Testimony of Juan Fernández, President, Local 154, District Council 37, AFSCME

Before the Civil Rights Committee
March 15, 2007

      Good morning Chairman Larry Seabrook and fellow Committee members. My name is Juan Fernández. I am the President of Local 154, District Council 37, AFSCME. I am here before you today to share some of the concerns of the workers I represent at the New York City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). These workers represent the titles of Human Rights Specialist, Associate Human Rights Specialist, and Principal Human Rights Specialist, which work in the Law Enforcement Bureau and the Community Service Centers of the Human Rights Commission. At the Commission's Law Enforcement Bureau, they handle and process discrimination complaints under the Jurisdiction of the City's Human Rights Law. In the Community Service Centers, they work with diverse ethnic and religious communities, schools, community organizations and service providers to bring information about the Human Rights Law and its protections for all New Yorkers. The Human Rights workers provide workshops on the Human Rights law, assist people with disabilities in obtaining accommodations, provide employment rights workshops to immigrant communities and train high school students in the concepts of peer-mediation and conflict resolution. In doing so, they make sure that New Yorkers are offered the protections under the City's Human Rights Law, one of the broadest in the USA. This is all part of the Commission's community outreach efforts which for many years has proved to be an effective tool to help integrate and mediate among the diverse communities of New York City.

Today, I would like to present some of the concerns that my members and I have regarding the current situation at the Human Rights Commission:

1. The Commission on Human Rights has been losing its capacity to have a presence and to further its outreach to the communities in New York City. Year after year of budget reductions since the early 1990's have had a profound impact on the life and activities of the Human Rights Commission. For example, the Human Rights Commission was well known for its work against hate crimes. In the mid 1990's the Commission would evaluate and study patterns of hate crime and would work with the respective communities to respond to each incident. In this way, the Commission was respected and appreciated by community leaders. It is well known fact that hate crimes have impacts beyond the direct victim. Hate crimes impact the victim's and the perpetrator's communities. The Human Rights staff would work with the communities in establishing community mediation and training programs and creating the links to prevent future conflicts. Dramatic examples of the importance and quality of this approach were clearly demonstrated during the Crown Heights and Washington Heights incidents of 1991 and 1992 respectively. The leaders of the communities in conflict responded to the mediation initiated by the Commission's staff.
   
   Also, the Human Rights Commission was at the forefront of some of the important housing issues for many years. For example, the Commission's staff was instrumental in helping community organizations understand the extent of the discriminatory impact of predatory lending among communities of color and the elderly. The Commission's staff had the skills and the expertise to do so. Today, the public understands predatory lending but the Commission's work in the community helped to make it possible for the community-based organizations and government agencies to take some of the relatively early actions against the predators.
   
   The Commission's legal department actions in the 1980's and 1990's also became a model to follow for many of the other government agencies and advocacy groups. The Commission performed groundbreaking work representing AIDS victims in discrimination cases; working to document discrimination against immigrants; litigating to support the presence of Gay and Lesbian organizations in parades; and, organizing hearings on discrimination against women and people of color in the construction industry, just to name a few.
   
   
2. The impact of the budget reductions has been devastating for the Human Rights Commission. Since the early 1990's to 2007 the Commission has lost over half of its staff. In the year 2002, there was slightly over 120 staff working at the Commission. Since then the Commission has lost over 40 staff members, including 17 Human Rights Specialists of which only five positions have been filled. Today only 80 plus staff works at the Human Rights Commission. At this pace, the Commission is destined to close its doors or to become an ornamental presence. The enormous diversity of communities in New York City requires the presence and the purpose of a Human Rights Commission. One of the best Human Rights laws in the country could only be effective when there is support and a full mandate to enforce it.
   
   
3. The continuous budget cuts have created enormous strain on the Commission and its staff. Almost all of the Community Relations staff has been transferred from borough to borough at one time or another. Some of them have been transferred three or four times. When transferred, some workers are dislocated from communities and boroughs where they have performed community activities for years. The worker loses a link with the community; and the community loses a trusted link to the Local government. In the new location, the staff has to restart the community work from the ground up. In addition with staff working outside the communities where they worked for so long, they lose the knowledge and rapport that took all those years to develop. This rapport is vital when dealing with diverse communities in the event there is a hate crime or the need for community mediation.
   
   

To address some of these concerns, we recommend the following:

1. Increase the Human Rights Commission tax levy portion of the budget to hire additional staff to perform community related work, and law enforcement work.
   
   
2. Create staff lines that will develop anti-hate crime and anti-bias work; study patterns of housing discrimination and predatory lending; develop outreach to the immigrant communities. Also provide the funds to staff a research unit able to study and analyze bias crimes, housing and employment discrimination patterns in the City.
   
   
3. Create staff lines in the Law Enforcement Bureau to make possible full litigation of discrimination cases.

We commend and thank the City Council for holding this public hearing regarding the budget for the City Commission on Human Rights.

Thank you for your time and I am available to answer any questions you may have.