Lima City Council president Jamie Dixon explains the need for the Human Relations Committee at a meeting Wednesday night.
LIMA — Lima city councilors are trying to revive a commission that has been dormant for 48 years.
The Lima Economic and Community Development Committee met in 2020 (bit.ly/3VuLnYw) in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd to discuss the re-establishment of the Human Relations Committee. Now that the city must address issues affecting a new population of immigrants, that committee and the Neighborhood Concerns Committee are renewing efforts to bring it back and modernize it.
“If we’re talking about a new population, we need to have somebody to talk and communicate so somebody is not taking advantage of them,” council president Jamie Dixon said. “Landlords and employers might be taking advantage of Haitian residents. We’ve been hearing stories of them renting rooms for $800 to $900 a month.”
The original plans for the committee called for it to hold 18 people, but council members all shared their reservations about having that many members and called for the committee to address discrimination of that nature.
“We don’t need to keep waiting for George Floyd or a new round of immigrants,” councilor Carla Thompson said. “If someone brought an issue of landlord discrimination to it, the committee would vote and apply a remedy or provide education for the community. I think a lot of things are in place already, but it’s a matter of communicating.”
Dixon reiterated those sentiments.
“We want to make sure that we’re with the times, but we also want to make sure that we’re a safe haven for individuals to have conversations to mediate,” he said. “We also want to know what is within the power of the commission to actually get done.”
The joint meeting agreed on the need to re-establish the committee but found the city would have to first accomplish that and come up with a plan to modernize it before carrying out those steps.
The city will next meet with law director Tony Geiger to review materials and begin the process.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
