but they couldn't hear it online, but now they can,
no, they can't, we
can't hear them talk back. Wasn't a
problem that was identified, that told me,
if we have a public comment, we won't be able to hear it.
We could hear they could hear us all
along.
For all along, they could hear you.
The Chair wants to Call you
good evening. Want to call the meeting the order city Detroit human rights commissioners meeting, and we're going to have a roll call. Could each Commissioner present please acknowledge by stating their name?
Bishop Darrell Harris, commissioner or district number three Vice Chair present,
Commissioner Mendoza. Ani Mendoza District Two,
Commissioner Eric Carter district five,
Sunil Singh District Six,
Commissioner Rivera at large,
and Bill Ross chair, commissioner at large. Next, we'd like to have, excuse me, adoption of the meeting agenda motion to approve the agenda
motion to bring forth the motion to approve.
Motion to approve Second, second, all in favor. Aye, approved approval of the minutes. Commissioner Wright, who has the minutes, is not here today. She's out of town, therefore, we will pass on the approval of the minutes until the next meeting. Is that acceptable?
Yeah, acceptable.
Acceptable. Next item is Sharon's opening remarks. I will give any interest of time defer Mark remarks until the end of the agenda so we can move along forth with and I will defer to Vice Chair, Bishop Harris for opening remarks. I would
like to do the same in the interest of time and just go forward with the meeting. And if there's anything that comes at the end, I'll make those statements at the appropriate
time. Next item is the commission subcommittee reports and updates. And we have any subcommittee reports or updates,
I think that we can probably pass on those, because the last one that we had to make that update or remarks, was the
bishop, I mean, Commissioner Wright,
yes, with Commissioner Wright, with the bylaws,
and she's out of town, so we'll have to defer those until the next meeting. Okay, member reports and updates. Like to hear from each commissioner to give us an update on what is happening with them relative to their participation as a commissioner and in their district. Start with commission Mendoza.
Sure I can start ani Mendoza District Two again, just coming back from maternity leave. So I'm going to say that I have not had a whole activity over the past three months related to this role. So I'm going to go ahead and pass on that I have a established and really strong relationship with Sean Davis and Kim Tandy, who are my district managers, and we'll be on the lookout for events in the future that would be relevant for me to attend and always be accessible for a resource. So thank you.
I Yes, Commissioner Carter district five working with our university, Wayne State University, in regards to having Creo come and present like we did that one time, in regards to opportunities for students to do internships and things of that nature, as well as presented our at our welcome black festivities that we have in August. So that's work in progress. Yes.
Daniel Singh, District Six was working with various community partners around our neighborhood, as well as working on the bylaws committee here locally at the Human Rights Commission.
Commissioner, very large, similar to my counterparts working with different organizations in the community, and how to bring some of these initiatives forward with them, but especially on the development of students. If there are any internships or professional development available that we can do to some of our youth. You know, with that, we have chambers and different consoles within the community that support a lot of those initiatives. So how do we how do we bring us to them as well? So
several things, I won't belabor the time with all of them, one of the biggest things happening in our district is we've been responding just to the upheaval of violence. It is my district that, unfortunately, the mass shooting took place in just last week. It is noted as the largest mass shooting in the state of Michigan over the last 50 years. And so we have just been responding in orientation, with community, with city government, city officials, and just everyone that we can to see what we can do to bring not only healing, but also a real resources to that area. This has led to one of the responses from our law enforcement agency here to do things as it relates to how they respond to block parties and those calls that come in, we are now, I'm working with them to try to find a happy medium, if you can, in terms of making sure that the community is aware to exactly what those Block Party definitions are that they're terming as those that they will be shutting down, versus the difference between having a graduation at your house or barbecue at your house, and what it will mean to actually go into the sense of getting a permit. What number of people attending party do you need a permit for? Where will you seek that permit from? How do you go about it, and is it an easier way to actually do that, and how that communication can be between law enforcement and our city government or whoever those permits are going to be turned into, how there can be communication so that persons can know how to present those in case There is an request to see that from law enforcement. So there's a lot of work going on around that right now, and we're really engaged. And in the month of August, we will be sponsoring in district number five, I'm sorry, in district number three, we will be sponsoring a peace march that will be represented from the deputy mayor the US, Attorney's Office, and several of the local churches and law enforcement that's in the area. So we'll be getting more information to you hopefully. As soon as I receive those flyers on those dates, I know that the one on the east side will be on the 24th of August, and the one on the west side will be the 17th of August, the weekend before, and so I'll keep that information forthcoming through email so that you all can know what's going on there. Thank you.
