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County to find landlords who are willing to rent to people with a voucher and then <br />to find a place that is affordable. Ms. Hampton indicated that there are housing <br />quality standards for both public housing units and for section 8 units. She <br />described the challenge with keeping public housing units updated as federal <br />funds for capital improvements decline each year. She also explained that a unit <br />must be inspected prior to being utilized in the Voucher Program. <br />3. Mr. Case asked about the commission's role in investigating housing <br />discrimination complaints. <br />a. Ms. May discussed the options for a complaint including conciliation, a <br />Cause Determination, and a No Cause Determination. She continued <br />stating that if the parties do not conciliate a complaint, staff determines if <br />there is sufficient evidence to indicate that discrimination occurred. If yes, <br />a Reasonable Cause Determination is issued to both parties indicating how <br />that conclusion was reached. If no, a No Reasonable Cause Determination <br />is issued to both parties indicating how that conclusion was reached. For <br />the latter, the Complainant can ask the Director to reconsider the <br />determination and a panel of three commission members will hear the <br />complaint and will either uphold or overturn the Determination. For a <br />Reasonable Cause Determination, there is a final meeting with all parties <br />to attempt to conciliate. If no agreement is met, the case would go to the <br />state's Office of Administrative Hearings or either party can elect to have <br />it heard in Orange County Civil Court. Ms. May stated that to her <br />knowledge, the HRC has not had to hear any cases, but that it is certainly <br />important for all members to receive the appropriate training since the <br />Ordinance requires that from the board. <br />4. Ms. Hampton directed the board's attention to the Civil Rights Ordinance and the <br />language within it that describes the role of the HRC. Ms. Hampton mentioned <br />that the HHRCD Department has been in a long period of transition and that she <br />is working on some programmatic enhancements to build on the work done before <br />her. She mentioned one section of the Ordinance that calls the HRC to monitor <br />complaints of discrimination and stated that in order to monitor, they will need to <br />be aware of what's going on. She stated that staff would begin to give regular <br />updates that still respect confidentiality of the parties in order to allow the <br />monitoring to occur. Ms. Hampton also mentioned that the department is looking <br />to ensure that there is an appropriate number of staff for the workload and is <br />working on providing target outreach to residents. Ms. Hampton also stated that <br />staff would finalize a flow chart of the complaint process for the next meeting. <br />B. After skipping back up for introductions, Ms. Hampton began discussing some County and <br />departmental updates <br />1. Ms. Hampton turned the attention to the Annual Report and Work Plan for the <br />HRC, due December 15, 2017 and stated that they would be presented to the <br />BOCC during a work session in the spring. She explained that each advisory <br />board is required to do the plans annually and that the HRC is one of three <br />advisory boards staffed by the HHRCD Department, with the others being the <br />Orange County Housing Authority (OCHA) and the Affordable Housing <br />Advisory Board (AHAB). She announced her plan to have all three boards come <br />3 <br />