Minutes 04-08-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commerce's Women's Entrepreneur Group. She just does not see that there is a clear mission to create a new group on this topic. Cheryl Young said the purpose of the HRC report being worked on now is to tell the Board what the group has been doing, as opposed to a plan going forward. She said this is meant to be a picture of current status and the ways they can integrate women's issues into their current groups. Commissioner porosin proposed that the Board provide a list of the issues of interest to the HRC, with a request that they come back in May with a 6 -12 month plan to do outreach around those issues. He suggested the focus should be: 1) Issues facing low income and impoverished women (a. childcare, b. job training, and c. general impediments identified in the County); 2) Issues of pay equity; and 3) Women owned businesses. He said this would be his suggestion for a 12 month agenda, and the HRC could decide where this should go. He said a specific focused direction is the key. He said the report that comes back could also detail the partnerships involved. He would like to get feedback from the community to define the issues. Commissioner Gordon suggested that HRC should go ahead and do the report, and she suggested the Board should not decide on a list of issues tonight. She said she and Commissioner Price could come up with some issues that the Board of County Commissioners can review. She does not perceive that the HRC has the time to work on the issues that are being proposed tonight, since they are under staffed and time is short. Commissioner Pelissier said the Board needs to have a clear direction. She is hearing that Commissioner Price and Commissioner Gordon are in favor of a commission, but the rest of the Board is not. She asked if Commissioner Price and Commissioner Gordon are going to work on a new commission. She supports Commissioner porosin's priorities, but they are big priorities, and she questions whether a public forum will really provide the hard data needed to know what is going on in the County. She does not want to hand out a task that is too large for an advisory board to take on. Chair Jacobs summarized that HRC will provide a status report on May 20th. He said the Board recognizes that the department is short staffed and that an advisory board is what is being requested. He said there are several proposals for what the Commissioners would like to see, and some of them overlap and some don't. He noted that some of Commissioner Dorosin's priorities would involve other departments, such as DSS. He said if the Board is going to lay out priorities for issues related to women, it may be too complex than even the HRC can do in a report. He said the goal on May 20th should be to identify the issues that are important to the Board of County Commissioners moving forward. He said once these are identified, staff can determine where these issues can be addressed and accomplished in the County government. He said the Board wants to give specific direction, and will take the next opportunity to do that. He said a decision can then be made on whether to have Commissioners partner with HRC to do this, or whether a new organization should be developed. Commissioner Price said it is important to realize that they have spoken to women in the community who were upset that the Commission for Women had been abolished. She said times have changed, and it is important to look at what is affecting the lives of women now. She said there has been concern that the proposal was too broad, so she came back with a narrower focus in her resolution regarding economic development, jobs and pay equity. She said now there is discussion of broadening this to include other issues, but the department is small, which is why the issues were initially kept narrow. She said the narrow focus was based on what the people in the community said, which she feels is as important as what the Commissioners think. She said the hope was to generate data, create awareness, and address the issue.