Mayor’s office expects to finalize selections by year end
by Ashlee De Wit
LANSING, Ill. (August 31) – Mayor Patty Eidam and her staff are in the process of putting together a Human Relations Commission, a campaign promise that was accelerated at the recent Community Meeting to address police/community relations. The Community Meeting was part of the Village’s response to a videoed incident involving a white police officer and a black teenager.
The meeting, held on August 16 at TF South, was facilitated by a representative from the United States Department of Justice.
Following that meeting, several members of the community reached out to the Village to inquire about the Human Relations Commission and express interest in being part of it.
The selection process for the Human Relations Commission is going to be thorough—not as rigorous as a job application, but more involved than simply volunteering, Reynolds said. He is hoping that the selection of commission members will be finalized yet this year.
“I wouldn’t commit to a hard date, but our goal is to have the development and selection done by the end of the year, and begin official meetings in early 2018,” he said.
The first step is to check for any ordinances or resolutions that need to be brought to the Village Board of Trustees.
“We want to make sure we introduce this correctly,” Reynolds said. “We are very aware of the importance of this, and we don’t want to make a commission just off of a controversial incident. Human relations is much bigger than any one incident.
“I think the ultimate goal of the commission is to recognize the various needs and concerns of a variety of representative groups that our community is made up of,” Reynolds added. “We want a balanced cross section. The commission should look like what Lansing looks like.”
