Minnesota Department of Human Rights presentation from One Minneapolis: A Call to Action! conference December 2, 2011 hosted by the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights

1. Kevin M. Lindsey
Commissioner
Minnesota Department of Human Rights

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Discrimination Investigations
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.

6. Discrimination 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.

7. Discrimination Investigations
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.

8. Discrimination Investigations
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.

9. Discrimination Investigations
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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Diversity and Inclusion Council
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.

18. Diversity and Inclusion Council
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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.