Community Relations Commission

COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES April 12, 2012 Present: Anthony Cristiano Absent: Trustee Jim Hynes – Ex Officio Steven Gorski Steve Tremaglio Bill Terpinas Bob Thomas Cathy Spadoni – Secretary Kelly Mickle – Director of Senior Center Seth Knobel – Director of Family Services Commissioner Gorski called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. I. Approval of Minutes Commissioner Terpinas made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 26, 2012 meeting; Commissioner Cristiano seconded the motion. The motion carried. II. Reported Citizen Comments / Complaints a) Police Department Commissioner Terpinas reported that the Police Department has not received any complaints. b) Other Village of Niles Departments The commissioners reported that no complaints were received from other departments. c) Telephone Hotline Secretary Spadoni reported that no complaints were received via the phone hotline. d) Email Hotline Secretary Spadoni reported that no complaints were received via the email hotline. e) Other The commissioners reported that no complaints were received. III. Report from the Commissioners a) Secretary Spadoni reported that we can become members of the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs for an annual membership fee of $50. The membership provides: Inclusion on their letterhead Invitations to their annual meetings, as well as to all their events and training sessions Placement on their email list to receive all their correspondence, including requests for action Their request for open communication Their request to be kept informed our of current contact person Commissioner Terpinas moved to approve becoming a member of the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs for an annual membership fee of $50, seconded by Commissioner Gorski. The motion carried. b) Commissioner Gorski reported that our ordinance calls for a report to be delivered to the Mayor and the Board of Trustees at each May board meeting about the activities of the CRC for the last year. He will draft a report and share it with the commissioners and Village Manager George Van Geem for their approval. If approved, he’ll send it to the Mayor by May 15. This will put us in compliance with the ordinance. IV. New Business Commissioner Gorski thanked our guests - Kelly Mickle, Senior Center Director, and Seth Knobel, Family Services Director - for attending our quarterly meeting. The reason they have been invited is that we are in the process of promoting the CRC. Perhaps we could utilize their departments’ resources to move our mission along. We want to share with them the mission of our commission: to make sure there is no discrimination in practice in the community, whether it is housing discrimination, racial or ethnic discrimination, or an infringement of basic civil rights. Commissioner Gorski continued that the CRC was set up under ordinance according to a mandate by the State of Illinois. Over the past year, we have implemented a hotline and a website through which anyone who has been violated in any of these ways can contact us. We have not had any complaints up to this point. We are developing a flyer which is a basic description of what we do. We would like to post this flyer, once it is approved, in their departments; if their clients have concerns, they could be pointed in our direction. Kelly suggested that a brochure would be better to distribute than a flyer. Whatever we approve, we will forward to them. Seth will display our flyers in his lobby and talk to his staff about us. Kelly Mickle stated that some seniors have presented housing issues, and Seth Knobel stated that he works with Center for Concern, a non-profit organization that has a program that deals with this specifically. He has found that most racial or ethnic components of housing/neighborhood issues are secondary to the problem at hand. Seth continued that Family Services is usually called in for anything that has gone through the Police Department because Family Services employees are trained to handle neighbor disputes. The YMCA has civil rights issues and fair-housing complaints, and most of them go through the Family Services Department as well. Seth talked in more detail about the YMCA. The YMCA is dealing with people with mental disabilities, who are not able to advocate for themselves and do not know all of their basic rights. But he doesn’t think the YMCA is intentionally discriminating against them; it is more a matter that the YMCA has rules that cannot be bent. Seth suggested that if we’re looking for a project that deals with fair housing, we can set up something to look at the YMCA, where many people there feel they are not being treated fairly. They are dealing with health issues in the building (bedbugs), unaffordable rent hikes, getting 5- day eviction notices if the rent is late because they’re waiting for their disability checks, etc. The Police Department is notified of these issues. It was noted that the Police Department never passes the complaints on to the CRC. Because the CRC has never received any complaints, we are not sure what we would do if we did. Per Kelly’s suggestion, we will investigate what other CRCs in other communities do. Commissioner Gorski noted that our first outreach has been to Seth and Kelly. Seth suggested that we contact the local newspapers & Patch, schools, churches, condo boards, and our cable channel. We could get a list of landlords from Chuck Ostman, Director of Community Development, and educate them on what it means to discriminate or be in violation of fair housing issues. The commissioners thanked Kelly and Seth for coming and for their input. Commissioner Terpinas suggested we contact the City of Evanston’s CRC to arrange a meeting with someone who can help us determine a course of action. Such a presentation should clarify if Village departments already handling discrimination complaints (Family Services) are to report such complaints to the CRC. Commissioner Gorski reported that the Mayor is in favor of posting our flyer on bulletin boards around town, but he is not in favor of doing a mass-mailing to the residents because it could open us up to a flood of irrelevant complaints. We need to find the right focus that will help us promote our mission properly. Commissioner Gorski asked the secretary to contact Evanston’s CRC and invite a representative to give a presentation and provide guidance as to how to proceed. The commissioners reviewed the flyer created by Commissioner Tremaglio. The final bullet point, “Community relations issues,” was thought to be too broad. It was decided that further discussion would be tabled until Commissioner Tremaglio was present. Commissioner Gorski will ask Commission Tremaglio to work on a tri-fold brochure format as well. We can present the flyer and the brochure to the Evanston representative for review. V. Next Meeting The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. VI. Adjournment There being no official complaints or further business to come before the Community Relations Commission, Commissioner Gorski made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Cristiano. The meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m. __________________________ Catherine Spadoni, Secretary Community Relations Commission