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MINUTES HUMAN RELATIONS COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 29, 1966 - Members of the Human Relations Committee met at City Hall on Thursday; September 29, 1966, at ll:00 a. m. with the following members present: Alderman Rodney Cook Alderman Richard Freeman Mr. Charles Hart Alderman Charles Leftwich Vice Mayor Sam Mas sell, Jr., Acting Chairman Alderman Everett Millican Mrs. Eliza Paschall Mr. Bennie T. Smith Rev. Samuel W. Williams Also present were: Mr. Dan E. Sweat Director of Governmental Liaison Mr. Jim Pilcher City Attorney's Offic e The meeting was called to orde r by Mr. Mas sell and the first order of business was the election of officers for the Committee. Upon motions duly made, seconded and pass e d, the following officers were elected: Mr. Sam Mas sell, J r ., Chairman Rev. Samuel W . Williams, Vice Chairman The Committee the n reviewed the draft ordinance for the establishme n t of a human relations commission and the following actions w e re taken : Section 1 : Upon m oti on duly made, seconded and p asse d, i t was agreed t he c o mmission should be called the Community Relations Commission. U pon motion d uly made, sec on d ed and p a s se d , i t wa s agree d tha t seven (7 ) members of the total of twenty (2 0) members shoul d constitute a quorum rather than ten (10) members as called for in the draft. It was agreed that the phras e "member s hip shall include representation of all segments of the City" be included in this section. �I . Page Two· Section 2: Approved as submitted. Section 3: Approved as submitted. Section 4: Upon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously passed, sub-section (d) was amended to read as follows: "To investigate, discourage and seek to prevent discriminatory practices against any individual because of race, color, creed, religion, national origin or ancestry." l 1. Section 5: The first sentence was amended to read as follows: "The commission shall, with the approval of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, employ an executive director, and the Mayor and Board of Aldermen shall fix his compensation. " The last sentence was amended to read as follows: "He may, with the Mayor's approval and within the limits of the budget of the commission, employ such staff as he needs, and the executive director shall fix the compensation of such staff subjec~ to the approval of the Personnel Board of the City of Atlanta. " Section 6: Approved as submitted. Section 7: Approved as. submitted. Section 8: The first sentence was amended to .read as follows: "The , services of all other departments of the City of Atlanta shall be made available to the commission upon its request for such services subject to the extent of the personnel that they have. 11 The second sentence was amended to read as follows: "Information in the possession of any department, board, or agency of the City of Atlanta shall be furnished to the commission upon its request, and to the extent permitted by law and based on the ability of the department, board or agency to provide such information. " S e ction 9: This section was amended to read as .follows: "The Mayor is authorized to allocate adequate office space and to provide the necessary. facilities in the City Hall for said commission if the office space and facilities are available or to secure space as convenient to the City Hall as possible. 11 Section 10: Approved as submitted. �i Page Three Section 11: Approved as submitted. Upon motion duly made, seconded and passed, it was agreed to add a separate section (Section 12) to the ordinance to provide subpoena power for investigative purposes. The wording of this section will be left to the City Attorney's Office. There being no further discussion on this matter, it was agreed that the ordinance, as amended, be submitted to the Board of Aldermen at their regular meeting on Monday, October 3. In order for this commission to be a charter commission, it will be necessary for the ordinance to be submitted to the Board of Aldermen three times. The Resolution establishing the Human Relations Committee called for the Committee to submit recommendations concerning membership of the Commission. · Mr. Mas sell appointed the following committee to submit such recommendations to the H,uman Relations Committee for consideration : Mrs. Eliza Paschall, Chairman Alderman Rodney Cook Mr. Bennie T. Smith . Mrs. Dorothy B. Thompson Rev. Samuel W. Williams Con c e rning the matter of the budge t of the Commission, Alderman Millican sugge sted this not be set until the p e rmanent Commission is appointed so th at it can consider the budgetary requirements. Alderman Leftwich and Alderman M i llican we r e appointed as a committee of t w o to bring the m a tte r to the attention of the Comptroller and the Finance Commit tee of the Boar d of Aldermen that at a future date a r~quest for funds for this Commission will be forthcoming. In revi ewi ng t he m in'4t e s of the pr evious me e tin g , it Aldermen Cock, Freeman lUH.i Wi:l,t, n o t e d t hat Millican and Mr. Benni~ Smith should be add e d t o the list of m e mbe r s p re s e nt . · It w as asked that the m inu tes be correcte d t o include these n ame s . Mr. Hart inquired if this committee coul d make r ecommendati on s to the department heads and, if so, suggested the B o ard of Education be asked to work with Economic Opportunity Atlanta, Inc. to es tablish a program t«;> �• Page Four keep the school libraries open in the evenings. This was discussed but it was felt this could be more effectively handled under the direction of the permanent Commission. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be scheduled after Mrs. Paschall's committee completes its re commendations. .. < �