Chambana Sun

The Champaign Human Relations Commission met Aug. 1 to discuss new hires.

Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the commission:

The Champaign Human Rights Commission consists of nine members who are appointed by the mayor for three-year terms. Meetings are held at 5:30 p.m. on the first Monday of each month in the Council Chambers, 102 N. Neil St.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION 102 North Neil Street Champaign, IL 61820 (217) 403-8830

DATE:

TIME:

LOCATION:

Monday, August 1, 2016

5:30 p.m.

Champaign City Building, Council Chambers, 1st floor 102 North Neil Street Champaign, Illinois 61820

MEETING MINUTES I. Call to Order

a. 5:30 pm

II. Roll Call

III. Approval of Meeting Minutes: June 6, 2016

Motion: Young Second: C. Comer Motion carries

IV. Correspondence/Announcements

a. HRC Commissioners’ Retreat – Saturday, October 22, 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM

i. (invitation to public to attend)

b. CU Days – looking for commissioners to sign up – August 13, 2016

c. HRC Slate of Officers d. Election of Officers

V. Staff and Committee Reports – Rachel Joy, Community Relations Manager/Compliance Officer

a. Community Relations Office Monthly Activity Reports b. Hiring Report – June & July

i. Commissioners would like to know what departments the new hires are in

VI. Audience Participation

None

VII. Current Reports and Projects

a. Presentation – Human Resources Annual Affirmative Action Report: Jason Hood, Human Resources Director

i. Should we be looking at working with reentry council?

1. Some jobs have restrictions placed on them2. Anyone who has questions about those types restrictions are welcome to call HR or fill out an interest card online so anytime that position becomes available it will send you an email ii. Why did turnover rate go up?

1. Mostly retirement iii. Is there anything in place that measures disability hires? Are you reaching out to any organizations that reach out to that population? iv. May be breach of confidentiality to ask people’s disability. Same thing with LGBTQ.

1. Any tracking would be voluntary 2. That’s even more important than reaching out to PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES v. Who sets the goals for minority placement?

1. Goals are created through research about the percentage of individuals that should be available in our community. If the data indicates that we should be able to identify and recruit 14% of minorities based on the City’s population, that becomes our goal. As far as trying to meet our goals we are doing as much outreach as we possibly can. Our outreach is pretty strong, we have individuals who apply for position and some of them require testing, multiple interviews, and some people really don’t want to go through all that. We try our best to explain that up front so we don’t waste anyone’s time. It’s very important for us to figure out a way to become an employer of choice in a city of choice. vi. University of Illinois has a recruiting process – many minorities have problems taking standardized testing – if you know that you have a certain group of people who have a hard time with those types of tests, is the process really fair?

1. If someone is not scoring 75% on the test, it’s a good predictor that the person will not do well in the position. If a person is not a good test-taker, that is probably not the right job for that person.

2. If tests were a good predictor, we wouldn’t have any problems with policy officers, firefighters, or any other employee. What we have found is if you don’t have a certain knowledge base, you are likely not going to make it through the rest of the process.

3. Tests are for firefighters, police officers, and METCAD

4. We have a vendor who provides us tests specifically for placements

5. We have had several accommodation requests for persons with disabilities

6. Commissioner Felty proposes a goal of 20% minority rate – no excuse to just meet the minimum. We should be looking to exceed the goal

7. That 14% is created as a result of research and data

8. City of Champaign is competing with multiple employers for top candidates.

9. At Coalition meetings they say 17% - will check the census to see if our percentages are incorrect

10. How do we encourage minorities to continue working?

11. On table E – there are only 3% black males in decision making positions

12. Suggest City implement better exit interviews. [We don’t force people to do an exit interview]

13. People typically meet with our benefits person and employees are asked if they

would like to have interviews with HR director. What we are going to start doing is waiting 2 or 3 months and reach out again to give them another opportunity. 14. Who is on executive team?

a. Every department head 15. Who represents CRO on executive team?

a. Department heads are City Manager and Deputy City Managers. vii. HR thinks 2016 report will look better than 2015 viii. HRC has the ability to reach out to dept heads – you can call, you can email, and two at a time could meet with them ix. Many applicants may not realize that city of Champaign offers pension. We have a really good benefits and compensation packet. x. The best sell point for the City is when minorities are in their positions and like what they’re doing and share that with others xi. What resources to depts. besides the Summer Youth Employment Program to reach out to youth in the community?

1. Maybe employee or dept head once a year sends someone to elementary schools to speak to the kids about the jobs in the City 2. There is a large labor market that people are not tapped into because they don’t know about the City 3. Job fairs could be offered at grade school and high school levels 4. Any way to reach out to middle school to do job shadowing? 5. Would like to see a job fair 6. What can commissioners do to help HR recruit?

b. Alissia Young – Citizen Review Working Group

i. Met first time July 12

ii. Pastors, educators, law enforcement, Rachel Roy, Commissioner Young, professors, citizens at large, past city employees

iii. Given charge of working group and complaint process paperwork then use of force process

iv. Presented with four different models – investigative, advisory, appellate, auditor

v. We could of course come up with our own model

vi. Went over future meeting dates

vii. Met today and established ground rules, went through current complaint process and what is working and what is not, current use of force process,

viii. Being transparent came up quite a bit and how could police dept be more transparent with public

ix. How different complaints are taken

x. Talked about trust and issue of mistrust – a lot of citizens don’t trust the police and the process, and how we as a community can wrap our arms around citizens

xi. We are charged with trying to wrap up by November and have some sort of document to have to present to City Council

VIII. New Business

a. MOTION to nominate the slate of officers – Midden b. SECOND: Shackelford c. MOTION PASSES unanimously

IX. Audience Participation

a. Comment: really enjoyed discussion here with HR director b. Maybe ask HR Director to prepare a plan of action to get from 14% to 20%

X. Commissioners’ Comments

a. Is Community Relations Manager (CRM) part of Executive Management Team (EMT)? b. Why does CRM not meet with EMT? c. Commissioners would like to see CRM have that direct link to EMT

XI. Adjournment

a. MOTION: Bressner b. SECOND: Midden c. MOTION CARRIES

Meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM