Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'm going to call to order the December meeting of the Human Rights Commission. Um, the first order of business is to say goodbye and thank you to our outgoing member Alli Lee. You've been is it three years? Yep. One term. Three years. Yeah. It's been a pleasure. I'm excited to see what everybody does, though. You guys are You are going I think things are happening and the ball's rolling. So, I think it'll be exciting times. Well, I'm going to really miss you. Oh, so I mean, we all are, but just speaking for myself, [clears throat] I miss you. Yes. Thank you. On behalf of the city of New Thank you for your service.

Thanks. We appreciate all that you contributed and what this commission does and we know you are a big part of it. Thank you. I think you're such a contribution to the HRC here. So, it's going to be a missing be around here and there. I think need people to walk in the parade. Volunteer you and does not negate you being able to participate. [laughter]

Well, thank you. Um, our next order of business is election of officers. And seeing as we are a rather skeleton crew, I feel like perhaps that's not the best uh agenda item to to deal with at this time, unless we're going to volunt the people who aren't here into positions. Um, as you can see, you know, we're missing our our chair um and vice chair. So, I would make a motion that we table this to our next meeting. Second. Okay. All in favor of tableabling elections till the next meeting. I

oppose. Same sign. Okay. We will defer to January then. Um next up is approval of minutes from our November 24th meeting if you want to review those for accuracy. I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes as written from the November 24th meeting.

Sorry, that's okay. So, okay. I'll second. Second. Okay. All in favor? I oppose. Same sign. Okay, [clears throat] approved as written. Next up is our monthly financial report. I think last month we were at like 57% spend and we have not spent a dime since then. So there will be nothing to to note different from last month. Does uh it carry over into 2026?

It does. We will carry it over. Yeah. I mean, it's always good practice to spend what you're allotted um when you can. We did do some things differently this year that thus far aren't really costing us too much. Um I think when we get to the education subcommittee Ally and I and Carl were at, there's probably some room for some some expenses upcoming there. So, okay.

I don't think we don't have to approve that, do we? Okay. Thank you. Okay, the next item is the human rights award. Um, the submission deadline was last Friday, the 19th, and I know that we struggled with getting a timely publication of that announcement in the journal. Um, and it's great. We've received one nomination. That's awesome. Um, I think in the past we've typically received more and was thinking that maybe we should consider extending the deadline and maybe thinking again about how we can promote awareness of it because it really the announcement in the journal kind of got published. I found I saw it but it was maybe the day before and I think it was on the fifth or sixth page. It was pretty far buried in there and that seems to be one of our ways. I don't know if Kristen did she go on KUJ? Does anybody know? I don't

something we had talked about of it, but I don't know if she did or not. So maybe we could circle back on using that the community affairs um at K&J and and trying something there and again sharing the city the announcement on the city web page since we don't have our own Facebook page. Um, yeah. I think with the shuffle of all the holidays and everything, it's something that can often get, you know, overlooked or missed. So, I would make a mo motion that we extend the deadline. Um, one month, two months, I don't know. Probably a month. I think that would be good. That makes sense. Okay. So, 119.

Uh, what is what day of the week is that? It's a Monday. A Monday. What's that Friday? That is Martin Luther King. Okay. What's the Friday of that [laughter] week? 23rd. The 23rd of January. And I would also say that maybe we should consider a different time frame for this award. That's what I because I think that Yeah, it always kind of we sort of feel like we're waiting till the last minute for submissions and then they come in, but it feels a little

unnecessarily rushed maybe to have it cuz to your point there's a lot going on. Yeah. any sense to um timing it so that the we could announce the winner and have them or some kind of an event associated or tagging along with like neighborhood night out or welcome you know that's a good idea. So in the late like late summer you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. Cuz we National Night Out is usually end of July or very early August and then welcoming week is in September. Yeah, I think that makes sense, Carl. Well, we can I forget which committee owns this project. [laughter] I don't think it's the activities committee.

Where's the dart board? Is it sponsored events? I think maybe. Yeah, I forget. Um, so we maybe could turf the discussion about next year's process and when to think about that. M but it sounds like I'm hearing a desire to prolong the ex or extend the nomination period. Yeah. Um yeah, I make a motion to extend the deadline to January 23rd and discuss changing the time frame of the award in general. Second. Second. Okay. All those in favor? I I

oppose. Same sign. Okay, we will extend that period. And I would encourage everybody on the committee to share the Facebook page, the Facebook announcement. I can remind Lisa or not remind, but tell Lisa to see if she can repost that from the city's page as well. Okay. Um, education committee report. Uh, I can't remember when Chris I thought Chris was coming maybe to a future meeting. Yeah, we we talked about that last. Yeah, I remember that, but I don't remember what the actual plan was. So, well, that was in the the minutes. It said uh hoping for December or January. Okay,

