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Fargo wants state Human Rights division out at least once a month

The Forum - 05/15/2002 Grand Forks, are you listening to this?

http://new.in-forum.com/articles/?id=10953

Rights complaints may be heard in Fargo
By Ellen Crawford
ecrawford@forumcomm.com

An investigator may come to Fargo each month to hear complaints about human rights violations.

The Fargo Human Relations Commission pushed its request – that a North Dakota human rights division investigator travel from Bismarck to Fargo at least once a month to take complaints – during a meeting with state Labor Commissioner Mark Bachmeier in Fargo Tuesday. The human rights division is part of the Labor Department.

Bachmeier first said he was concerned that other cities would want the same service, and if the six investigators spend their time traveling through the state to take complaints, they wouldn’t have time to adequately investigate complaints.

However, by the end of the 1½-hour meeting, he said if this is the best way to ensure that people are able to file complaints, he’ll try to work out a way for it to work.

He will have a final answer for the commission by its June 5 meeting, he said.

Commission chairwoman Cheryl Bergian said the group became worried the complaint process is too complicated for some people after the human rights division reported earlier this year that only three of the 18 people the commission referred to the division had complaints on file.

The problems some people face include the lack of a telephone, poor writing skills and limited knowledge of English, Bergian said.

“We know that from our professional and personal experience,” she said.

Commission member Barry Nelson suggested an investigator come to Fargo as a pilot project. Bergian said the person doesn’t have to spend an entire day in Fargo; half-days would be fine. Commission member Mary Larson proposed investigators schedule their trips to Fargo on the same days they conduct investigations here.

Bergian said the commission learned more recently that three other people filed complaints last year, even though the human rights division’s records don’t show it.

“That’s a problem in and of itself,” Bachmeier said. “We don’t keep good enough records.”

He said that is a result, in part, because the division developed piecemeal through legislative action since 1983

The division is working to improve its complaint-taking process and add computer software that will provide better record keeping and case management, he said. The division also has hired an assistant director, he said.

Bergian said she heard the assistant director will be based in Fargo, but Bachmeier wouldn’t confirm that. He said he hasn’t worked out the details of the person’s duties.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Ellen Crawford at (701) 241-5523

ND's Human Rights division not meeting need

http://new.in-forum.com/articles/?id=10097

Group: N.D.’s human rights division not meeting need
By Matthew Von Pinnon
mvonpinnon@forumcomm.com
The Forum - 05/03/2002

A North Dakota human rights group says the state division formed two years
ago to handle such complaints is understaffed, underequipped and its
employees ill-prepared to adequately handle the types of violations they’re
charged with enforcing.

Still, members of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition don’t blame the
Department of Labor’s nine workers or its commissioner, Mark Bachmeier.

“I think Bachmeier’s doing the best he can,” said Mark Schneider, a Fargo
attorney and member of the coalition. “I think he was dealt an impossible
hand.”

Bachmeier said while he appreciates the coalition’s questions and
suggestions, his staff is working as hard as it can to handle the nearly 200
human rights complaints it receives a year.

“There’s a learning curve … and it took some time before we were really
confident,” he said Thursday.

“We have a lot of work – we’re busy – but I wouldn’t characterize our staff
as overwhelmed.”

North Dakota human rights laws prohibit discrimination in employment,
housing, public accommodations, public services, and credit transactions or
lending.

The coalition’s 68 members have for years tried to convince state legislators
to form an independent body and staff to investigate complaints and
enforce human rights laws.

Two years ago next month, legislators formed a Division of Human Rights
within the Department of Labor.

Several coalition members, including Schneider, saw the move as little more
than “feel-good legislation.”

Since then, the group has shifted its role from advocacy group to
watch-dog organization.

“That’s why our group is still together, to keep the heat on,” Schneider
said. “We’re asking serious questions, and we’re not getting sufficient
answers.”

Allan Peterson, chairman of the coalition, said one of his group’s main
concerns is the lack of legal expertise found in the state agency. None of
the six investigators are lawyers.

