MARCH 16, 2006

ATTENDANCE: Dr. Barbara Amodio, Chairlady; Rahoul Dupervil; Dr. Charles Stabinsky; Dr. Sally Grose; Vicky Su; Sara Sikes

STAFF: Elisabeth Youngerman

OTHER:

CALL TO ORDER

Dr. Amodio called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m. She said she was glad to be home after her trip abroad. She thanked everyone for handling commission matters while she was gone.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 2005 MEETING AND JANUARY 2006 SPECIAL MEETING

** DR. STABINSKY MOVED TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES OF JANUARY 30, 2006 AS AMENDED.

The corrections to the minutes of January 30, 2006 are as follows:

Throughout the document, “Mr. Stabinsky” should be changed to “Dr. Stabinsky.”

On page 2, 1st paragraph, 3rd sentence, “and get information to Ms. Youngerman” should be added at the end of the sentence.

On page 2, 8th paragraph, 2nd sentence, the word “handicapped” should be changed to “disabled”.

** MR. DUPERVIL SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED WITH TWO (2) VOTES ABSTAINING(GROSE, AMODIO).

** MS. SIKES MOVED TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES OF DECEMBER 15, 2005 AS AMENDED.

The correction to the minutes of December 15, 2005 is as follows:

On page 5, last paragraph, 2nd sentence, change “principle” to “principal”, and change “Ms. Sumter” to “Ms. Sumpter”.

** MS. SU SECONDED.

** MOTION PASSED WITH ONE (1) VOTE ABSTAINED (GROSE).

CHAIRLADY’S REPORT

Dr. Amodio said she was privileged to attend the dinner recently at which the young Haitian girl that had been trafficked spoke of her experiences. Dr. Amodio said that Ms. Youngerman did a good job of moderating the panel. The newspaper articles don’t tell the story in full, but Dr. Amodio said she found the event to be extremely enlightening. She did attend the Common Council meeting recently as well. The Vice Consulate of Haiti will be setting up a temporary and experimental office, adjacent to the Commission’s, in City Hall.

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Ms. Youngerman said they took in 46 new cases during February. They had 5 human relations intake cases for the month. One of them has become a formal ADA complaint that she is investigating. She has received several calls over the past two weeks regarding ADA. She said Ms. Nilsa Martinez has designed an ADA Complaint/Grievance brochure in-house that has been approved by Corporation Counsel. They are now taking complaints on the form, which seems to be working. They have the first investigation scheduled for next Monday involving NEON day care in a school property that is owned by the city.

Under Personnel & Office in her report, Ms. Youngerman said that the Board of Estimate and Taxation had approved the Department budget at a recent meeting. They received the normal increases for salaries, etc., and an additional $4,000 for disability training. She said the Board of Estimate and Taxation is pleased that the Fair Rent Commission and Human Relations Commission have been combined into one budget.

Ms. Youngerman said that there had been newspaper articles on the Haitian American Society opening an office for the Haitian Consulate in City Hall. The work has been done with Corporation Counsel and the facilities manager. They went to the Common Council for approval, and now a license agreement is being worked out. They have had several people in the office already looking for the Haitian Consulate. They are looking at an opening for April 12, 2006. There are several other offices similar to this type of set-up, one in New Jersey and one in Philadelphia. Mr. Dupervil explained that the Haitian community in Norwalk doesn’t have a place to go. The Haitian community from Norwalk, as well as Stamford, Bridgeport, and Hartford, has to go to New York City to handle any business relating to the Consulate. Mr. Dupervil said the Haitian community in Norwalk made the request to the United Haitian American Society, of which he is a member. Dr. Amodio mentioned that the gentleman from the United Haitian American Society that was at the Common Council meeting said that were planning to open offices in Stamford and Bridgeport, if necessary. A typical issue that they would handle would be having passports renewed, or having a mandate prepared in order to sell something in Haiti. Passports are not available for renewal by mail. Dr. Amodio suggested that they keep a log of people that are using the office. Mr. Dupervil said it wasn’t necessary. As he is the liaison with the Haitian Consulate, Mr. Dupervil will ask the Consulate to provide the number of people that are using the office on the specific day that they have set up. They are determining which day that will be, and how many times a month that will be.

Dr. Amodio asked if anyone thought of other groups that would be interested in this. Mr. Dupervil said that several other groups in Norwalk do have a place to go. He said that there are 5,000 Haitians in Norwalk now. In Connecticut, there are 20,000 Haitians. Dr. Amodio asked Ms. Su if the organization from the Chinese New Year event would be interested. Ms. Su replied that they have a local chapter set up to promote activities within the community. If there are problems with civil rights, human rights, employment, etc., they contact the national office to get resources for support. The organization is called the Organization of Chinese Americans, and it will soon be changed to the Organization of Asian Americans. Dr. Amodio said she will get the contact information for other ethnic organizations in the area, particularly Hispanic Americans, of which during her 7 years a Vice Consul, she learned that Costa Rican Americans in Norwalk were the highest number in the United States, and that might be a place to begin, to Ms. Youngerman so a brochure can be created, outlining coordinates in an effort to direct people accordingly. Dr. Grose was not in agreement with pursuing this effort. Mr. Dupervil said he thought the commission should be careful to not have too many ideas on the table. The commission is working on several things, and the work is not yet completed. Dr. Amodio said this was to be an informational piece for people to know where to go in the community, as well as a form of outreach. She didn’t want to make it a huge project for anyone.