Okay, I has been working with several entities, corporations and Detroit based businesses, one encouraging to make sure they're certified Detroit based business so they can access some opportunities. Number two, working with corporate entities to expand or increase or provide additional opportunities for diversity businesses, and also doing what we call technical assistance assessments to ensure that these businesses have the capacity to deliver as a contractor or a subcontractor,
through through the chair. Can I ask? Is this being recorded? It is okay. I just wanted to make sure, if we have to come back for notes or something. Thank you.
What was comment?
You asked if this was being recorded, and it was stated that it is yes.
Are there any other members report to updates? Like to move on to Creole department Director's Report.
Good evening. Everyone. Good evening, everyone. I'll keep it short. I know it's pretty lengthy, so I'll just kind of highlight, just a couple of bullet points. But if there's anything that you guys want to ask me after, please feel free to do so. Some of the operations, we've hired a temporary civil rights investigator, Kimberly Baylor, she actually worked for Creo A little while back. We also just hired two new employees within the Office of Disability affairs. We have a policy specialist and a government liaison, both starting on the 29th we are in the final stages of drafting an updated Creo employee handbook. We're preparing the outing for our summer intern. So we have two gdyt interns, three mayoral fellows and 2u of M research students that are working with us for the summer. So we're preparing an outing for them, and you guys are certainly welcome to join us. It will be happening. I believe it's August 9, so it's their last day, so I'll send you guys that information. If you guys like to attend. We're also preparing a Creo all staff retreat for September, so kind of where we just get the department everybody together do some team building exercise, yoga, things of that sort. So you guys are also more than welcome. So I'll keep you guys updated as we move along with that. We're preparing to lead a community meeting with the planning department and write more about equity toolkits. We're also working on establishing new and updated ambassadors for all city departments to serve as a Creo ambassador, Office of Disability affairs. They just hosted their disability prize celebration at Spirit Plaza. Compliance three, non compliant executive order. 2021 dash two projects, completion of the 2023 tax abatement report collection is in progress. Office of marijuana ventures working with Plunkett county law firms to streamline the license renewal process. Civil rights, we've received 14 cases in June. Close one, the Detroit Business Opportunity Program. We currently have 401 certified businesses and 250, are also registered as MBE, which is minority based enterprise construction. There's a few construction events that our construction team has attended. You can kind of see those there policy and data preparing to publish two Tableau dashboards on the Creole website that will provide basically a public facing information for executive order project, along with the dbot businesses, also the policy team is also working on completing the Detroit elections and history slideshow and district by district elections themed scavenger hunt with our University of Michigan interns, and then communication engagement. The hosted a couple of events, but as far as August, we're planning for the Black Business Month and black business for all and that is all that I have any questions for me.
All righty, well, thank you guys.
That's a great thanks.
Any questions, comment. Next item, under the area of unfinished business, we're going to have to defer because the information relative to the limits, and based on the bylaws the revision, we don't have that in place yet, so that should be deferred until director, should we say, the August meeting,
because we do need the revised bylaws in order to move forward say,
chair, could you repeat that one more time? I
said, relative to the commissioner term dates, what do we do in elections? We have to defer to that, because the bylaws which are have been written have to be approved, so other body which would dictate how that course takes place.
So the term, so the so everyone's term has is not necessarily, does not necessarily relate. It's not related to the elections itself. So everybody has an onboard date and a three year term limit. So that information is available, and we can get if you do not have your actual expiration date of your term, we can provide that to you. As far as elections are concerned, so are you asking if the election should be postponed until you adopt the bylaws? That is a decision that would be that needs to come from the chair. It's from the board itself. Because, as of now, if you have an election, what is guiding you in that election process?
