City Manager Malinen was at in <br />researching and providing the requested information. <br />Commissioner Venters suggested an e -mail specific to the Police Department offered as an <br />"olive branch" to the City's Police Department and a generic letter to other department heads. <br />