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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-04-27 Minutes AGENDA New Hanover County/City of Wilmington Community Relations Advisory Committee Zoom Virtual Meeting April 27, 2021 @ 5:30pm Committee members present: Lori Wainright, Kimberly Gieger, Kathy King, Scott Whisnant, Jen Johnson, Florence Warren, Liz Carbone, Megan Mullins Staff present: Suzanne Rogers, COW; Erica Jacobs-Graham, COW; Melissa Huffman (City Attorney), COW; Crystal Williamson, COW; Clayton Roberts, COW; Erris Dunston, COW; Tony McEwen, COW; Linda Thompson, NHC Public present: Jean, Anne Eitelman, Virginia Hager Absent: Evelyn Bryant, Courtney Horton I. Call to order Committee Member Lori Wainright called the meeting to order at 5:33 pm. Roll Call was taken. A quorum was established II. Approve Agenda Motion: Kathy King; second Florence Warren to approve the agenda. Upon vote, the motion carried unanimously. III. Approve Minutes Motion: Scott Whisnant; second Florence Warren to approve the minutes. Upon vote, the motion carried unanimously. IV. Introduce Clayton Roberts, Assistant Director City of Wilmington HR V. Update on ongoing projects Jen spoke on meeting with the City staff members in March and introduced staff members: Tony McEwen, Asst. to City Manager for Legislative & Community Affairs; Erris Dunston, LGBTQ+LGBTQ++ liaison, City; Clayton Roberts, City. Tony shared his screen in regard to letter from the City to CRAC. The Mayor and Erris have been in conversation with Equality NC for about a year about HB182. Municipal Equality Index score was a 15 and has risen to 29. They foresee an increase in the MEI in the future. Erris spoke on communicating more to employees about LGBTQ+ in the City. The City generated and made available a newsletter from HR and received feedback about receiving communication from LGBTQ+ advocates in the City. Tony spoke on the expansion of medical benefits for LGBTQ+ employees, staff resources and identifying best practices. There have been ongoing discussions; last Friday met with Equality NC about the LGBTQ+ efforts. Gotten the ok/green light to go forth with all efforts to ensure equal rights with LGBTQ+. Clayton reported the Harassment and Discrimination policy has been revised. The City is providing transition coverage as part of the insurance coverage. This coverage began on January 1. Added a new mental health benefit provide free mental health care sessions. There is space on monthly newsletter to receive more info about LGBTQ+ initiative. Next month the efforts will be mentioned in the newsletter. Lori asked Jen if she will she be meeting with Erris, Clayton, Tony regularly. She responded that they keep in contact regularly. Jen reported that there is no City Ordinance yet to address LGBTQ+ discrimination, but conversations continue in an effort to work towards local policy action. Another positive development is that Erris is now involved with Resiliency Task Force, Equity and inclusion Committee. Jen provided an update on meetings with members of the NHCS Board regarding the letter from CRAC re: LGBTQ+ students. Several conversations with NHCS staff in the Title IX office to learn more about their efforts and explore setting up a meeting with CRAC and NHCS to work with Title IX and support efforts to address discrimination against LGBTQ+ and mental health of LGBTQ+ students. She also wants to align with NHCS and various community organizations working on LGBTQ+ issues to ensure hear from community advocates and members that are directly impacted. Scott reported he has reached out to Tony McEwen and Tim Buckland about when they can set up a meeting. They are setting a time to meet tomorrow. Waiting on that meeting to update his presentation to see if anything has changed. Reached out to James Ford of CREED (Center for Racial Equality in Education). Scott is looking for an expert in the field to address testing difference in African American students vs Caucasian students. Wants feedback from other areas that have Neighborhood Schools as a districting challenge and learn what has been done to resolve or improve. He wants the presentation to be evolved to reflect more research and best practices. Jen asked if he has talked to anyone on NHCS Title IX committee? Megan asked if Scott is still pursuing the possibility to have the three parties meet. She thinks Scott may get further feedback from the schoolboard if they don’t do presentations and rather get schoolboard and community opinions and best practices. Possibly meet with each individually (City and county) rather than ask for the three parties to meet and let elected officials discuss amongst themselves. Megan also mentioned the article that speaks about where the federal funds the county received are going to in the schools because mental health needs to be addressed. Linda confirms that Therapists will be put in every school funded by the government funds that are available. Also wants to clarify that CRAC’s tasks are to bring up issues to the table and make it recognizable. Liz spoke on Rise Up/Renaming Initiative & Master Calendar CF Collective. The meeting she attended was about creating policy. Master calendar needs pricing, she is waiting on Patrick Brien, CFC for this and will bring up at next meeting. Lori/Suzanne spoke on Workforce Housing Advisory Committee, Suzanne spoke about important outcome of meeting, clarity on forthcoming recommendations. Housing that’s affordable should include everyone in the community. The current by-laws for the WHAC effectively exclude anyone earning $18/hour or less, this is not tenable and the City Council and NHC Commission agreed that recommendations should address households earning 0% AMI to 120% AMI. Reddgo spoke on updates on youth engagement. Plans to pilot an idea to include a youth talk show to include influential people in the community. Possibly having a talk show during mid-day in June to get started with it. Working on a permanent plan for show and getting influential people in the community involved. nd Linda spoke on Poverty Task Force 2 meeting. The Task Force was created to look at strategies to prevent and reduce poverty in the community. Also, to address the main cause and discuss systems that work and don’t work. Task Force consists of 10 individuals on a panel. Next 6 meetings will involve interviewing individuals who have overcome poverty or are in poverty. Last meeting, they interviewed 2 people. One person was raised in poverty and the other was incarcerated. Next meeting is in 3 weeks. Lori brought up how people felt about talking about inequity and racial issues that are uncomfortable but need to be talked about. Jen thinks it starts with us as individuals and we become more educated about how to decrease inequity and racial issues by completing more trainings. VI. New project for consideration: Facilitating conversations on controversial issues & partnering with Resiliency Taskforce VII. Announcements: April is national volunteer month VIII. Public Comment: Virginia Hager-attorney lived in Wilmington 31 yrs. She is Chair of the Frank Harr Foundation. She recalled efforts in the community to support LGBTQ+ such as the AIDS memorial quilt. She wanted to applaud and state that she appreciates CRAC for the support of LGBTQ+ community. Also, wanted to recommend the City and county to become involved with the Nondiscrimination ordinance. IX. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 7:04