Holland —Members of the city of Holland’s Human Relations Commission and International Relations Commission have concerns about the proposal to eliminate the full-time human relations director position. The position has been a hot topic since long-time Director Al Serrano retired Jan. 31. Human Relations Commissioner Maggi Rivera has spoken to city council twice about her concerns, saying she doesn’t understand how the city could approve other positions, such as the new downtown manager, but eliminate human relations.

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2. Holland —Members of the city of Holland’s Human
Relations Commission and International Relations
Commission have concerns about the proposal to
eliminate the full-time human relations director
position.

3. The position has been a hot topic since long-time
Director Al Serrano retired Jan. 31. Human
Relations Commissioner Maggi Rivera has spoken
to city council twice about her concerns, saying she
doesn’t understand how the city could approve
other positions, such as the new downtown
manager, but eliminate human relations.

4. The city council voted Wednesday to break up the
duties between other city staff in the interim. Fair
housing concerns will be handled by Community
Development Coordinator Joel Dye, and
tenant/landlord disputes will be addressed by
Ourstreet Coordinator Sue Harder, who is
bilingual, City Manager Ryan Cotton said.

5. Cotton will oversee equal employment
opportunity questions. Harder would continue to
handle tenant/landlord issues under the
realignment proposal, Cotton said.
“This is an opportunity to do things different,”
Cotton said.

6. The Human and International Relations
commissions reviewed Cotton’s suggestions
Thursday. He faced concerns about moving most of
the functions from the city clerk/human relations
offices in city hall to the Community and
Neighborhood Services office. Other concerns
included whether the city managers office could
deal with Title VI and Equal Employment
Opportunity issues and if transferring duties would
be overburdening other city staff too much.

7. “It’s a fair question and a reasonable concern,” Cotton
said of overburdening staff.
Councilman Myron Trethewey voiced a similar concern
at the city council annual budget retreat, saying city
staff have stepped up in the past few years but asked
how long they could sustain the extra responsibilities.
There are three options with the position, Cotton said:

8. Replace Serrano with another full-time staff.
Put most of the responsibilities in the Community and
Neighborhood Services department with Dye and
Harder and supplement them with other staff, who are
preferably bilingual.
Keep the human and international relations in the
clerk’s office and hire one person for 12 hours per
week to deal with international relations and a second
for 24 hours per week to deal with human relations.

9. Keeping the jobs in the clerks office would
allow those staff to assist in an office that
sees a lot of traffic, especially people who
want to register to vote.
Cotton’s suggestion of replacing the one
position with two part-time posts could save
the city $30,000, with those positions costing
$44,754 compared to the $77,643 in salary
and benefits earned by Serrano.

10. The issue will come before the city council for
review at the Feb. 27 study session. Councilman
Wayne Klomparens already has voiced his
concern about not replacing Serrano with a full-
timer. The city council will make a decision
about the position at a regular meeting after that.