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Human
Relations Commission
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Click
here for minutes from the April 18th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the
June 20th, 2002 meeting
Click here for minutes from the
July 18th, 2002 meeting
Click
here for minutes from the August 28th, 2002 meeting
Click
here for minutes from the September 17th, 2002 meeting
Click
here for minutes from the October 17th, 2002 meeting
Click
here for minutes from the November 7th, 2002 meeting
Click
here for minutes from the December 9th, 2002 meeting
Click
here for minutes from the January 16th, 2003 meeting
Click here for minutes from the April 17th, 2003 meeting
MAY 15, 2003
ATTENDANCE: Steve Papadakos, Chairman; Art Scialabba, Vice Chairman;
Mike Murray; Joanne Romano; Charles Stabinsky; Joshua
Kammesman; Rahoul Dupervil; Barbara A. Amodio; Mariusz
Kossarski
STAFF: Larry Patterson, Field Representative
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m.
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF APRIL 17, 2003
Date should be "2003."
** MR. SCIALABBA MOVED TO APPROVE MINUTES AS CORRECTED.
** MS. ROMANO SECONDED THE MOTION.
** MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
2. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Mr. Papadakos said he had spoken to Larry Patterson about speaking to Dick Booth regarding a joint letter to Sarah LeTourneau, Director of Personnel & Labor Relations for City Hall. Sonja Devitt’s benefits run out on June 30 and they need information for posting her position.
3. FIELD REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT
Mr. Patterson circulated copies of the approved budget. He said there had been cuts as expected. On one side was Fair Rent and on the other was Human Relations. On the Human Relations side, in the wages and salaries column, the reduction is Sonja’s retirement. Irene Alarcon’s comes out of Fair Rent. There is a 48.7% decrease in longevity. There is a total of 8% on the Human Relations side and 4.2% from the general fund giving a total of 4.2%, which gives the illusion that Fair Rent is getting 7.3%. He said the numbers spoke for themselves and this was what was approved on April 14th from the Director of Management and Budget. He said the printing press in City Hall would be closing on June 30th and that the work would be farmed out. He said Purchasing had been soliciting everyone for what had been printed in the print shop. He said it was okay right now as far as supplies were concerned. Mr. Papadakos mentioned drafting a letter for Human Relations and Fair Rent. Mr. Patterson said he had e-mailed a draft to Dick Booth. It should go to the Mayor, notifying him of both Commissions’ intent to have the position filled. He said the letter should be directed to the Mayor and copied to the Personnel Director. Dr. Stabinsky asked about the typing service. He asked what did the Commission want and what did they get. Mr. Patterson said they had been doing a diminishment of availability of Telesco’s services. He said the secretarial service was necessary for hearings and meetings, but said they had been trying to take it out of smaller commissions that they did not think was necessary. They felt other commissions could do without it and that staff could provide the secretarial service. Ms. Romano said she had contacted the state and was told that, for certain things, they did need secretarial services. Dr. Stabinsky asked how much they spent for secretarial services. Mr. Patterson said it depended on how many hearings they had. He said they paid for a minimum of three hours. As for the dollar amount, he did not know.
** MR. SCIALABBA MOVED TO GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION.
** DR. STABINSKY SECONDED THE MOTION.
** MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
The Commission went into executive session at 7:46 p.m. and reconvened into public session at 8:05 p.m.
Mr. Papadakos deferred his report until the next meeting.
Mr. Patterson said he had just received Ms. Romano’s report but had not received Mr. Kossarski’s.
Mr. Patterson said updated e-mails would be sent out so the report could be prepared and given to the Mayor. Mr. Papadakos said things had changed since the beginning of the project. Mr. Patterson explained that that was why there were so many changes to the original report. Mr. Dupervil said he had been looking at something in the educational section, and suggested the creation of a subcommittee that would work on the educational section directly and would meet with the Mayor to seek his view about implementation. Mr. Scialabba said it was not the role of the Commission to seek the approval of the Mayor. He said the Commission only made recommendations and that it was up to the Mayor whether or not to approve. Mr. Dupervil asked what kind of authority did they have with the Board of Education to have those things implemented. Ms. Amodio said, in the past, they used to try to have committees set up. She thought this was a good time to start off with a more active committee where they could try to build a rapport with the Board of Education. Mr. Scialabba said that should only be done after the report and the summary were completed. Mr. Patterson said there were a lot of issues with the Board that might come before them; so they should wait for another month. Mr. Dupervil said if they found people that were encouraging them to keep improving, they would have a better result. Mr. Papadakos said it was not a perfect world. Dr. Stabinsky said when Sonja suggested the commission, they needed to see what had and had not been done in ten years and write a report about that. Ms. Romano said, since they started revising it, they didn’t have the same people doing the same thing. Mr. Patterson said Ms. Romano did it in sections and that a summation of all of these sections would constitute the final report. Dr. Stabinsky asked if they had discussed each section. Mr. Patterson said they were waiting for them to be finished. Dr. Stabinsky said they could discuss sections that were already completed. Ms. Romano asked if education was the only thing they were lacking in. Mr. Patterson said it was. He said Sonja’s intent was to do paragraph summaries and put them in a form that could be made as a recommendation to the Mayor. Mr. Papadakos asked if she were still willing to do this. Mr. Patterson said Sonja wanted to do it as an overview. He said it was unfortunate that it had taken eleven years to get to this point; but it would not drag out much longer. Mr. Papadakos asked if it would be ready by the next meeting. Mr. Patterson said it would not. Mr. Papadakos felt the office staff was being taken advantage of by Fair Rent. He asked if they knew how many pages it would be. Mr. Patterson said he believed if it were more than two pages, people would not read it. He said they could do a summary of each piece but that would not work for the entire report.
Mr. Papadakos said he knew everyone’s time was important, but asked that when the staff e-mailed meeting notices, as a courtesy, commission members should call or e-mail the office to say whether or not they could attend the next meeting. Mr. Patterson said they should let Irene know they received their e-mails even if they did not know whether or not they would attend. He said if they did not respond, Irene had to send hard copies of the notices, but by simply hitting the "reply" button they could let Irene know the e-mails had been received.
** MR. SCIALABBA MOVED TO ADJOURN.
** MS. ROMANO SECONDED THE MOTION.
** MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
The meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Maddox
Telesco Secretarial Services
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