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Springfield city officials have made the decision to almost completely eliminate the budget for the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights. KSMU’s Kristian Kriner reports on the city's decision to cutback this commission.
City Council members voted Tuesday to cutback the Mayor’s Commission for Human Rights, which is a program that takes residents complaints about alleged human rights violations.
The commission then investigates the complaints and reports the violations to the authorities.
Some violations include civil rights violations, housing discrimination or gender discrimination.
The council decided to cut the commission’s budget from over $68,000 to just $1,000.
One-thousand dollars might sound like a small amount, but it’s just enough to ensure the city will continue to receive federal housing money.
Mayor Jim O’Neal says the commission is necessary and will only be cutback for a year.
“It is simply a financial matter. The necessity of the Mayor’s Commission for Human Rights is not in question. We have made provisions for it to continue to service the public should there be a need to file a discrimination application, if you will. It can be in our internal staff and there’s also at the state level to get those problems resolved,” O'Neal said.He says the city is committed to helping those who have encountered any type of discrimination.
O’Neal says there will still be one person on staff to answer complaints.
But, human rights activists say one person isn’t enough to address all the human rights violations.
Francine Pratt is the president of the Springfield NAACP.
She says discrimination is a major problem right now due to the economy.
“I would hope that they have other plans of how they’re going to address any type of discriminatory complaint. If they have something in place that will address those types of issues, then I have no issue. And if not, I have a serious concern, because we’ve been receiving three to four complaints a week and some of the complaints are becoming more serious,” Pratt said.
She says now is the time to be moving forward with human rights programs not cutting them back.
O’Neal says the money from the commission will be used to help solve the Police and Fire Pension crisis or address some community health issues.
For KSMU News, I’m Kristian Kriner.