I'm guessing. Well, I guess January, [laughter] that's fine. Um, the education committee did meet December 1st. We had a good turnout. Um, I put together some minutes with Alli's help if you want to look at those to see what we talked about and kind of where where we're heading. There's still some things that need to be figured out from the perspective of the reconciliation writer group on exactly what they would propose to us for support. We kind of gave them some ideas of kind of what's with what's within scope of HRC and what's outside of the scope of HRC and maybe some potential other partners for them as well. So, you can see that Um,

yeah, it was a good meeting. I feel like we made a lot of headway um in kind of just I don't know establishing a relationship and brainstorming a bit on what Yeah. what that partnership looks like. And I think I [snorts] think it'll be really cool to see what comes out of it. a lot of, you know, um, events with an educational slant, I guess. Yeah. Seems like it'll be really cool.

Yeah. You can see a discussion on partnerships. We provided some ideas for them to kind of go to those partners who might be better equipped to provide expertise than I mean, than we sure are and come back to us with some ideas. Um, and then we also, you can see at the bottom after they left, we discussed our next living without limits event and we picked two topics and those were the ones we had already talked about and I need to work on getting some dates so we can move ahead on scheduling that. That's really where we're at with that. Have we nailed down some analysts? I

firmed up those or are they still kind of pending and they're still pending I think based on I need to I need to communicate with the library and get some dates first so we can see who's available who's still interested. I have several people who have expressed interest in the past and now I can circle back with them and provide them an example of what the first one looked like so maybe it's a little less intimidating. Um although it's a hard act to follow. Um so maybe more so. I don't know. Carl, [laughter] I don't think it's hard. I think they'll do just fine. Yeah, I'm sure. Good format. Yeah. And then other business. I feel like wasn't this from last month, the League of Cities. Wasn't that last month that you provided that or was that

I did talk about it and I don't know if I had said I would bring want to bring more particulars. Um but I would have to defer until January because I don't have that information with me. That's okay. It might have been a holdover. Um, any legislative updates? I mean, there's a lot going on, but nothing directly applicable for us at this time, I don't think. And then, um, anything from the city council?

Uh, I didn't see anything. I don't know if the mayor has anything, but I watched the videos and I didn't see any anything that was pertinent to us.

Um, I don't believe so, but if I may, um, just give you some information, uh, city manager and I met with a representative from the writers local committee and talked about, uh, some of the things that I see suggested in uh, the minutes from the education committee meeting. uh to if we could start early on and um the education piece was particular interested interesting to me and I shared with them that the Brown County Historical Society uh during uh August does programming both uh Native American participation as well as early pioneer uh participation and continue to educate and over time how uh it's been uh a good and a great opportunity for us to reach out to our our partners within uh the state of Minnesota also shared with her she wasn't aware that when we did the major exhibit on third floor uh we had two Native American consultants participate in uh the interpretation of the Dakota War and so that we were looking legitimately at both sides of the story. So, uh, suggested to that Brown County Historical Society may be willing to continue that education piece leading up to this the the ride. And I don't know that. I'm just speaking from having worked there. that maybe that's a program that we could work on so that we almost have like work sessions up until the writers come through in December so that we can study some of the subject matter related to uh the writers what they want to accomplish and uh the story. So it was it was exciting meeting with her and hopefully next year we'll start a little bit earlier and that is

one of the things that they uh expressed as well. I did uh we did share uh with her that human rights certainly is a place to um be engaged and and share, but that if there's something at the city level as far as facilities and other kind of logistics that maybe that could go directly to the city manager and he can uh uh have delegate different staff people to be involved in the process.

Thank you. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. that that kind of goes along with what we were discussing at the events committee or the education subcommittee and we were another topic that came up is we is discussing or education around more than just that the war the conflict but there were relationships that

were there long before that happened relationships after that and it's not you know although that's a very pivotal event of course in the shared history of new it's not the only thing that happened Um, so I think that there was interest expressed on both s, you know, both our our side and from the reconciliation writers to to look at some ways to talk about those other topics as well. Thanks for that update. Okay. Um, so date, oh, we need a volunteer for I'm let me backtrack a little bit. The we need a volunteer for January through March. city council leaison.

I can do that. Okay. Thank you, Carl. Okay. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Human Rights Commission is Monday, January 26th. Maybe we'll have those nominations by then, right? for is there can the committee send a um a reminder of sorts uh invitation perhaps to um the city manager? Yes. So that that's a good idea. I don't know if he's maybe with all going on with the budgets [snorts] and stuff that got shuffled down in his pile, but

yes, reminding Chris with an invitation. Thank you. That's a good idea, Carl. Anything else? Okay. Well, hearing nothing, I will um seek a motion to adjourn the meeting. So move. Seconded. [laughter] All in favor? I oppose. Same sign. All right. We are adjourned at 5:39, I think. And I've always wanted to use