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JUNE 26, 2003

ATTENDANCE: Steve Papadakos, Chairman; Joanne Romano; Charles Stabinsky;

Mariusz Kossarski; Mike Murray (8:00 p.m.);

STAFF: Lawrence Patterson, Field Representative

The Chairman called the meeting to order at 8:10 p.m.

I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MAY 15, 2003

Page 1, Paragraph 1, "June 1^st" should be "June 30^th".

Page 1, 2^nd line from bottom of page "…copied to the Director." should be "…copied to the Personnel Director."

** MS. ROMANO MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES AS CORRECTED.

** MR. MURRAY SECONDED THE MOTION.

** MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

II. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Mr. Papadakos said that he wanted to thank Ms. Alarcon for translation from English to Spanish of the Predatory Lending flyer that the Fair Housing Advisory Commission put together. He said she received a letter from the Chairman, Nate Shipp thanking her and the Commission for utilizing her time and effort. He said she is a very important part of what the Commission does in the office.

Mr. Papadakos said Dr. Stabinsky has volunteered to take a last look at the Blue Ribbon Commission Report to see what sections need updating since it was started. He said that the Commission needs the report completed in order to get it to the Mayor.

Mr. Papadakos said that he sent a letter on June 2, 2003 to the Chairman of the Fair Rent Commission, Dick Booth. He said in follow up to that letter he sent another letter on June 20, 2003 to the Mayor basically saying that on behalf of the Commission he was concerned that to date he had not received a reply to his June 2, 2003 letter, cosigned by Dick Booth, Chairman of the Fair Rent Commission requesting a time line for the posting of the position of the Director of Human Relations and Fair Rent. He said that he included in the letter the fact that this is his third request seeking information as to when the City will be posting the position. He asked that a reply be made by Wednesday, July 2, 2003. Mr. Papadakos said that he copied Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Chickarello and Mr. Booth.

III. FIELD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT

Mr. Patterson said that he wanted to thank everybody for being flexible enough to be able to allow this meeting to be held tonight. He said that unfortunately, last week, the Commission did not know until the eleventh hour that there was a 1000 plus attendance expected at the concert as well as two open forum meetings that were open to the public. He said he recognized that by 5:45 p.m. parking was already filling up and he knew that by 7:30 p.m. there would be no parking. Mr. Flack asked if had been increasingly hard to get a quorum. Mr. Patterson said not necessarily. He said he usually knows by the afternoon of the meeting.

Mr. Patterson referred the Commission to two articles from the Norwalk Hour having to do with the Supreme Court rulings on Affirmative Action with the University of Michigan Law School in terms of their admission policies both to the university as well as the law school itself. He said it wound up with a 5 to 4 ruling that upheld their admission process for the law school but not for the university. He said additionally, today, the Supreme Court also struck down a Texas law banning homosexuality that had been on the books for many years and they also reversed the removal of the statute of limitations on prosecuting cases as they pertain to molestation cases of people that bring cases after some 30 years. He said by doing that it is going to close the door on a lot of child abuse, molestation and some Roman Catholic Church cases. Mr. Patterson said this would also overturn a lot of decision that have already been made. He said they both have very far-reaching effects as far as the Commission is concerned.

Mr. Patterson said that as far as the Human Relations Commission office is concerned queries are up regarding Labor Law and discrimination in general. He said in particular, he has gotten more phone calls from individuals regarding the Family Leave Act and maternity leave. He said many of the cases are not ripe for complaints. He said that in one particular case he spent 2 ½ hours interviewing one person to find out all the particulars of how they feel they were discriminated against. Mr. Patterson said that what the Commission has done in the past could be revisited sometime soon if they get a Director regarding wrongful discharge and employee’s rights and the meaning of what it is to be in a right to work State such as Connecticut. Additionally, he said, Sonja had been the City’s ADA coordinator for the Americans With Disabilities Act. Mr. Patterson said that he had been contacted by the State ADA Administrator regarding an instance involving a disabled Norwalker who suffers from cerebral palsy. He said the vehicle that they use to transport this person is registered in Darien and therefore was not eligible for a Norwalk beach sticker, however, in discussion with the Director of Parks and Recreation they are willing to make an exception. Mr. Patterson said that he was able to get a pass only for use for the individual regardless of what vehicle they are in. Mr. Flack asked what happened to the individual. Mr. Patterson said the individual needs a van to accommodate her and the van belongs to her father’s company in Darien. He said that because the caregiver came to the City of Norwalk to get a beach sticker with their registration, they denied it because it was an out-of-town registration. He said that the person, rather than contacting the Human Rights Commission or someone else in the City of Norwalk, contacted the State. Mr. Patterson said the State contacted him and he was able to remedy the situation.

Additionally, Mr. Patterson said that as a point of information, Fair Rent contacts are up this month and their copier is dying. He said it is too old to get fixed. Mr. Papadakos asked why the Commission did not ask for a special appropriation. Mr. Patterson said the Commission might have to. He said he might be able to get the IT Department to get a part for it. Mr. Papadakos noting the end of the fiscal year on Tuesday asked if there was any money in the budget. Mr. Patterson said he gave copies of the budget last month and it was monies that had been appropriated. He said the Commission has not gone over the budget but there is very little money left. Mr. Patterson said that once the copier finally goes the Commission will have to put in for a special appropriation.

Mr. Papadakos asked about the Commission’s brochure. Mr. Patterson said that it had been revised and printed. Ms. Romano asked that since Ms. Alarcon did such a good job translating if it were possible to get her to translate the brochure. Mr. Patterson said that he would make a note of it. He said that for the last 10 months Ms. Alarcon has been going through a lot of the forms in the office and translating and maintaining them. Mr. Patterson said the office has many booklets, brochures and discrimination forms and it is a very slow process but he would remind her. Ms. Romano said that she has a friend that could take a look at doing it to see if she can do it. Mr. Patterson said that somebody had done that with two other forms on the Fair Rent side and she found many grammatical problems.

IV. EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR CASE REVIEW

** MR. FLACK MOVED TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION.

** MR. MURRAY SECONDED THE MOTION.

** MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

The Commission went into Executive Session at 8:35 p.m. and reconvened into public session at 8:41 p.m.

** MS. ROMANO MADE A MOTION TO DISMISS CASE NUMBER 222-02E DUE

** MR. FLACK SECONDED THE MOTION.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

V. OLD BUSINESS

1. Fair Housing Representative’s Report – Steve Papadakos

Mr. Papadakos said the meeting was supposed to be on last Monday and was canceled due to the lack of a quorum. He said there is nothing to report.

2. Blue Ribbon Commission Status Report – Larry Patterson

VI. NEW BUSINESS

None.

VII. ADJOURNMENT

** MR. SCIALABBA MOVED TO ADJOURN.

** MR. MURRAY SECONDED THE MOTION.

** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

The meeting adjourned at 8:46 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Custis

Telesco Secretarial Services

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