Okay, two comments. Number one, there is there the information relative to the terms expiration of terms, does the commissioners currently have that or that's forthcoming?
So you all should have received, just like every other appointment, your appointment date and your appointment date three years after is your expiration. I can get that for you. So just a note, the current so the so all you all have had, if your term has expired, there was at a point of a time where we were extending the expiration or term days for everybody involved, everybody on the HRC, we had a conversation and we could, and we took that to the administration. Everybody agree. We had this conversation about a year or so ago, and so then the only individuals that have come on board since that time were the three newest members of the commission. And they actually have their term. They have their onboard day, their their day, and their their term expiration. So but I have a summary for everybody currently on the HRC of their appointment and expiration and that can be available. That can be available. Yes, okay,
that would be very helpful. Thank you very much
for that. Not a problem
before through the chair. However, before you move on with unfinished business, I would like to just state that one of the parts of unfinished business. That was not about the elections at all. It was just my request to have director Zander take a look over at the Faygo company. I just wanted to make that aware that he actually did that. He didn't know what it was that I was talking about. We finally were able to get him over there at a good time, and he made some inquiries, and found out that it was really a chemical that is safe, chemicals just in bipartisan to how they do their work and produce the sodas and that kind of thing. I was wondering, however, because again, that's not my district, but I know a few people over there, including the church that's kind of right across the street. And if there could be maybe a letter or a notice that you know from Faygo that, hey, we know you smelled this, but we promise you it's, it's a safe, you know, environment. We're not putting anything, any toxins into the air, because they're really concerned about
so our environmental department falls under BC, and so working with BC, we see what we can do, as far as addressing the concerns that we and I have discussed, and seeing what type of assurance that we can provide to the public that everything that is going on in there is within a safe level of and As far as their as far as type of compliant requirement, yes, sir. Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you. And
then we can assume that Vice Chair Paris will then get an update, since he's moving forth with on this, so there'll be a status and bring the issue to closer. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you. Additional. So we now move forward to the city Detroit attorney report.
I think I'm going to be doing it up here. I
Fletcher,
good afternoon to this commission. Adam Saxby, attorney with the law department, as part of my work with the bylaws committee and with creo, was identified that it may be of value to this commission to provide training that we have available to various public bodies on the Open Meetings Act. So that is what I've been invited here today to do. Please forgive me for one second while I attempt to share my screen so the public can see this presentation.
And also, attorney, if you could, also, if you could bring your mic down, maybe a little closer. Can you hear me now? Oh, yes, okay.
Is my microphone. What we will be going over is the open meetings. Act generally the basics, notice, public access, decisions and deliberations and closed sessions. As part of that, we will also go over meeting basics, parliamentary procedure and rules and resources.
So what is the Open Meetings Act? It's aimed at ensuring governmental transparency. It's a Sunshine Law. The whole purpose of public bodies is to be transparent with the public. The state has enacted various laws to ensure that transparency as a public body, if you fall under that definition, you are subject to certain state laws. It's liberally construed. The whole purpose of it is to be transparent. So courts have interpreted these laws as liberally as possible. Where there is any question, we err on the side of being transparent and being open to the public. Penalties for violation can be for intentional violators may be found guilty of a misdemeanor, resulting in up to 90 days in jail and or $500 first for each meeting. Decisions further, even for unintentional violations, decisions of a body may be invalidated if it's found that the Open Meetings Act wasn't properly followed, which is why it was critical that we ensure that we continue to train all of our public bodies so that they can continue doing this work and it's enforceable. So who does the Open Meetings Act apply to? It applies to any public body specifically for our purposes here today, any local commission that is empowered by charter or ordinance to exercise governmental authority or perform a governmental function, that's what this commission is. The Human Rights Commission is a public body for the purposes of the Open Meetings
Act the uh,
OMA, basics, generally, all meetings of a public body must be open to the public. What does that mean? The public must be allowed to attend in person, or if the if online, they must be
properly noticed, and we'll go into what all of these mean. And more specific detail, but the basics are, they must be open.