01-05-1970 - Laserfiche WebLink

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AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Herrin, Evans, Markel, Patterson, Villa, Griset None None On motion of Councilman Herrin, seconded by Councilman Patterson and unanimously carried, Council denied the appeal, upheld the action of the Planning Commission and instructed the City £~ttor~ % to prep:~ _~ i~esolution granting Variance 69-86 subject to conditions in Finding of Fact dated November 24, 1969. HUMAN RELATIONS PROGRAM Council considered the implementation of the Human Relations Program. The Mayor explained that there were two suggestions: (1) to create a Human Relations Committee by resolution; and (2) to create a Human Relations Commission by ordinance which would have all the powers of other Boards and Commissions in the City, including the power of subpoena. The City Attorney explained the differences in creating a Commission by ordinance and creating a committee by Resolution, explaining that any body that was created by the Council by Ordinance would be a Board or Commission with full powers of Boards and Commissions; that a Committee could be created by Resolution; a Committee would not have the subpoena powers; that the membership of a Commission is limited to eight members, where the membership of a Committee could have more members. The City Manager spoke on the matter, explaining that the staff had two years ago, after a thorough study,, made certain recommendations to the Council and as a result, the Council had adopted the "Community Relations Program", which was being implemented by the staff and the Council, and that the staff had at that time recommended against the creation of a Human Relations Commission as such and is still recommending against it. He added that the staff recommendation was to attempt to establish a process where, through the expertise of the people on the staff, the City would be able to develop within the community through evaluative processes, the technical information and the objective reporting of conditions, i~zformation that would be helpful in correcting the injustices and would also be helpful in persuading the majority of the community to change their social structures in such a sense that these conditions could be eliminated. The City Manager stated that staff felt it would be difficult for a Human Relations Committee or Commission to function at the present time without the background of the mutual progress that the City has made in recent years and felt it would serve a much better purpose at some later time. Councilman Markel stated that he would be in favor of establishing a Committee by Resolution, but not a Commission by Ordinance. Councilman Herrin expressed his opinion that the problem could be handled better by the staff than by a Committee or Commission. Mayor Griset expressed his opinion that a Human Relations body was definitely needed and that the effectiveness of the body would be determined by the caliber of people who served on it, and that he thought the body should be created as a Committee by Resolution, since none of the Council wanted a body that would have subpoena powers. CITY COUNCIL -9- January 5, 1970