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HomeMy WebLinkAbout[9c] Human Rights Regional Office Update CITY OF ST. JOSEPH Council Agenda Item ~ MEETING DATE: January 17, 2007 AGENDA ITEM: Human Rights - Regional Office SUBMITTED BY: Administration BOARD/COMMISSION/COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: PREVIOUS COUNCIL ACTION: The City Council has previously authorized the Administrator to meet with the City of 5t. Cloud and City of Waite Park regarding the establishment of a regional Human Rights Office. All the area Cities were asked to participate and only St. Cloud, Waite Park and St. Joseph agreed to continue to meet. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Since the time the City has requested the Administrator further pursue participating in the regional Human Rights Office, many meetings have occurred. The details ofthe office are close to completion and the City needs to make a final determination as to whether or not St. Joseph is participating. The City has previously agreed to financially support the project up to $ 8,000 with Waite Park contributing up to $ 10,000 and St. Cloud the balance. It is anticipated that the annual office cost will be near $ 100,000. I have included an email from Velma Korbel- Commission of MN Human Rights, regarding the function of the State Office and what the St. Cloud Office could be. If agreed to by all parties, the three Cities would establish a Joint Powers Agreement. The agreement would identify two separate Boards: Joint Powers Board and Human Rights Commission. The Joint Powers Board would consist of elected officials from each jurisdiction and the primary role would be budgetary, contract administration and receiving an annual report. We anticipate of Board of 5, 3 from St. Cloud and one from each St. Joseph and Waite Park. The Human Rights Commission would consist of consist of eleven volunteers of which seven will be from St. Cloud and two each from St. Joseph and Waite Park. The main role of the Commission would be to assist with outreach, assure compliance with the contract and serve as a resource for the Human Rights Office. As you can see from the email, Governor Pawlenty will be in St. Cloud on Martin Luther King Day and the Governor's Office would like to announce the joint venture if possible. Therefore, Waite Park and St. Joseph need to determine if they will be part of the initiative. Waite Park will be considering the matter on January 15 and I will let the Council know if they are participating as soon as I receive the information. We have yet to determine where the office will be physically located and believe the State should find the location and if they need assistance we can help. It will be important for the space to be centrally located and accessible to the public. BUDGET/FISCAL IMPACT: $ 8,000 ATTACHMENTS: email from Velma Korbel REQUESTED COUNCIL ACTION: The staff has completed the research requested by the Council and now a decision must be made as to whether or not St. Joseph is part ofthe regional Human Rights Office. I (1/7/2508 Michael WilHam's - St.CfoudAreaOffice iiRetoolin "Discussion Pag~ 1,', From: To: Date: Subject: "Velma Korbel" <Velma.Korbel@state.mn.us> "Michael Williams" <MichaeI.Williams@cLstcloud.mn.us> 1/7/2008 St. Cloud Area Office "Retooling" Discussion cc: Michael, "James Kirkpatrick" <James.Kirkpatrick@state.mn.us>, "Ytmar Santiago" <Y... It was good to speak with you this morning. Regarding our conversation, I am available to answer any questions you, or the representatives from St. Joseph and Waite Park might have, as we try to make progress on the St. Cloud Area Human Rights Office. As you know, the Governor is going to be in St. Cloud in two weeks and would be pleased to announce the new office. This would be wonderful, but I do not want to put pressure on Waite Park and St. Joseph to hastily agree to something they're not comfortable with in order to take advantage of the terrific publicity I know Governor Pawlenty's visit will generate. Perhaps a way we could think about the department's work in reference to what St. Joseph and Waite Park require is this: By law, the department performs three primary functions - complaint processing; education and outreach; and contract compliance. In terms of the relative importance of the functions, complaint processing is no. 1, contract compliance is no. 2 and education/outreach is nO.3. The gauge of relative importance is the amount of resources provided by the legislature and the amount of measurement and reporting to the legislature and public the department is required to do. In fact, complaint processing consumes such a large portion of our biennial budget, if the department had enough resources to perform each of the other functions to the same extent, our budget would need to grow by 80%. With regarding to the hierarchy of functions mentioned above, we could change it a bit to address the needs in St. Cloud. There isn't anything that prevents us from making the St. Cloud office a branch of the state office that would be responsible for two things: 1) complaint intake and 2) education and outreach coordination. Here's what I mean. Complaint intake: The staff would need to be able to take in and assist potential charging parties and their representatives with completing the required paperwork for getting a charge filed with the department. MichaelWiliiams ':'St.Cloud AreaOfficei'l~.eto61i11 ,t Discussion Unfortunately, St. Cloud area charging parties and respondents could no longer be guaranteed that their issues would be expedited since the staff there would not have the expertise to conduct the investigation. The staff would, however, be able to handle some pre-investigation alternative dispute resolution (this requires detail that I don't want to try to put in this email). Education and Outreach: The staff there would need to be able to do public (schools, businesses, government, etc.) training about the Minnesota Human Rights Act, but would also need to be able to coordinate forums and other "diversity" events by consultants and others. The department does not have cultural expertise about all cultures so this level of detailed knowledge is not our forte, but we do know of individuals and organizations that are excellent resources for this type of training. Instead of creating a smaller version of the state office in St. Cloud, it could look very different, but would give your group what it needs, and also allow the department to extend the reach of its outreach efforts. The initial proposed budget would be the same. At the end of each year the office would conduct and evaluation - with input from your representative - to determine what changes, if any, needed to be made. Let me know what you think. If St. Cloud, Waite Park and St. Joseph can agree to this format in general, I don't see why we shouldn't be able to have the Governor announce the concept when he is there in two weeks. Regards, Velma J. Korbel Commissioner MN Dept. of Human Rights Sibley Square at Mears Park 190 E. 5th Street St. Paul, MN 55101 Phone: 651/296-9038 Fax: 651/296-1736