Emanuel ripped for cuts to Chicago human relations panel
By FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com October 28, 2011 1:38PM
Updated: November 30, 2011 8:05AM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was accused Friday of taking a giant step back from Chicago’s 60-year-long commitment to human rights by making deep cuts to the commission charged with enforcing human rights and fair housing laws. The mayor’s proposed 2012 budget would cut spending by the city’s Commission on Human Relations by $619,322, or 19.5 percent and eliminate seven of the commission’s advisory councils. Gone would be the advisory councils on women, African affairs, Arab affairs, Asian affairs, gay and lesbian issues, Latino affairs and immigration and refugee affairs. They would be replaced by two new umbrella advisory councils — one on gender and sexuality, the other on equity. The Advisory Council on Veterans Affairs would remain intact. An Office of New Americans also would be created in the mayor’s office. On Friday, the heads of the advisory councils held a City Hall news conference to complain that the consolidation would leave surviving advisory councils with a workload so “overwhelming” that it would render them “ineffective.” They argued that women, African Americans, gays, Hispanics and Asians will, in effect, lose their seats at the table, leaving discriminated members of those groups less inclined to file complaints because they might be less likely to know where to go. “The voices of women will not be heard equally,” said Kendra Jackson, who chairs the Advisory Council on Women. “Even the name is not clear or inviting. I mean, what does ‘sexuality and gender’ mean if I’m just the average Chicago woman? They wouldn’t necessarily see us as a resource. They may just pass us by.” Kathleen Strand, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Budget and Management, insisted that the Emanuel administration “takes cases of discrimination very, very seriously” and that investigating them to the “fullest extent of the law is a top priority.” “Upon extensive review of the city’s advisory councils, it became clear that their missions share a great deal of objectives and values,” Strand said. The Commission on Human Relations’s job is to enforce Chicago’s Human Rights and Fair Housing ordinances.
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