Chambana Sun

Champaign Human Relations Commission met Monday, Oct. 3.

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.

Here are the minutes as provided by Champaign:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION 

102 North Neil Street Champaign, IL 61820 (217) 403-8830

Monday, October 3, 2016

5:30 p.m.

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

MEETING NOTES I. Call to Order

II. Roll Call

III. Approval of Meeting Minutes: August 1, 2016

MOTION TO ACCEPT: Midden SECOND: ELMORE MINUTES ACCEPTED: unanimously

IV. Correspondence/Announcements

a. HRC Commissioners’ Retreat – Reschedule TBD

• Cancelled due to Expungement Summit b. Reentry Resource Fair

• Tuesday October 11, 12 pm-3 pm at Illinois Terminal c. disABILITY Resource Expo

• Saturday October 15, 9:00 AM-2:00 PM, Fluid Event Center d. Expungement Record Sealing Summit

• Saturday, October 22, 9:00 AM-3:00 PM, Stone Creek Church

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

a. Community Relations Office Monthly Activity Reports

• Letter in your packet as received from Re-Entry Council asking to change language directly related to housing

• Hiring Report

VI. Audience Participation

a. Esther Patt – Director, CU Tenant Union

Champaign Human Rights Ordinance previously prohibited exclusion of people with criminal conviction records in regard to housing. In 1994 the City Legal Dept asked HRC and City Council to change the law to allow change in the law to exclude people with conviction records from housing. Three most important factors in reducing recidivism are for the person released from jail or prison to have a job, stable housing and to be living with family. Would like the Human Relations Commission to recommend to Champaign City Council to eliminate the exception about conviction from the Champaign Human Rights Ordinance. Champaign adopted the Champaign housing authority’s policy. HUD only requires exclusion for registered sex offenders or drug manufacture. Trying to keep criminals from having housing doesn’t help anything. Suggest you change it and maybe the Housing Authority will follow suit.

b. Chris Garcia – Champaign County Health Care Consumers

Biggest obstacles we face is housing options. It is a barrier and an added burden to their sentence (an extra 5 consecutive years after serving their sentence). I helped write the letter to ask you to have the language regarding conviction changed in the Champaign Human Rights Ordinance.

c. Jim McGuire - Champaign County Board Member and Reentry Council

Here to ask for a change in the ordinance. Biggest obstacle faced by people trying to change their lives is housing. They need the opportunity and should not be discriminated against.

d. Michael LaDue – Champaign resident & Champaign City Council member

Since 1990s there has been a sea change in the way the criminal justice systems acts. It seemed wrong in the 1990s to sustain the idea that housing discrimination based on criminal record was okay. I was the only one who voted against that. So much has changed and transpired since that time. I encourage you, to pass this on to the City Council. I will support it but unlike so many years ago, I believe there are others who will also support it.

Commissioners asked that staff begin to draft a letter to City Council stating that the Human Relations Commission supports the change of language in the Human Rights Ordinance, to protect people with prior criminal records in their housing search.

VII. Current Reports and Projects

a. Presentation – School Resource Officer (SRO)

Presenters - Lt. David Schaffer, Champaign Police Department and Orlando Thomas, Director of Achievement and Student Services

• SRO has monthly meetings with CPD

• Focus groups happen each year as a result of our initial survey

• Past year there were 68 students involved with those focus groups

• Parent survey conducted –97% of 2700 parents felt very strongly about keeping the School Resource Officer in their child’s school

• Student assemblies – SRO part of those assemblies and making sure students are aware of their rights

• SROs are encouraged to do classroom presentations

• Reciprocal reporting agreement which allows us to share data

A lively discussion followed with questions by Commissioners and answers by the presenters. Commissioners asked of presenters, what measures of success are in place to note their claim of success for students? Also asked Lt. Shaffer and Mr. Thomas to report back to the Commission after finding out what Urbana School District’s SRO situation is.

b. Alissia Young – Citizen Review Working Group Update – October 10 & 13

You will have opportunity to give input on what you would like to see the citizens review board look like. The focus is to get community input in terms of what you would like to see the citizens review board.

VIII. New Business

Open up to comments regarding letter from Reentry Council MOTION: W. Comer – Motion approve recommendation as proposed by the correspondence received from the Reentry Council, for City Council to update the Human Rights Ordinance SECOND: Felty VOTE: passed unanimously

SPECIAL MEETING: Ask Community Relations Office to come up with a Doodle Poll to come up with alternative dates and a special meeting in lieu of Commissioners retreat

MOTION: W. Comer motion that Human Relations Commission participate in the Expungement and Record Sealing Summit including the $50 donation SECOND: Elmore VOTE: passed unanimously The Community Relations Office will send something out to sign up for participation

IX. Audience Participation

a. Jim McGuire – you’ve been very busy tonight. Expungement event – glad you’re going to be involved in that and glad to be having your organization and support there. Thank you for the vote for Reentry and for taking it back to City Council. Thank you to the SROs. I’m glad to have their support in the schools. The Youth Assessment Center and teachers hopefully can keep kids from going to Youth Detention Center or us having to do something with them when they go to the county jail or come back through the Reentry program. It doesn’t have to get to the point where they do something really terrible in schools, the idea is to stop something before it happens. Thank you for all the stuff you’re doing. I really appreciate it. We have a great community.

X. Commissioners’ Comments

a. Commissioner Creighton Comer called and said illness kept him out

XI. Adjournment

MOTION TO ADJOURN: Midden Second: Bressner Meeting adjourned at 7:17 pm