LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Lima City Council members are looking at revitalizing a 50-year-old commission that may address what is going on in the city today. The Joint Neighborhood Concerns Committee and Economic and Community Development Committee met to discuss the dormant Human Relations Commission. The 18-member commission was started back in 1974 to address discrimination issues affecting a wide range of groups in Lima and also provide education about those issues. The last time the group met was in 1976, but the council may be looking to reorganize the commission to address any discrimination issues with the influx of Haitians seeking asylum in Lima.
“Either with housing, jobs, education, and things of that nature. A few years ago, we had a conversation around the George Floyd incident that took place in 2020. And here we are, 4 years later, talking about a commission that has lied dormant for some time. But we want to make sure we are with the times, but we also want to make sure that we are a safe haven for individuals to have conversations, to mediate. But also wanting to know what it is within the teeth of the power of that commission that actually can be done,” says Jamie Dixon, Lima Council President.
The joint committee will hold another meeting after they get some information about how Human Relations Commissions are currently working in places like Toledo and Cincinnati.
