I asked Laura to post this statement because an article in the Skyway News had some speculation that was way off base and I did not want people to have the wrong impression.
The article speculated that the tight budget would cause a number of things to happen, including elimination of the Civil Rights Commission. The Commission is a citizen body that costs the city very little money. So I have no interest, nor have I ever had any interest, in eliminating it...and even if I did, it would not be for budget reasons because elimination would have very little impact on the budget. If the speculation was intended to refer to the Civil Rights DEPARTMENT, they could have some budget implication, but, again, that's not something I have suggested. I asked Laura to post this today because I got a call wondering why I wanted to eliminate the Civil Rights Commission, based on this article, and I wanted to shut off any more inaccurate information on this. As a side note, we just finished appointing a new round of Civil Rights Commissioners, they are a very promising group and I'm anxious to see the work that they come up with. R.T. Rybak East Harriet -----Original Message----- From: Sether, Laura S [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 5:09 PM To: 'Jon Lewis'; Sether, Laura S; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Mpls] Civil rights commission The Civil Rights Commission is a different organization from the Civil Rights Department. My understanding is that the only public cost of the Commission is for some city to staff the Commission. Laura Sether Office of Mayor Rybak -----Original Message----- From: Jon Lewis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 5:10 PM To: Sether, Laura S; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Mpls] Civil rights commission This is an interesting subject, complete with an interesting statement by Ms. Sether. Can someone articulate why we need the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department? When it was first created, as I understand it, the City of Minneapolis had sexual orientation as a protected class in its civil rights ordinance, but the State civil rights statute did not. Now, to the best of my knowledge, the protected classes are the same in both statute and ordinance. So, what does the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department do that the Minnesota Department of Human Rights doesn't do? What is the benefit to us from having this group there? To Ms. Sether, on what basis do you claim that "the Civil Rights Commission has a negligible (if any) budget impact?" Is the department a money maker? If not, then it has a budget impact, and I would think that it's not negligible. It's hard to believe that cutting an entire department wouldn't save some money. I'm not questioning the work that the department does. However, if this work is also being done by the Minnesota Dept. of Human Rights, then why should we pay for this department? I'm paying state taxes to maintain the state department. Why should I support a city department that appears to be superfluous? I'd like to hear some justification for this. Jon Lewis Lyndale _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
