[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.