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 Human Rights Commission 

City Manager’s Conference Room
January 28, 2004 

MINUTES

Members Present:
Michael Berman, Chair
Virginia Onley, Vice- Chair
Anamika Krishna
Jesse Etelson
Yvonna Love
Nasser Almutairi
Andreas Vassilas

Members Absent: 
Jeff Rosen– Excused
Enilda Abreu - Exscused
Karen Morton - Excused

Staff Present: Janet Kelly

I. Convene: Chair convened meeting at 7:30 p.m.

II. Approval of Minutes: Minutes were approved and seconded
 
III. Chair Report:

Chair discussed an issue that was brought to his attention by Betsy Lueking, of the Montgomery County Commission on People with Disabilities. She stated that she was working on the issue regarding making the secondary entrance of the new library accessible for persons using wheelchairs. Currently, the front entrance is accessible. She stated that the issue is still in political limbo. The matter at hand is whether the Commission should write Mayor Giammo to support the recommendation that the secondary entrance be made accessible. Chair stated that he would contact Ms. Lueking to find out further details. The Commission agreed that after gathering the facts, they could then determine the course of action that they might take.

Chair continued with a discussion about youth participation in the HRC Programs. Ms. Taubman, from Rockville High School, would be willing to provide youths that could assist the Commission. Chair suggested that the Student Service Learning Credits could be issued as an incentive to attract even more students to various programs that the HRC sponsors in the future.  However, it would take someone on the commission to focus on this in order to make it happen.

Finally, the Chair reminded folks that there are plenty opportunities to present the work of the HRC.  Commissioners need only contact Chris Bartlett to schedule a brief presentation at neighborhood meetings and other regular gatherings.

IV. Staff Report:

Staff reported that there was a possibility for additional mediations. Staff, along with community  mediator Tim Stranges and Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce Joy Young will meet together in the hopes of informing the business community about the mediation services provided through the Rockville Mediation Program. Commissioner Krishna stated that some other creative ways to get the businesses informed about the mediation program might include business in-services during lunch. Advertisements could be done through the Rockville Reports.

Staff continued her report with a submission of an idea of a seminar about anger management  that could be done for the general public. At the seminar, the public would learn ways to deal with others’ anger as well as their own anger. At the end of the seminar, there could be an introduction to the Rockville mediation Program. This would simply be a short informative presentation about the process of mediation. Staff had a person in mind for facilitating the seminar Jennifer Alfonzo. Commissioner Etelson suggested that the seminar could be provided for trained mediators. Commissioners thought his idea might be a good one, but they wanted to make sure that the seminar would be one that would assist mediators in principally helping those they mediate to reduce their anger, and that the workshop not be billed as one of anger self-management.   Staff will speak to Ms. Alfonzo to discuss the ideas of the Commission.

Other outreach possibilities would be to do 5 minute, 30 minute and/or 1 hour presentations about mediation. Some of the Commission participated on a committee that developed presentations for outreach purposes. For those Commissioners that are unfamiliar with the presentations, staff will send the presentations to them for their review.

Staff continued her report with new information about upcoming events. Two items of information included the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet and the City Cultural Diversity Awards. The NAACP Banquet will be on April 25, 2004. Commissioners wishing to attend should  notify Staff by February 20, 2004. The City Cultural Diversity Awards are given to organizations, or programs that have diversity as their focus. Staff let the Commission know that the work of the Human Rights Commission was selected as the basis for the City’s application for this Award. Events and/or programs like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Rockville Mediation Program, and the Diversity Leadership Workshop will be mentioned for their direct focus on diversity.

V. Commission and Committee Report:

A. MLK Debriefing

The Commissioners reviewed the evaluations that were given out to the attendees of the program.  All seemed generally favorable.  Still, there were some who felt that felt that a two-hour program was still too long.   The reviews of the keynote speaker, Kojo Nnamdi, were exceptional. Suggestions for next year that were discussed included making allowances for the children under six years of age that attended the program. One suggestion included possibly having a separate program that was professionally supervised, with the correct child-to-staff ratio, in the Social Hall of the F. Scott Fitzgerald. This would allow younger children to eat early and their parents to be able to check on them and still be able to enjoy the entire Event. There could be entertainment for the children, like a puppet show, that would be relevant to Dr. King.

As the discussion continued, there was a suggestion of possibly having the event at larger building that could better accommodate the ever-growing crowd. The opinions varied. This issue will be discussed again in the future as the planning for next year’s event begins again.

B. Rockville Police Outreach and Misc. Outreach

Commissioner Etelson reported that in April of 2004 he will be making presentations to both the Senior Citizens’ Police Academy and the Rockville Citizens’ Police Academy. Also, he along with Commissioner Krishna will also attempt to conduct mediation class to the seniors at the Senior Center in the Spring.

C. Latino Outreach

Commissioner Abreu wasn’t present at the meeting. The Commission will get an update at the next meeting.

VI. Open Forum

The Open Forum focused on a new idea proposed by Commissioner Vassilas. He suggested that the Commission sponsor a Human Rights Essay Contest for high school students. As an incentive for participation in the contest, there would be a monetary reward for the winner. While the Commission seemed in favor of the idea, the logistics regarding the criteria for selection, the topic of the essay and the distribution of applications was something that all agreed would need to be established.  It was suggested by Commissioner Krishna that a valuable tool for Commissioner Vassilas to employ would be to outline his idea complete with the logistics and then send his thoughts via e-mail to the Commission so that the Commission could discuss it more concretely and efficiently at a future meeting.

VII. Old Business:

Vote on and/or discussion of New Chair and Vice-Chair:
Chair explained the process of voting and encouraged nominations. He stated that Commissioner Abreu, although, out of the country, said that if nominated for Chair, she would accept, by proxy. Additionally, Jeff Rosen stated that he would accept by proxy, the nomination of Vice-Chair if nominated. Results of nominations for Chair were as follows:

Chair Position

Enilda Abreu was nominated
Virginia Onley was nominated and declined
Jesse Etelson was nominated and declined
Commissioner Abreu’s nomination was second, and the voting began.

Results were as follows:

5 votes for Enilda Abreu
1 abstention

Vice Chair

Jeff Rosen was nominated.

The results after the vote were as follows:

6 votes for Jeff Rosen
no abstentions 

It was suggested by Commissioner Love that even though there was a quorum, the Commissioners that weren’t present have a chance to vote. It was agreed that the votes of the absent Commissioners would be obtained to make the voting process complete “for acclamation’s sake.”  (Subsequent to the meeting, all the “absentee votes” came in favor of both nominees. On January 9, Commissioner Abreu was appointed Chair by the Mayor and Council.)

VIII. New Business:

There was no new business.

IX. Adjournment:

Meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m.