City's Human Relations group still stuck in committee

LACONIA — City councilors on Monday night scheduled another public hearing on changes to the ordinance that governs the Human Relations Committee. The hearing will be Monday, March 23.

Questions regarding the committee's purpose statement will remain under discussion in a council subcommittee, and are expected to be included on the agenda for the next council meeting.

Councilors have, over several months, discussed the committee, its composition and its necessity continuously, and have held many public hearings, some of which were contentious. 

The committee, without much of a budget, holds meetings and discusses social and cultural issues, assists in planning certain municipal events throughout the year — like one dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — and organized a community forum at Laconia High School to discuss homelessness last year. 

The existence of the committee became a focal point of political discourse ahead of the November Municipal Election, and has remained one ever since.

During previous meetings, councilors have referred the matter to the government operations and ordinances subcommittee, with the primary goal being the creation of its purpose statement. During discussions at a meeting of that subcommittee on March 4, members reviewed the ordinance governing the human relations committee, and suggested changes. 

Recommended changes include decreasing the number of members from 13 to 7; of the seven, six would be appointed by the council and one by the mayor; the mayor’s appointment would be for two years and align with their term; the first appointments will be two, one-year terms, two, two-year terms and two, three-year terms; the terms would expire in March of the year the member’s term ends.

Last week, councilors discussed changing the end of the term to match the date of initial appointment. 

According to a staff report attached to the agenda for the March 9, the draft purpose statement for the Human Relations Committee will appear as an agenda item during the meeting on March 23. 

The minutes of the March 4 subcommittee meeting reflect the draft purpose statement, to be reviewed by legal counsel, reads: “The purpose of the committee is to handle ongoing events seen in the past like Martin Luther King Day, the Holocaust remembrance event, 'Kristallnacht' or the night of the Broken Glass and to assist as participants in Laconia’s Multicultural Day. And/or any other projects as approved by the city council with a majority vote by the city council.” 

“The ordinance really needed a little bit of tweaking that would fit what they were trying to do with their purpose statement, so what you’ll see here is there’s only a few changes,” City Manager Kirk Beattie said. 

Councilors voted 6-0 at their meeting last week to schedule the public hearing. 

Mayor Mike Bordes appointed Ward 6 Councilor Mike Conant as council liaison to the committee during his inauguration at the Belknap Mill in January. 

“As a member of the ordinance committee, I worked on these changes, and I agree with them, but I do want to point out, Mr. Mayor, that I still don’t believe we need a Human Relations Committee,” Conant said. “I’d like to request to be removed from that committee, as you appointed me in January.

“If I could be removed from that, I would appreciate that,” he said. 

"Absolutely," Bordes said.

Conant has yet to be replaced.