HRC director defends department

Topeka's Human Relations Commission provides a "very needed service," its director, Rio Cervantes-Reed, said Wednesday after the city announced plans Tuesday to evaluate the staffing of the department.

Cervantes-Reed told reporters at city manager Norton Bonaparte's monthly news conference the HRC works every day to protect the civil rights of Topeka citizens, including city employees.

The HRC's future came into question Tuesday evening as Bonaparte told the city council the city needs to reduce city staffing by at least 70 to 80 full-time jobs — and perhaps as many as 125 to 135 — to deal with a 2010 budget shortfall that has risen to $4 million.

He announced various steps the city will implement or consider in the next 60 days. Those included evaluating the staffing of the HRC, which has an annual budget of about $183,000.

Cervantes oversees the city's nine-person, volunteer HRC, as well as its three-person staff consisting of herself, an office assistant and a civil rights investigator. The HRC's mission is to ensure fair and equal rights for all Topekans in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodation. The agency investigates complaints and conducts educational programs.

The HRC's future was among topics discussed Wednesday morning as Bonaparte held his monthly news conference at City Hall, 215 S.E. 7th, where a sign on the front door identified this as being "employee appreciation week."

While taking questions from the media after announcing the HRC was seeking nominations for its Troy Scroggins Award, Cervantes-Reed was asked to justify the continued existence of the department.

She said the HRC has been "very successful at reaching mediations" in situations where people reported being victims of discrimination. Mediation conferences arranged by the HRC are targeted at finding a win-win situation between both parties in situations where someone thinks their civil rights have been violated, she said.

Cervantes-Reed provided The Topeka Capital-Journal a report showing the HRC as of last week:

Had made 610 public contacts so far this year, including 423 regarding potential discrimination in employment, 182 in housing and five in public accommodations.
Was investigating 30 formal complaints lodged in the area of employment discrimination, seven in housing discrimination and one regarding alleged discrimination in public accommodations.
So far this year had "closed" 11 cases it was investigating, including five in which no probable cause was found, three in which settlement agreements were reached, two that were administratively closed and one that was conciliated.
Had recovered $1,234.44 this year for complainants in three cases.

Cervantes-Reed said that with the state cutting two positions at the Topeka office of the Kansas Human Relations Commission, she wouldn't be surprised to see that agency start experiencing a backlog of cases.

While Topekans may choose to file complaints with the state HRC instead of the city HRC, Cervantes-Reed told reporters the state HRC is strongly in support of cities in Kansas maintaining human relations commissions.

Kansas HRC executive director Bill Minner and assistant director Ruth Glover made that point at the Topeka HRC's meeting March 1, where Glover said discrimination is an important enough issue that it needs to be addressed at all levels of government..

Glover said that day that the task of an HRC is particularly important during tough economic times.

"Discrimination is much more subtle than what it was years ago," she said. "And so if you have some type of economic situation where you're letting people go, you know, that's the perfect cover for discriminatory action."

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 295-1184 or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.