The Human Rights Commission of the City of Tulsa met on August 17, 2026, chaired by Drew France. The meeting included approval of previous minutes, a chair report, a guest presentation by Compliance Officer Kendra Carter on complaint process modernization and complaint data, discussion of commission goals, committee updates, and a vote to re-establish a standing committee on accessibility and inclusion for Tulsans with disabilities.
Thank you. All right, I am Drew France, the chair of the Human Rights Commission, and all this meeting to order. This is an August 26th regular meeting of the Human Rights Commission of the City of Tulsa. We do have a quorum. The first item on our agenda is to consider the required meeting minutes for approval. You will provide a copy of the June 2026 regular meeting minutes for MPU. Any discussion or corrections. Second. Second. All those in favor of approving the June 2026 regular meeting minutes say aye. Aye. And opposed say nay. Minutes are approved as presented. That takes us to the chair report. It has been a very busy two months since we last met. In no order, I, along with other commissioners and city staff, have had a lot of activity going on. Again, no order with the help of many people, and we'll get to this in a moment, but we drafted a proposal to re-establish a standing committee of the human rights commission that focuses on concerns of Tolstans and disabilities. Later in this meeting, we'll discuss a bylaws amendment to restore a more structured forum within the Human Rights Commission for accessibility and inclusion related issues. Additionally, since June, we continue work to modernize the human rights complaint filing process. Uh for the city's complaint process moving forward. We demonstrated that people serving on authorities boards and commissions are more likely to live in certain parts of town. We left with a commitment to help identify neighborhood organizations and leaders in underrepresented districts for targeted outreach, and we left with support to approve online city content with the authorities, boards, and commissions. Relatedly, since that meeting, we developed this handout, which you have for you. Additionally, several of us attended the Title V and Beyond Apology Commission's retreat, where I shared a presentation proceeding that there's this overwhelming feeling that often befalls us due to that gap between the urgency of the issues we talk about and our capacity as a commission to address them. In response, I tried to reframe the work of commissions as a series of small forward steps, helping issues become named and discussed in advance, starting conversations and raise awareness, building relationships, and informing priorities of those in power. And my argument was that that's the real work along this path towards more comprehensive solutions, and those things take much longer. But if we as a commission can move an issue one step closer to a solution, that is meaningful for progress, and that is the work that is worth doing. Additionally, throughout the last two months, I also attended an Asian Affairs Commission meeting, a compassionate total committee meeting, more 2S LGBTQIA clubs committee meetings. I did all that to stay connected to those communities and just stay attuned with the areas of focus that they discuss. I appreciate the other commissioners who continue to advance this work outside of our monthly meetings. Personally, I still have four more commission meetings that I want to visit and attend. And I also still have yet to attend the Fair Housing Committee, so I plan on doing that as soon as I can. Last and truly not the least, the humanitarian of the year selection committee just met, and we identified an honoree for 2026. Thank you to the committee members for helping continue this recognition of Tolstans. The service reflects the sphere of human rights day. More to come once we've contacted the nominator about the selection and we schedule our award ceremony in December. So really just three themes that they can across those updates. They really speak to collaboration, a lot that we've done to work with other partners across the city. And community engagement. I think I'll pause there, and I'm happy to take any questions or comments about those uh those uh events in the last two months. I know it's a lot. Yeah. I was telling Lexi, it was a lot of work. It's been a blur. You're supposed to be on break in July, so much for that. It was good. I was not alone. There were a lot of people involved. I saw many of you at some of these events, and um, yeah, we got a lot done in a busy summer and look forward to ending the year strong. Uh many of these issues will come back.