Funding Sources
The Commission's FY 94 total amount of funding
was $1,592,915. The dollars came from the Iowa General Fund, as appropriated
by the legislature, from contracts and grants from federal agencies, and
from reimbursements for copying and miscellaneous costs.
From the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC), the Commission received $409,048 under its contract for the investigation
of cross-filed employment complaints.
The Commission received a total of $73,360 from
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for two different
programs. The contributions, incentive and training program included $38,519
for the investigation of cross-filed housing complaints and for staff training.
Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP) funds of $34,841 were expended for
the development and provision of fair housing materials.
Case Processing Advances
This year the Commission received 2,038 newly-filed
complaints. This was a record number, an increase of 1 1% over last year.
Is discrimination increasing? We don't know for sure,. But we do believe
that individuals are becoming more aware of their rights and that they have
recourse when they believe they've been treated unfairly.
Employment complaints remain our largest category
of complaints, but dropped by over 3%. There were slight increases in the
number of complaints in public accommodations and housing.
Complaints based on physical and mental disability
increased from 30.3% in the last fiscal year, to 36% in this fiscal year.
This is due to the increased public knowledge of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). Complaints based on sex dropped slightly, with a
nearly 3% increase in complaints based on race. Complaints based on age
remained constant at nearly 18%.
Discharge or termination remained the top alleged
discriminatory incident, but general harassment rose from 13.4% to 19%.
Failure to accommodate increased from 5.4% to 7.9%. This would be in accordance
with the increase in complaints based on disability. The number of sexual
harassment complaints dropped, which may be due to our extensive educational
efforts on this topic.