07-10-06 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JULY, 10, 2006 twenty (20) days with an answer to the charge and within thirty (30) days with “request of documents” and “all of the interrogatories and questions.” Once the investigators receives that information back, they then of course bring the charging party in and go over the information with that person and then they ask for witnesses or witness statements or anything that they can garner from that person, to further their side of the investigation. Once that has been done the investigator attempts to meet with the respondent to talk about the same things, they go over the information that the charging party has given and ask for witnesses for the respondent as well. From time to time, more often than not, they will set up a conference to bring both people together and have them try to mediate or conciliate this charge. The South Bend Human Rights Commission is not in the business to brow beating or beating up anyone, they are in the business of service and trying to help resolve issues. At the fact finding conference, if they are unable to resolve the issues, they move on with the investigation and the investigator then must weight all the evidence out, submit to the him, the Director of the South Bend Human Rights Commission, who in turn submits it to the Human Rights Commission, which consists of nine (9) people, who in actuality make the final decision concerning that charge. If in fact the charge is labeled no-cause or found to be no-cause, then the Commission will vote on that and if they follow through it is no cause and the case if closed with one exception, and that one exception being that the person filing the charge has an opportunity to appeal the decision, if in fact they have new evidence or something that could sway the Commission in terms of the decision that they have made, the Commission will appoint a hearing officer to hear the information and make a recommendation back to the Commission in terms of a final recommended order. If the Commission goes along with that recommended order, it becomes a final order which is done by the Commissions Attorney. The case is then closed. On the other side of ledger, if the Commission finds probable cause or reason to believe that discrimination has occurred then what happens is that they bring the two parties together again in an effort to resolve the issue. This is called a conciliation conference. At the conciliation conference they go over pro and cons of going further and try to help the two parties resolve their issues again. If that is not successful, then the case is set before a public hearing officer, the public hearing officer is an attorney that is employed by the South Bend Human Rights Commission contractually to hear these cases and make decisions based upon them. The public hearing officer conducts a hearing just like any other hearing is conducted and at the end of that hearing they make a recommendation to the Commission again, based on the facts that they have discerned as to whether or not they believe there has been discrimination or if there has not been discrimination. If they concur with the Commission, then it comes back to the Commission with a recommendation or as it is called and order. If the order is favorable the Commission again votes on it, if they vote on it and decide that yes it is, then it comes back to the Human Rights Commission, and they have to do a cease and desist order and try to eliminate the discriminatory practice wherever it might be or whatever it might be in the City of South Bend. After the finding and as part of the probable cause they are required to monitor that respondent for two (2) years to make sure that they do not violate the agreement and to make sure that the discriminatory practice has ceased. After that the respondent can have if they so desire, to have the Court review the Human Rights Process to make sure that they did not error in their process, they are not supposed to evaluate the decisions made, just the process itself. That would be the only “opportunity” that the respondent would have to have that review, is at the end of the process. In terms of the charging party, in housing and employment they have other avenues in which they go down, one is that in employment, after or before probable cause is found, if the case has been with the commission for ninety (90) days, they can request a right to sue and go straight to federal court. The Commission tries to advise the charging party to go through the entire administrative law process because that is why it was set up and usually Courts tend to through out cases that are brought before them before the administrative process is complete. The City of South Bend has an obligation to further fair housing, so in housing cases, the Commission becomes an agent for the charging party and if a cause is found the City Attorney acts in trying to resolve the issue. Mr. Douglas stated that completes how the Human Rights Commission investigates a charge. Councilmember Rouse thanked Mr. Douglas for his very detailed flow chart account of st how the process works. This ordinance has a find of $1,500.00 for the 1 occurrence; $2,500.00 for any there after. Councilmember Rouse referred to Bill 29-06, and asked 7