[Amended 6-1-2020 by Order No. 2020-012]
There is hereby established a municipal board to be known as the "Human Rights Commission of the City of Quincy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Commission"). The Commission shall consist of 15 members appointed by the Mayor for a term of three years. Twelve out of the 15 members shall be Quincy residents. The members of the Commission should include the Police Department Civil Rights Officer and the Chairperson or his designee of the Commission on Disability, Fair Housing Committee, and Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women, and members of any agency and organization that delivers programs or services that are beneficial to the residents, and shall, so far as practicable, be so selected as to provide representation from fields including but not limited to religion, education, housing, law, labor, industry, commerce and behavioral sciences.
[Amended 10-15-2001 by Order No. 2001-147; 6-1-2020 by Order No. 2020-012]
To uphold and secure the mandates, rights and privileges of its policy, the Quincy Human Rights Commission shall be guided by the following functions, duties and powers:
A. The Human Rights Commission shall promote and assist in developing an environment of fairness and respect among citizens in the City of Quincy by providing education programs which encourage tolerance of differences.
B. The Commission shall ensure that responses to acts of exclusion, bias, and discrimination be taken seriously and that proper agencies of authority be notified immediately when allegations of civil rights and/or hate crimes come to the attention of individual group members.
C. The purpose of the Commission does not include the investigation or managing of civil rights violations or hate crimes. Such cases shall be referred first to the Civil Rights Officer of the Quincy Police Department and, when appropriate, to the District Attorney's office.
D. The Commission shall work with a broad-based civil rights network that includes all those groups invested in eliminating unlawful discrimination and intolerance in the City of Quincy. Racial, religious, ethnic, civic, fraternal, benevolent, private and public agencies that seek to cultivate an atmosphere of mutual understanding and harmony will be crucial network members.
E. The Commission shall develop ways to measure and monitor community conflicts, race relations, and civil rights issues, with a particular focus on population groups which have been commonly victimized.
F. The Commission shall develop ways of anticipating, preparing for, and relieving community tensions arising from intolerance and misunderstanding.
G. The City Solicitor shall serve as counsel of the Commission.
Any committee appointed by the Mayor consistent with the issues under this article shall be part of the standing committees and in its capacity will fulfill its own duties and act as an advisor to the Commission.
The provisions of this article shall be interpreted liberally for the accomplishment of the purposes thereof, and any ordinance inconsistent with any provision hereof shall not apply, but nothing contained in this article shall be interpreted to contravene the general laws of the commonwealth or ordinances of the City of Quincy.