Human rights committee is coming

City Council moving forward with its creation

PALMDALE — The City Council discussed and agreed to move forward with the creation of a Human Rights Advisory committee at Tuesday night’s Council meeting.

The next step is bring back an ordinance to establish the committee at a future meeting.

Mayor Steve Hofbauer said the Council discussed the proposed creation of the committee last year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter demonstrations, when they looked at the municipal equity index.

Following the City’s proclamation in honor of Pride month, Hofbauer met with community members to better understand issues faced by the LGBTQ community.

“We were absolutely flabbergasted when we had three pages of resources that we were able to compile that everybody at the table that was knowledgeable but other people didn’t know about these things,” Hofbauer said. “Part of this is a matter of being able to get people to the table that bring the resources, and equally as important is being able to bring their life experiences to the table.”

The mayor said other issues have come up since then. He said the group must have flexibility. Toward that end, he brought African-American and Latinx members of the community as well as faith-based representatives.

Councilman Austin Bishop said he is in favor of anything that can help get more people involved with the city.

Councilwoman Laura Bettencourt said if there is a human rights task force there needs to be subgroups so

people can identify the issues specific to them.

“So while we can have the LGBTQ group we also need to have the African-American group, the Hispanic group,” Bettencourt said. “We need to have subsections so that everyone who feels disenfranchised, who doesn’t feel like things are particularly fair, that they can bring those to the table.”

Bettencourt, who is challenging Hofbauer for the mayor’s seat in the Nov. 3 election, said the Council removed an anti-discriminatory process to select the mayor pro tem.

In February 2017, the Council changed the process of selecting a mayor pro tem to a majority vote of the Council instead of the previous method of rotating the position among council members, providing each an opportunity at the job.

“I find it offensive that you want to start a human rights task force, but yet you’ve had two years to put back in place a policy that did not discriminate,” Bettencourt said. “And you’ve chosen for two years not to do it.”

“I think at the time it was more of a pleasure of the Council thing,” Bishop said.

Mayor Pro Tem Richard Loa said the committee should include groups that have been identified as protected classes under the Civil Rights Act.

“If we’re going to be inclusive of all these different groups then I think it’s probably a step in the right direction in addressing these issues that confront our nation, and of course our city as we’ve seen recently,” Loa said.

Councilman Juan Carrillo said the proposed committee could be a great opportunity to start a dialogue.

“One of the benefits I see is the resources,” Carrillo said. “I know there are a lot of resources here but the challenge is getting them out there.”

Prior to the Council discussion City Manager J.J. Murphy read letters submitted for public comment.

Letter writer Lisa Dawson who urged the council to support the proposed committee.

“I believe it is your responsibility to work for just treatment for all Palmdale citizens,” Dawson wrote. “The City of Palmdale has the opportunity to lead and provide education and programs about human rights ordinances, other council initiatives, and/or to discourage and eliminate racial tensions, prejudice, and/or discrimination in our community.”

Murphy also read a letter of support from Sky Jung, a transgender member of the LGBTQ community.

“Current events within the City of Palmdale have created a new dialogue on the topic of human rights, shedding a light on the fact that for all the good we are doing as a city, there’s still more work that can be done,” Jung wrote.

Letter writer S.J. Grande urged Palmdale to work with the City of Lancaster to reactivate the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force in honor of its late president, Darren Parker, who died last year.

“I oppose the mayor’s absolute grandstanding and pandering,” Grande wrote, adding both cities must work together.