Iowa Civil Rights Commission Commissioner's Meeting

Iowa Civil Rights Commission
Commissioner’s Meeting
March 30, 2001
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Roll Call Iowa Civil Rights Commission March 30, 2001 Board meeting was held at the Commission’s ICN room at 10:00 AM. Meeting was called to order by Robert Smith, Chairman. Roll call of Commissioners present were Robert Smith, Mohamad Khan, Alicia Claypool, David Leshtz, Rachel Scherle and Jack Morlan. Flora Lee was not present. ICRC staff members present were Corlis Moody, Executive Director, Ron Pothast, Business Manager and Araceli Goode, Executive Secretary.

Approval of Minutes The first order of business was the approval of the February 23, 2001 Commissioners’ Meeting Minutes. David Leshtz requested that on page 1, Paragraph 4, under his report, Loretta be changed to Coretta. Motion was made by Alicia Claypool and seconded by Mohamad Khan to accept the minutes as written with the above correction. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioners’ Report
Robert Smith - distributed a flyer for a seminar, "Men, Family and Community", to be held April 6, 2001 at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center, Waterloo, IA

Mohamad Khan - reported that after several years of applying to the city for permission to build a Student Center, the ISU Student Association would be breaking ground this spring.

Alicia Claypool - Reported on the English only legislation - a well-supported rally was held the night before, March 29, to show the opposition to this bill. Motion was made by Alicia Claypool and seconded by David Leshtz to write a letter to the Governor endorsing the opposition to this bill,

David Leshtz - distributed a flyer on seminars by Norman Kunc, "Rocking the Boat without Sinking the Ship: How to Advocate within an Organization and How to Build Coalitions with Other Organizations", April 26, 7 PM, at the Iowa City Public Library, Iowa City, IA, and "Ethical Issues surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide", on April 26, 8 PM, at University Hospital School, Iowa City, IA.

Motion was made by Alicia Claypool and seconded by Rachel Scherle that the ICRC be sponsors of this program. Motion passed unanimously.

Jack Morlan - No report

Rachel Scherle - Passed around the letter received from a constituent who did not agree with the commission’s decision on the Blackford VS Casey’s case. Copies were made for the commissioners. She also reported she had been accepted in a study program to France and would be out of the country during May and June.

Racial Profiling Corlis Moody, Executive Director, reported on the Racial Profiling Study being conducted by the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Human Rights. The Department of Human Rights Commission’s goal is to show that racial profiling does exit in Iowa. She distributed copies of the Department of Public Safety Contact Card Program Update. An Iowa State Professor is monitoring this program. The contact card records the reason a person was stopped and race will be an indicator. July 1 is the target date to train the State Troopers on how these cards are to be used. At this time, the State does not have authority to require other than the State Troopers to use this card. It can only suggest it to city and county law enforcement. A copy of the Driver Profiling Complaint Form was also distributed to the Commissioners. The State Trooper would hand these out to the person being stopped. The following recommendations as to procedure regarding when these should be made available to people were made by the Commissioners. These are to be given to the Department of Human Rights: (1) Model procedure to what other states are doing; (2) hand out at the time of vehicle registration or license renewal; (3) mailing automatically from the establishment that processes the tickets.

Administrative Rules Report
Ron Pothast distributed a copy of Administrative Rules that would establish a process for a person to file a request for a waiver or variance of an administrative rule of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. This rule is required by both Executive Order Eleven issued September 14, 1999 by Gov. Vilsack and HF 2206 - Waiver or Variance of Administrative Rules - provides statutory guidelines for the waiver of administrative rules by state agencies. This was enacted and signed in the year 2000.
Motion was made by Jack Morlan and seconded by David Leshtz to file "Notice of Intended Action" of these rules in the Iowa Administrative Bulletin. Motion was passed unanimously.

Legislation Report Ron Pothast distributed a printout of legislation of interest to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission as of March 20, 2001 that shows the House and Senate file number, subject and history of each. Alicia Claypool requested this information be submitted to the Commission at each meeting as well as a calendar of events for the legislation and list of committee chairs to provide opportunity for the Commissioners to discuss these issues and contact legislators. Ron stated this would be done.

Model Cities Project Mary Cowdrey presented an update of the Model Cities Project in Marshalltown. She outlined the history of why and how this project was implemented, as well as the process to involve communities - city government, businesses, financial institutions, education institutions, churches and all other community based organizations. The goal is to produce a "How To" manual for other communities to use to produce the same results.

Executive Director’s Report Corlis announced the names of the new Commissioners selected by Gov. Vilsack but not as yet confirmed by the legislation: Constance M. Gronstal of Council Bluffs, Gilberto A. Solican of Mason City, Maria M. Waterman of Pleasant Valley, and Timothy O. Tutt of Des Moines. They will officially join the Commission in May.

Corlis directed the Commissioners’ attention to the printout of the proposed budget cuts. She explained that these cuts would not result in any lay-off of personnel. The Commission would just have to limit its expenses.

On the new Mediation Department, she reported it was working very well; they were closing cases and obtaining money settlements.

Stop the Hate Committee under the NJJA was researching to host a symposium along with the Mayor of Des Moines to address what it means to Stop the Hate. Once formalized the Commission will be notified.

Corlis reported that the United Way’s project on Diversity Policy was completed and soon to be implemented. She was asked to be on the board to assist in developing a diversity policy that would give more weight to all aspects of diversity.

Corlis reported she and George Peters, Compliance Manager, had attended a meeting in Kansas City, MO., for HUD. The housing officials informed her the contract numbers were doing well, that new money for projects was available and could be applied for. Dawn Peterson is writing up the grant application at this time.

A copy of the Annual Report FY 2000 was presented to the Commissioners which would be on-line on the Commission’s website. More forms and materials are to be placed on the web, as it is more affordable and would reduce printing costs.

Other business discussed was orientation/retreat for the commissioners for training in May; and moving around the site of the Commissioners’ meetings in the spring through fall.

Recognition of the Public and Press Press and other public were not present.

Next Meeting Date The next meeting date set was:

April 20th, 2001 at 10:00AM

Adjournment Motion was made by Mohamad Khan and seconded by to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimously.