Syracuse's Human Rights Commission: Still Needed? By
Rodney Brown Syracuse's Republican controlled Ways and Means Committee successfully lobbied fellow legislatures to end funding for the Syracuse/Onondaga County Human Rights Commission. The GOP members' drive to close The Human Rights Commission and other public facilities and programs was explain away as "a need to cut costs" in order to close a 50 million dollar deficit in the County's budget. Not more than a year after The Human Rights Commission's dissolution, local leaders including, NAACP President, Preston Fagan, says the impact from the absence of the Commission was immediately felt. "Syracuse is becoming more diverse. Immigrants, including Asians and Africans, are being openly discriminated against while trying to adapt to the various aspects of living in Syracuse," Fagan said. "A case of discrimination that happens in someone's place of employment has a greater chance of going unnoticed without the civic services of The Human Rights Commission," he continued. The Commission, when active, responded to reports based on race, creed, marital status, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, and disability in employment, housing, community services, public accommodations and criminal justice. The Commission also designed programs to promote understanding among groups of people, and monitored fair employment practices of city and county contractors. "The NAACP, along with other community-oriented organizations, spoke about the important services, the Human Rights Commission provided to numerous communities, at an open-house meeting with legislative officials before the decision was made to shut it down," Fagan said. "The Human Rights Commission served as an 'active liaison' between Syracuse's constituents and public officials, and protected the civil rights of residents. Those important facts alone should have kept the Commission open," he said. From a political aspect, Fagan argued that the Republican controlled Ways and Means Committee has been trying to strip the Commission's funding for a number of years. He mentioned that former presidents of the Human Rights Commission, including Linda Hall and Julius Edwards, experienced pressure from GOP legislators throughout their tenures. Onondaga County Legislative Chairman Jim Rhinehart says the Syracuse/Onondaga Human Rights Commission was defunded because it was a duplication of the State Human Rights Commission. "We felt it was a waste of taxpayers' money to have another agency performing the same duties right down the street," Rhinehart said. "It was a decision that needed to be made because of the County's budget deficit." When asked why lawmakers created duplicate agencies to perform the same duties, Rhinehart's response was vague, and noted that it was a good question for which he has no answer. In response to who is handling the duties of the now defunct Syracuse/Ononadaga Human Rights Commission, Rhinehart stated that he "thinks" it is the State Commission. With the decision to close The Human Rights Commission, the county plan would transfer the Contract Compliance Officer's work to another County department, and put the Human Rights Specialists' position in the Personnel Department. A former executive of the Commission stated the proposed solution in the budget, is to move Contract Compliance into the Purchasing Department. He implied that would be 'putting the fox in charge of the hen house'. Expounding on a current human rights issue, Fagan noted the untimely death of Chauniece Patterson. Patterson was two months pregnant when she died in the Onondaga County Jail, approximately one month ago. "The overbearing speculation is that jailers and County Medical Officials dropped the ball," said Fagan. It was documented that over a two-day period, Patterson had been telling the county jail's medical staff that she was experiencing excruciating pain in her abdominal area. The Onondaga County Medical Examiner, Dr. Robert Stoppacher, ruled that Patterson died of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Patterson's mother calls the actions of the Onondaga County Jail "overt negligence," and has decided to file a lawsuit. "If The Human Rights Commission was still active, the institution could have played a major role in the unfortunate, but preventable, death of Patterson," Fagan said. "As an active liaison in the community, the Commission would have had sufficient access to important public officials, in order to thoroughly investigate serious and grave issues, such as the Patterson case." Fagan met with Syracuse's Sheriff Kevin Walsh, and ask him to recommend that the nurse who was responsible for the care of Patterson be removed indefinitely until findings related to factors that led to her death are complete. "The Sheriff stated that the nurse is a staff worker for the County Health Department, [over] which he has no jurisdiction as a public official," Fagan said. "I felt the Sheriff was very evasive in his response." Fagan conveyed that the next move is to convene a meeting with different organizations and local leaders of any ethnicity to form an alliance, in order to stand firm against serious issues that take place under the supervision of public officials and personnel in public departments lacking transparency. "In the absence of The Human Rights Commission, it is even more important that community-oriented organizations band together and make sure the County Health Department gets their policies in order, and also make a pledge to stand behind a federal investigation in the death of Patterson, if necessary," he said. County
legislators have been quoted as saying that the local Commission only acted as
a filter[ing] process for individual complaints. "Our only avenue here was
as a mediation process to resolve the issue," Legislator Richard Lesnick
said. "Can we still do that? We don't need a whole department to do that,"
he said. |