City Endorses Panel to Probe Discrimination : Minorities: Human Relations Commission could have subpoena power in investigating complaints of racial, ethnic and religious tensions.

Seeking to reduce discrimination against racial, ethnic and religious minorities, the San Diego City Council on Monday endorsed the creation of a Human Relations Commission with the power to investigate individual complaints and develop programs to address “intergroup tensions.”

In an unusual action, the council voted to give the 15-member commission the power to subpoena witnesses and records--authority that the citizen panel that investigates complaints against police does not have.

Instead of blanket subpoena power, however, the commission would have to request council approval to issue a subpoena in each case where it wanted to use that authority.

City attorneys said they are unsure whether the City Charter allows the commission subpoena power, but they will attempt to find a way to include it in the ordinance creating the commission.

Monday’s 7-0 vote, with Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilman Bruce Henderson absent, outlined the commission, which some human relations groups have been demanding for three years. The council must vote again on an ordinance that would establish the panel and provide it with a budget estimated at $175,000 to $200,000.

Backers envision the advisory panel as a place where solutions to black-Latino tensions in San Ysidro could be developed, where an Iraqi-American parent could bring complaints that her child was encountering hostility in the classroom during the Gulf War, where specific complaints of non-criminal harassment and abuse could be brought for investigation.

“It’s 1991, and we haven’t learned to live together as a society,” said Councilman Wes Pratt, the council’s lone black member, who promoted creation of the commission along with Councilman John Hartley. “And people still haven’t learned to appreciate people of color and different ethnic backgrounds.

“This city should be demonstrating to the community at large what is going to be tolerated and what’s not going to be tolerated,” Pratt said.

The commission would not replicate the efforts of the city attorney or district attorney--who investigate misdemeanor and felony crimes, respectively--or city, county, state and federal anti-discrimination panels such as the California Fair Employment Practices Commission. It could, however, refer cases to such bodies.

The county government has a human relations commission, which Pratt called “ineffectual.” The city also has an ordinance aimed at preventing discrimination against homosexuals.

The commission, which would be advisory to the City Council, would have the power to mediate and conciliate disagreements between individuals and groups; conduct public education aimed at promoting racial, ethnic and religious understanding, and hold public hearings on community problems causing discrimination and racial tension.

Originally envisioned as an 11-member panel, the commission was expanded to 15 members during discussion Monday. The mayor would appoint seven commission members, and the eight council members could nominate as many as three people each for the remaining eight seats, from which the mayor would make final selections.

San Diego human relations leaders, who helped develop the plan with the staffs of City Atty. John Witt and City Manager John Lockwood, said Monday that current harassment of Iraqis and other Arabs is ample proof that the commission is needed.

“The climate in our community today, during these tense and troubled days of war in the Middle East, is perhaps the clearest and most eloquent statement of the need for this body,” said Carol Hallstrom, regional director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. She helped write the ordinance that would create the commission.

The only testimony against the plan came from Greg Akili, coordinator of the African-American Organizing Project, who demanded a panel independent of Lockwood’s office. Akili also sought the 15-member panel and subpoena power, two elements added during Monday’s debate.

“Many African-Americans see this as a weak and vain attempt to deal with the racism, bigotry and intolerance that exist in San Diego,” Akili said.

Pratt said that, if the City Charter too severely restricts the power of the commission, he will support a ballot initiative to create an independent panel.