Kevin Lindsey - Minnesota Department of Human Rights

transcript

Kevin M. LindseyCommissioner

Minnesota Department of Human Rights

Overview

o Governor Mark Dayton is committed to creating opportunities for all Minnesotans.

o Governor Dayton wants the State of Minnesota to be a leader and a role model on the issue of diversity as an employer and business partner.

Overview

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights is charged with o investigating complaints of discrimination, o ensuring state vendors use best efforts in

diversity hiring and o eliminating discrimination by advocating

policies that reduce disparities that exist.

Discrimination Investigations

o The Department investigates approximately 1,000 charges of discrimination a year.

o Approximately 65% of the charges investigated by the Department are employment matters.

o The Department has historically been underfunded and challenged to complete investigations within the statutory mandate of a year.

o As of January of 2011, the Department was averaging more than 420 days to complete investigations.

The Department is committed to reducing the time to complete investigations by o hiring more investigators, o providing more training for investigators, o developing best practices for

investigations, and o identifying cases for rocket docket

treatment.

o The Department is committed to eliminating discrimination.

o The Department has eliminated its Docket and Dismiss program and is committed to drafting charges of discrimination immediately upon contact with the charging party.

o The Enforcement Officers have accepted the challenge of completing all cases on the MDHR docket that are older than 400 days.

o Beginning in 2012, MDHR will seek to complete expedited cases in 2 months (rocket docket), standard cases in 4 months and complex cases in 8 months.

o The Department will be more active in pursuing litigation against entities that are not in compliance with the Act.

o The Department will also be more active in providing information to all persons on how to comply with the Act.

Contract Compliance

The Department ensures all state vendors, with more than 40 employees or which conduct more than $100,000 worth of business, utilize their best efforts in meeting hiring goals within state contracts.

Contract Compliance

The Department works in collaboration with the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Department of Transportation on large projects, for example such as Trunk Highway Construction and Light Rail Construction, to ensure subcontractors utilize best efforts to meet the hiring goals of General Contractors within state contracts.

Contract Compliance

o The Department regularly posts on its website the projects with the most significant employment opportunities.

o The Department defines projects with the most significant employment opportunities as projects over $250,000 and requiring more than 10,000 hours of labor.

Contract Compliance

The Department is currently meeting regularly with the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to improve contract monitoring and best practices.

Contract Compliance

o The Department will be more active in pursuing remedial measures against entities that are not in compliance with the Act.

o The Department will also be more active in providing information to all persons on how to comply with the Act.

Agency Diversity Assessment

Governor Dayton asked the Department to assess the diversity efforts all of the administrative agencies that comprise the Cabinet. We are reviewing affirmative action plans, data from agencies and are interviewing agency staff with the expectation to publish a report prior to the next legislative session.

Diversity and Inclusion Council

Governor Mark Dayton signed Executive Order 91-14 re-establishing a Council of Commissioners to monitor, assess and develop best practices in employment and state contracting. The Council will begin meeting regularly in 2012.

The Department will advocate for the Council to convene listening sessions with Disadvantaged Business Enterprises on strategies and policies to adopt to create more procurement opportunities for DBEs.

The Department is hopeful that the recommendations and best practices identified within its agency diversity assessment report will be taken into consideration by the Council in formulating best practices in employment for administrative agencies.

Disparity Advocacy

The Department because of its focus on eliminating discrimination and its ability to call upon all administrative agencies to provide information and resources to reduce discrimination is in a unique position to foster dialog on how to reduce disparities that exist in a wide variety of areas.

Disparity Advocacy

The Department is working with a wide variety of stakeholders on the issue of collateral consequences. For example, the Department is working with the Council on Crime and Justice to educate employers and advance legislation that removes unnecessary barriers to employment.

Disparity Advocacy

The Department is working with a wide variety of stakeholders on the issue of educational achievement gaps. For example, the Department is engaged with the Department of Education and individuals from communities of color about how to improve educational outcomes for students.

Disparity Advocacy

The Department is working with a wide variety of stakeholders and agencies such as the Department of Employment and Economic Development, Unions, Businesses and Job Skills Training programs on identifying and closing job skills training gaps that exist in the marketplace.

Disparity Advocacy

The Department is working with a wide variety of stakeholders on the issues impacting small business creation and growth. For example, The Department is collaborating with federal agencies, MEDA, ALANA, and state agencies to facilitate more DBEs being aware of business opportunities and programs.