Human Rights Commission Meeting Minutes Community Engagement Committee Meeting September 2, 2021 Virtual/Electronic Meeting 2:30 pm Public link to meeting rebroadcasts on Boxcast: https://boxcast.tv/channel/vabajtzezuyv3iclkx1a Public link to HRC documents on Box: https://app.box.com/s/xty3wnn2s1tj8h7trkknvd79bipyxezy 1. WELCOME a. CALL TO ORDER i. Chair not present. Andrew Orban called the meeting to order at 2:34 pm b. ROLL CALL i. Andrew Orban ii. Lyndele Von Schill c. MISSION (recited by all): Act as a strong advocate to justice and equal opportunity by providing citywide leadership and guidance in the area of civil rights. 2. MATTERS BY THE PUBLIC a. PUBLIC COMMENT i. None b. COMMISSION RESPONSE TO MATTERS BY THE PUBLIC i. None 3. MINUTES a. None 4. BUSINESS MATTERS a. None 5. WORK SESSION a. Review draft template for public statements i. Jeanette has put together a draft ii. OHR staff says one issue with draft is that it sounds like draft approvals will be voted upon through email, which is not allowed 1. Perhaps Chair could be spokesperson iii. Commissioner asks about what the time frame should be, especially in cases when a fast turnaround is necessary 1. OHR staff says Commissioners in the past have expressed comfort with the Chair acting as the voice of the Commission by taking action and making statements, so long as the rest of the Commission stays in the know 2. Ideally, everyone would give a review and approval in a meeting, but the Chair would act on behalf of the Commission if timing did not work out iv. Points of resolution are to give Chair agency and give Commissioners a chance to review 1. Commissioner says that adding in a bit about time frame, like 48 hours, would add clarity 2. Another Commissioner says that including the timeframe piece and approval piece begins to fall into the “vote” category again v. Commissioner says that rather than prescribing it, the timeframe piece could be added in the "Purpose” or “Aims” to acknowledge that the Commission is trying to be timely in their statements 1. This justifies why the Commission is relying on the Chair a. Could say that as a Commission, the Chair will do their best to give information with 24-hour notice, but this is not a requirement vi. OHR staff says the draft is for statements, not a protocol; a protocol is more like a resolution 1. The “why” piece is more for a resolution 2. Saying “we are doing this as per Resolution ___” outlines the timeframes and protocols b. Relation to draft template to Resolution A21-1 i. The “Proposed Template for Commission Statements” (Attachment 1) is more of a justification for the template, while “Statement of the Charlottesville HRC On [Indicate Issue of Importance HERE]” (Attachment 2) is the template itself 1. Attachment 1 is more like a resolution 2. OHR staff suggests editing Attachment 1 to read more like a resolution so that the resolution, Attachment 3, can reference back to it 3. Right now we are trying to draft a resolution not for how the committee wants to do outreach, but how the Chair wants to ii. First “preamble” in the template is therefore unneeded iii. Commissioner asks if using this kind of language in Resolution A21-1 is necessary, as it is largely difficult to follow and comprehend for the general public 1. OHR staff says this is generally the protocol for resolutions, but writing a companion document explaining what the resolution and template say could be an option 2. Lyndele strongly recommends providing this plain language version of Resolution A21-1 and adapt it as needed 3. She can draft this for everyone to later work on iv. OHR staff recommends taking some parts of the first document (specifically “Purpose” through “Support”) and merging them in with the resolution v. Should include that there is a plain language document in the resolution document 1. OHR staff says the Commission could pass a resolution saying all HRC documents will have a companion plain language document vi. Andy says he can look at the template justification document and the resolution side-by-side to see what can be merged into the resolution 1. Lyndele can start the plain language document now as well because Andy does not expect the resolution to change very much vii. After looking over Resolution A21-1, the committee agrees that no changes need to be made 1. OHR staff recommends sending it to Allyson for a lookover, but other than that, it is ready to be presented at the next Commission and for Mary to sign off on it c. New business i. OHR staff asks about Ashley’s request for addressing the five-year remembrance of the events of August 2017—this could be a good thing for this committee to work on 1. Lyndele has not yet heard of this 2. OHR staff will talk to Mary and Ashley and make sure the information gets to the full Commission so that they can give feedback 3. In the request, there was also a question of how to recognize other days and months celebrating protecting groups in a non- tokening, meaningful way ii. Disability PSA Project 1. Progress has stalled since COVID 2. OHR staff asks if this is something this committee would like to take on 3. Idea is to create a scripted video series of recorded public messages talking about who they are, how they identify, and what they want the public to know about their disability 4. Idea of collaborating with Communications to create well- produced videos to broadcast on television 5. There were volunteers, Phoebe and Melvin were talking to people at the IRC, and Todd is in contact with Jim Herndon, so the project is still possible; it would just take commitment 6. Commissioner asks if this project is tied into city services or if it is just informational a. OHR staff says it is a way to give those with a disability a voice in the Charlottesville community-- visibility b. Commissioner says there is a good opportunity here to tie in things the City is doing, offering some way the City is meaningfully listening to this group 7. If interested, this committee should talk to Wolfgang to coordinate the project 6. MATTERS BY THE PUBLIC a. PUBLIC COMMENT i. None b. COMMISSION RESPONSE TO MATTERS BY THE PUBLIC i. None 7. COMMISSIONER UPDATES a. None 8. NEXT STEPS a. General Next Steps i. Send Resolution A21-1 draft to Allyson for review and present at next HRC meeting ii. Begin drafting resolution saying HRC will provide plain-language companions for all documents iii. Talk to Wolfgang about Disability PSA Project b. Lyndele i. Draft a plain-language companion document to Resolution A21-1 c. Todd i. Get full Commission information about Ashley’s five-year August 2017 remembrance question 9. ADJOURN a. Meeting adjourned at 3:01 pm