Ms. Youngerman continued on with her report, saying she was following up for Dr. Stabinsky about a correction from January 30, 2006. She spoke with Dr. Corda, several people at the Board of Education, and some high school teachers, and she found out that there is no Holocaust education program in the Norwalk public schools. Rabbi Fish volunteered to do a program this year. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is offering training to teachers in southern Fairfield County. They will be doing this in the fall with a special Holocaust teaching program for junior high school and senior high school teachers. They have already put the Norwalk teachers on the list to be invited.

In terms of outreach, she said they did finish the Human Relations booklet and the ADA brochure. They are very pleased with it and have received positive feedback. They are coming into the end run on the Spanish resource directory. They have gotten prices for translation in Spanish and Creole, and they will print the directory in two languages. Ms. Youngerman said she and Ms. Martinez will be at Diageo next week for Women’s Month to hand out the Human Relations brochure and ADA brochure, as well as information on sexual harassment, human rights issues, and housing. The resource directory proved to be a huge undertaking for the intern, as all of the information from the resource directory by the Norwalk Healthy Families Collaborative had to be updated. They have price quotes of approximately 18 cents a word for translating, and they hope to have it ready for printing in April. She said the ADA brochure will be translated into Spanish, Creole, and Braille. It should be ready next week. The resource directory for special needs services in Norwalk, the sister resource directory to the ADA brochure, will be printed in blue and white. The CT Office of Protection and Advocacy will be coming to Norwalk the first week of May to hold regional hearings on disability issues. The commissioners will be notified of the date(s) so that they can attend.

Ms. Youngerman said her office continues to be the sole source of ADA enforcement without any support from other offices or any other funds. She recently attended a Disability Commission meeting in Hamden to see first-hand how they handle their internal self-evaluations. She said they could have a lot of oversight into how departments handle their evaluations. She hasn’t started that process yet, though, as she was trying to complete the brochures. She is working with Ms. Mann on a “disability etiquette” brochure. All employees at City Hall will get a copy of it as soon as it is available. The office applied for the CDBG grant, but they were turned down after the 2nd go-around. She sent a letter to the Finance Department to see how to get funds for the estimating part of ADA Transition Plan.

The RFP on diversity training that Dr. Grose, Ms. Brown, and Dr. Stabinsky worked on went out today. The response to the RFP is expected in April. The Committee expects to start working with the consultant in May and June, and they hope to have an event in September. She worked with Mr. Foley from Purchasing on the RFP, and they included sample training in the RFP for the consultants to come in and do a session with the commissioners and selected guests.

OLD BUSINESS

Public Relations Committee

Ms. Youngerman said that Mr. Ross had agreed to help, but he is away now. She asked if Ms. Su and Ms. Sikes would like to be members of the committee. They both agreed to work on the committee. Help is needed redoing the website and adding links.

Disability Rights/ADA Committee

Dr. Stabinsky said that the city needs to work harder to be ADA compliant. An architect is needed to do the physical surveillance of the 22 properties, which are city owned. Ms. Youngerman said she has been in contact with the Finance Department about obtaining money for this effort.

Diversity Committee

Dr. Stabinsky said that as a result of the swastika incident recently, the Commission formed a diversity committee. Mr. Dupervil, Dr. Grose, and Ms. Brown, along with Dr. Stabinsky, are on the committee and have met five times. They met with a woman from the Anti-Defamation League. After the RFP reponses are received, they will plan an event that will be preceded by some sessions where diversity training will be experienced by commissioners and invited guests. The hope of the committee is that the event will not be the end of the activity. Ms. Youngerman said that there are State contracts for diversity training, so they are using the master list of all people who have been approved by the State to contact for proposals. There is a group of at least 8 who do this.

Dr. Grose said that there is a “Dine Out for Education Day” scheduled for March 29. It is a marvelous way to make a contribution to the Norwalk Public School System. There are 17 Norwalk restaurants that have agreed to participate, and on March 29 they will contribute 15% of their take to the Norwalk Education Foundation, which in turn funds the After-School Alliance. She provided a flyer for everyone for his or her information on the participating restaurants.

Ms. Youngerman said that she has a piece of information from Ms. Mann that should be included under New Business. Unfortunately, the funding for a special program for the disabled who ride the transit district buses in Norwalk and Westport had been cut. There is a bill pending to restore the funding. Ms. Mann wrote a draft of a letter to be sent to the Norwalk legislators and all concerned.

** MS. SIKES MOVED THAT THE FOLLOWING LETTER BE SENT TO THE NORWALK LEGISLATORS, AND ALL CONCERNED:

“Dear …..

The Human Relations Commission for the City of Norwalk is writing in support of SB 524 to set aside funds for additional funding for the Norwalk Transit District’s Americans with Disabilities Act, door to door transportation services in Norwalk and Westport.

We believe that door-to-door transportation is vital to the quality of life for those with disabilities. To deny this service to the disabled in our community contributes to a life of isolation and denies access to an essential service.”

** MR. DUPERVIL SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

** MS. SU MOVED TO ADJOURN.
** DR. GROSE SECONDED.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Marr
Telesco Secretarial Services

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