Minutes - 19990426 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Human Rights and Relations 1. New Civil Rights Specialist - page 13 John Link said that this position is another example of a service level question in terms of how responsive the County wants to be as they address the cases and complaints they receive. He said it now takes 273 days to process cases the Human Rights and Relations Department receives. The proposal is that a position be added to reduce this time down to 180 days. In addition, this proposal goes beyond just adding a position to address the caseload; it is to pursue a different method of operation in the department. Annette Moore would like each of the Civil Rights Specialists to go out into the community and work with community groups, conduct training sessions, address interested agencies and organizations, and help to train business groups in human rights and relations. Annette Moore hopes that there would be less burnout in these positions as a result of this different method of operation. John Link said that in terms of revenue, they would be paid on a case-by-case basis by EEOC and HUD. Commissioner Brown asked about the reimbursement amount. Annette Moore said that HUD pays $1,700 per case. EEOC pays $500 per case. Commissioner Brown asked about the actual cost of the position after reimbursements from the different agencies. Annette Moore said that this would depend on the number of cases that are closed. She said the figures from this year are from the cases that will be closed by the end of the federal fiscal year. Commissioner Brown asked about the outcomes and asked which outreach functions are already being done. Annette Moore said they are doing very little outreach functions at this time. The outreach that is being done is by volunteers. They are required to do education outreach by HUD and they are not able to do so. Commissioner Jacobs asked why, with the addition of one new staff person, would the resolution time decrease and continue to decrease in future years. Annette Moore said that as they get more staff, investigators would become more efficient in handling their cases. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the space concerns and where the additional staff will be placed. Annette Moore said that they would replace their intern with this position. Commissioner Jacobs asked about education and outreach in the schools. Annette Moore said that they have not done any education and outreach in the schools. They would like to do that but they do not have the staff to do outreach and education in the community. She said they would like to go into the schools and have a series of multicultural dialogues with the school systems. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to page 14 and asked Annette Moore to explain the 35 under Complaints Closed by Staff. Annette Moore said that that figure was at the time this report was written. That number will be higher by the end of the year. Commissioner Halkiotis asked how many of her staff speak Spanish. Annette Moore said that they have an ESL position in the office, and that person is proficient, but not bilingual. They plan to expand and improve in this area. Commissioner Carey agreed with Commissioner Halkiotis on having someone in the office who can speak Spanish. He followed upon the response to Commissioner Jacob's question about space. He asked if the space issue would be solved because the intern would no longer be needed. Annette Moore said that this would not solve their space problem, but the new staff person would be placed where the intern is now.