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Working to Build a Model Human Relations Commission The
City of Rialto has gone through some wrenching times due to police activities which many community members viewed as abusive and racist. The City hired a new police chief and, after attending CAHRO's Symposium on Community
Intergroup Conflict Resolution Strategies, public officials decided to create a human relations commission whose responsibility would be to work on improving community-police relations and other intergroup conflict related issues.
City officials contracted with CAHRO to help them form a human relations commission. We met with the city officials and identified some of their constraints. First, there were insufficient funds to
staff the commission and the duties for its coordination were to be assumed by the City Clerk. Second, the newly hired police chief needed the opportunity to assert leadership over the department and it would be inappropriate
to invest the Commission with civilian review powers. Third, the Mayor was going to be responsible for making the final decision on the selection of all the commissioners, but he was going to do it in collaboration with the
City Council. After the initial assessment, we contracted with the City of Rialto and agreed to a four part process in which we would: 1) produce the first draft of the ordinance to establish the Rialto Human Relations
Commission; 2) help to develop criteria for the selection of commissioners and provide consultation during the selection process; 3) orient the commissioners and guide them through the process of developing procedures and bylaws;
4) work with commissioners to design a work plan for the commission which would go to the City Council for approval. CAHRO used this opportunity to build a human relations commission which would serve as a model
for others working under similar constraints with similar resources available to them. There were a few objectives of our own we wanted to achieve:
- to create a commission that was not going to serve as a buffer to protect the city from its residents and community organizations, but one which would have a role in the governance of the City;
- to subject all commissioners to a litmus test to ensure the Commission would not be divided over the very issues they were being created to address. All commissioners would be asked whether they could support
everyone's legal
and constitutional rights regardless of their race, religion, age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability and those that were equivocal would be excluded from consideration;
- to ensure that the structure would enable "hidden populations" in Rialto to participate in Commission deliberations. In particular we wanted to make sure that people whose communities do not make up a
visible or significant proportion of the population of Rialto would be offered an opportunity to participate in their local government;
- We also wanted the police chief and the school superintendent represented on the commission so that police and school issues could be dealt with expeditiously and facilitate a partnership between the commission and those
agencies.
Some of the objectives that various working committees of the Commission are proposing go beyond those found in a traditional workplans. The innovations include:
- Providing all city staff, school teachers, law enforcement officers and commissioners with referral slips that can be used to refer an issue to the Commission for resolution;
- Holding meetings with all community organizations and faith institutions serving different communities within the city and offering them the opportunity to host a Commission meeting or make a presentation to the Commission
highlighting the unique contributions of their constituents to the community;
- Establishing an annotated directory of training, programs and services in collaboration with city agencies, including the police and schools that could be used to assess their effectiveness and enhance their efforts to work
with diverse communities of people;
- Establishing a network of experienced conflict resolution providers to work in cooperation and collaboration with the commission, police, school and city agencies;
- Working with the police to develop a procedure and format for residents to make commendations or raise concerns about police officers and/or their activities;
- Designing a mechanism for informing monolingual non-English speaking parents of information about the provisions of the proposition restricting bilingual education and for
improving communication between non-English speakers and school personnel.
Both the City of Rialto and CAHRO wanted to create a commission that would work in partnership with officials to prepare them to work collaboratively with diverse communities. The Commission structure and
activities were tailored to the needs of a mid-sized community with minimal resources. The Commission was designed to overcome many of the shortcomings of commissions serving communities where there is little if any direction
and support from the local government. Most aspects of the contract has been completed though there is more work to be done. Sixty-four human relations and human rights commissions serve California. However
less than half that number are provided any significant attention from the public entities they serve. Too few have a workplan, bylaws, or a common vision of what they are about. With adequate planning and capacity
building CAHRO expects the City of Rialto Human Relations Commission to become a model of what a commission can provide a city with limited resources. |
