Members and residents on Tuesday spoke up in defense of the South Portland Human Rights Commission when its funding was considered at a City Council budget workshop.
The commission’s $15,000 budget was among items the council was asked to consider cutting from the municipal budget proposal, but councilors agreed that funding will remain in place.
South Portland Human Rights Commission Chair Pedro Vazquez helps raise a Juneteenth flag outside City Hall in 2022. Michele McDonald / Portland Press Herald
The commission was formed in September 2020 to provide “support for the people of South Portland, specifically marginalized groups, in order to build community,” including education and training, celebrating diversity and inclusion, and reviewing policies and making recommendations to the council and city manager. The commission is annually given the opportunity to weigh in on the proposed budget to ensure there are no disparities.
Commission Chair Pedro Vazquez told the council Tuesday that the commission has successfully fulfilled its role and more.
“The Human Rights Commission is not merely a bureaucratic entity. It is the embodiment of our city’s commitment to upholding the fundamental rights and dignity of all residents,” Vazquez said. “Our work is not confined to paper budgets or administrative tasks. It’s rooted in the lived experiences of individuals who have faced discrimination, injustice and oppression.”
City Manager Scott Morelli said the commission’s work rises above the average committee.
“There’s a unique service that’s being provided here that wouldn’t necessarily exist if it were not for the funding of the committee,” he said.
The council works with the commission on some policies and the budget. When councilors asked how the commission works with city departments and other committees, Planning Director Milan Nevajda said the commission helps verify that department funding and budgeting don’t have unintended consequences. They’ve also advised the Comprehensive Plan Committee as it works on the unfolding update.
“They asked critical questions as to what our proposal was going to do to contribute to diversity, equity and inclusion,” Nevajda said. “All of the members participated, they expected us to provide a proposal which clearly articulated what the use of the funds was going to be, and they kept us accountable along the way.”
He emphasized he wanted to address the council’s questions and was not arguing for or against the funding.
Resident Jeff Steinbrink said the state of the world today requires actions like those taken by the commission.
“In that world, how is it that we might be about to end the life of our own Human Rights Commission,” Steinbrink asked, “the one city agency with the clearest mandate and longest history of helping us out of the dark?”
Eleni Richardson, a member of the commission, said the $15,000 request for this year’s budget is less than the $25,000 usually approved.
“We’ve already proposed a reduction of 45%. The more you reduce it, the harder it’s going to be to claw that back (in future budgets),” Richardson said.
The budget is already going to have sizable increase due to a $4 million shortfall, she said, and trimming it by $15,000 will have far more cons than pros.
“(It’s) a marginal impact to a decrease to an already inevitable increase,” she said.
Residents at the workshop also argued that the commission should be funded more rather than less. They and commission members highlighted its work with immigrants and asylum seekers, organizing community outreach and Black History Month events, helping the City Council draft declarations, and its efforts with students through the school department.
Councilors emphasized that they hadn’t intended to cut the commission’s budget. Councilor Steven Riley said he had requested the city look at how it is funding its committees as it tries to trim as much as it can from the municipal budget.
“There was never any intent to get rid of the Human Rights Commission,” Riley said, later adding, “What’s happening is exactly what I wanted to happen; having a discussion on funding committees.”
For more information on the Human Rights Commission, you can go to their page on the city’s website, southportland.gov, or to the commission’s Facebook page at facebook.com/SoPoHRC.
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