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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-26 HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION Meeting Minutes March 26, 2024 I. CALL TO ORDER a. Meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM by Chair Glover. Members Present: Richard Glover, Haitham Fakhouri, Denise Collins- Robison, Madison Ling, Rebecca Drzewicki, and Pastor Yvette Warren. Not Present: Thomas Emerick II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA a. The agenda for the March 26, 2024 meeting was approved unanimously. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES th a. The minutes for the January 16 meeting were approved pending date corrections. IV. CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT a. We welcomed the LPS and Clarenceville essay award recipients. They were presented with certificates and gift cards. Two winners were unable to attend and will be picking up their certificates at City Hall. b. The team was informed that Dominick Mack resigned from the commission. V. OLD BUSINESS a. Updates from subcommittees i. Non-Discrimination Ordinance- efforts are being led by City Council to work on this initiative but rebrand it as a Civil Rights Ordinance. In the planning stages, more to come. ii. Research & Data- Nothing new to report on. We can focus on locally what other towns are doing in terms of NDO/Civil Rights. Team to determine if there are any other areas we should focus on. iii. Outreach & Communications- Nothing new to report on. iv. DEI Forum- The mayor really leaves the “fishbowl” concept. Hoping to have a thoughtful conversation with various heads including the Chief of Police. v. Education- DEIB programs are on hold at LPS. Denise will be reaching out further regarding concerned parents speaking to the school board. There are some concerns regarding the essay contest and the use of AI. Denise will talk to LPS regarding how we should judge AI issues and how to handle those submissions that violate the rules. b. Mental Health- Would still like to move forward with an art contest. The idea does present logistical issues in terms of where we can store submitted pieces. Rebecca presented the idea of partnering with the library to display “Commissioner Picks” where the various commissions could recommend books and have them on display for library patrons to help garner interest in the type of work the commissions support. Rich has an upcoming meeting with Kristin Edsen so he will bring up the idea and inquire about storage space. c. Other Commission Meetings- No commission meetings have been attended VI. NEW BUSINESS a. Robb Drzewicki was introduced as the new city liaison replacing Dave Varga b. Review Changemaker Award- The Livonia Westland Chamber had their annual banquet in February where the DEIB Changemaker Award was presented. The HRC chose Madonna University as its winner. Chief Diversity Officer Jesse Cox was present and accepted the award. He gave a great speech that was well received by the audience. c. Pride update- Planning meetings have started. The event will be 6/15 from 11:00-3:00. It will be in the same parking lot as last year. A number of the tables that were present last year will be participating again. This year the hope is to make the event even larger and bring in food trucks. Next planning meeting is 4/8/24. d. ADA Complaint- City Hall is not the most accessible building and we want the public to be able to comfortably attend our meetings. Going forward HRC meetings will either be held at the Rec Center or DPW. e. State of the City- We discussed how the Mayor’s State of the City went on 3/19. Those that attended thought it was a great presentation. The annual report that was provided featured a picture of the HRC and other event organizers at the inaugural pride event in 2023. VII. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION a. Betsy Calhoun (Greenleaf commission) suggested that for the Pride event that the planning committee support recycling. Billy Keppen with Parks and Rec has support recycling at previous events that the Greenleaf commission has worked on. b. Laura Jannika spoke about concerns regarding ADA accessibility in the city. She read a portion of a letter from another resident regarding the lack of public transit options. The options that do exist have reliability/timeliness issues, invasive eligibility questions, and have limited accommodation options (ex. can only bring one item to assist, service dog or mobility device). She also expressed concerns about city sidewalks not being cleared properly in the winter, the ramp height at city hall, desks not at wheelchair level, no raised toilets, and the auditorium slope being too steep. She would like to see Zoom options for Council meetings like it is being done in Detroit and Beverly Hills. c. Chris Hench spoke about access for the hard of hearing population at city council meetings. She suggested it should be sign language interpreters because AI and text interpreters can be misleading and don’t always accurately capture what is being said. Meeting adjourned at 8:01. Next meeting will be Tuesday, May 21, 2024.