Because of that, the division has not taken any civil rights cases to court,
he said.

“They have the authority and responsibility to handle these cases,”
Peterson said. “If every case is mediated without ever seeking a
determination in a court of law, I don’t view that as progress.”

Bachmeier said his agency is first charged by law to try to resolve cases by
conciliation. He said if a person’s complaint is found to have merit, the two
parties are brought together to try to work out a remedy.

“We simply have settled all of those cases that have come to us, either
because there was no merit to them or we were able to reach agreements
between the parties to resolve the issue,” he said. “I think that’s a positive
thing. We are making resolutions.”

Bachmeier said it’s unfair to consider only what cases have not gone to
court, because the agency’s authority to bring the matters to court was
just put in place by legislators last August.

The six investigators at the Department of Labor are now beginning to work
with two lawyers in the Civil Litigation Division of the Attorney General’s
Office, Bachmeier said.

That access should help the investigators determine if a complaint has
merits to stand up in court, he said.

Schneider said while access to lawyers may help, the move also exemplifies
the problems inherent in having the agency linked to government.

“It creates natural conflicts, because what happens if it (the Division of
Human Rights) has to investigate other government agencies?” he asked.

Peterson is also
concerned that in a
state where business is
coveted as the
cornerstone of desired
growth, politicians may
help employers cover up
human rights violations.

Discriminatory
employment and
housing claims make up
90 percent of
complaints made to the
agency.

Bachmeier said his
agency’s decisions to
not investigate claims
are in no way politically
motivated.

“We take this responsibility very seriously,” he said. “If that means we go to
the full extent of the law, there’s no reluctance to do it at all.”

Changing the process

Another concern of the coalition is how complaints to the agency are taken.

Peterson and others say the process by which state investigators compile
complaints is convoluted and unfriendly to much of the population most in
need of assistance.

When a person calls to make a complaint, the agency sends the person a
form to complete and sign. If the information on the form is incomplete or
not signed, it must be sent back to the complainant, or further information
must be obtained over the phone from an agency investigator.

Bachmeier acknowledges that the paper process may be unfriendly to some.
He said the agency is working toward a system that would have
investigators take complaints over the phone, then send out the forms to
the complainant to sign. He said investigators or liaisons are always willing
to meet with people in person.

But some would like the agency to take that process one step further.

The Fargo Human Relations Commission has asked that an investigator from
Bachmeier’s agency travel from Bismarck to Fargo at least once a month to
take complaints in person.

The advisory panel to the Fargo City Commission would help arrange the
gathering between investigators and complainants, many of whom don’t
have a phone, don’t feel comfortable using it, or need a translator.

Cheryl Bergian, chairwoman of the Fargo Human Relations Commission and
one of its five members who also have ties to the coalition, said the
commission became concerned after it was found three of its 18 referrals to
the state division were on file with the agency.

Bachmeier said he is open to the idea of bringing someone to Fargo on a
monthly basis, but is concerned that, by doing so, other North Dakota
communities may expect the same.

With investigators traveling around the state to take complaints, they may
not be able to devote the time it takes to adequately investigate claims, he
said.

“I would love to be able to do that. I think it’s a great idea in principle,”
Bachmeier said. “It’s about balancing their workloads.”

Fargo-area state legislators, human rights advocates and Bachmeier will
meet in Fargo May 14 to discuss issues related to his office’s handling of
civil rights complaints.

That night at 7, citizens will be able to ask questions of Bachmeier in the
Commission Room at Fargo City Hall.

Bachmeier said he welcomes questions about his office and how it handles
the relatively recent enforcement powers it’s been given. He said the more
education his agency can provide about the state’s human rights laws, the
better, and he holds no ill will toward those that might question its
effectiveness.

“Those groups can be assets for us,” Bachmeier said. “We have things in
common: We’re trying to correct the effects of illegal discrimination.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Matthew Von Pinnon at (701) 241-5528