County Human Relations Office Near the Brink

When Rusty Kennedy talks about 1996 being a turning point for the Orange County Human Relations Commission, it has nothing to do with this year being the 25th anniversary of the organization.

He’s talking about something more basic: its survival.

The commission monitors race relations, works with law enforcement, reports annually on hate crimes and serves as an advisory agency for county government, cities, law enforcement and public schools. It also helps resolve neighborhood, domestic and landlord-tenant disputes.

Such advocacy and proactive work, supporters of the commission said, has made the commission an integral part of the county as residents struggle to understand and deal with conflicts stemming from the changing ethnic landscape of Orange County.

But with the county bankruptcy sapping department funds, Kennedy, the commission’s executive director, must find a way to make a case for maintaining the advisory panel. Kennedy ultimately believes that the commission, which marked its 25th anniversary Saturday, will be saved, but the fight could prove difficult.

“One of our short-term goals is to survive the bankruptcy; it’s still not a done deal,” Kennedy said this week. “1996-97 is definitely going to be a hard year for the county. We’re all going to be hit by cuts. But we don’t have anything here [in the commission] that we could eliminate. It’s just me and the office. Any more cuts and we’re gone.”

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Last year, the county cut 40% of the commission’s budget, leaving $106,000. That pays Kennedy’s salary and benefits and operation costs of the office. The agency also receives about $600,000 in grants, donations from the private sector and fees paid by municipal governments that participate in its programs.

And while Kennedy said he believes the commission would ultimately prevail, Supervisor Jim Silva, for one, is against the county footing the bill for the organization.

“I think the Human Relations Commission provides a valuable service for the county residents,” Silva said. “[But] I’m not sure why the county is the leading funding agency and why we’re still funding it in light of the bankruptcy.”

Silva said he prefers that donations and fees finance all the commission’s expense, a point he said he will raise in this year’s budget meetings.

Kennedy said the commission would lose its legitimacy if it were no longer under the auspices of the county.

“The partnership that we’ve created with the private sectors, cities, schools, police departments and courts--those partnerships are a testament to the good business sense that we have and the essential nature of the services that we provide,” Kennedy said. “But our status as an official organization is absolutely essential to our existence.”

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The commission was formed during a national movement to head off urban unrest that plagued many cities in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

County officials sought to address the increasing friction between the Santa Ana police and African American and Latino residents. Later, the commission’s mission was expanded to include resolving disputes between landlords and tenants and battling discrimination in housing redevelopment.

Over the years, the commission has tried to head off crises rather than react to them, said Kennedy, who joined the commission in 1976 and has been executive director since 1981.

As the county’s demographics shifted, the commission has shifted toward soothing racial and ethnic friction. The population of racial and ethnic groups in the county has grown dramatically, with residents of Asian descent now accounting for 10% of the population, Latinos 23%, African Americans 2% and whites 65%.

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El Rancho Middle School Principal Roger Duthoy knows well the commission’s efforts. In December, parents of some African American students at his Anaheim Hills school accused school officials of ignoring or mishandling a series of incidents largely involving name-calling between black and white students. The parents requested counseling for their children and sensitivity-awareness training for teachers.

Duthoy immediately contacted Kennedy, and since January, the commission and school faculty have formed a task force in which teachers, parents and students develop a plan to promote tolerance in the school.

The commission “is very responsive and certainly understands the circumstances of racial misunderstandings at our school,” Duthoy said. “Orange County is going through many changes and [the commission has] a service that’s really valuable, especially now.”

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The commission also has admirers among law enforcement agencies.

“They’ve been true to their creed as far as trying to bring people together to solve problems instead of sitting back and doing it the easy way, which is to criticize and lay blame,” said Officer Mike Kelly of the Huntington Beach Police Department. Kelly points to the commission’s prompt action in a hate crime this month in which a Native American man was stabbed by a man police said was a self-described white supremacist.

Kennedy has been monitoring the case and is in constant communication with the Police Department, Kelly said. He also organized a press conference, inviting leaders from various ethnic communities to participate to show their support for the family of the victim.

Citing the increase of racial tensions and the steady level of hate crimes over the past few years, Kennedy said the commission still has a lot of work cut out for it.

According to the commission’s statistics, which are gathered from police reports, 188 hate crimes were documented in 1992, 180 in 1993, and 182 in ’94.

“In the past 25 years, I think we’ve essentially created a community amid diversity,” he said. “There’s a lot of challenges and growing pains and if we weren’t here, I think we’d see a lot more anger, a lot more violence, a lot more destruction.”

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Budget Woes

Since fiscal year 1990-91, county funding for the Human Relations Commission has been cut by two-thirds. Here’s the trend:

Fiscal Year: Funding

1990-91: $306,812

1991-92: 229,337

1992-93: 170,990

1993-94: 172,260

1994-95: 176,527

1995-96: 106,015

Funding Fundamentals

Last year, the Human Relations Council, which gives money to the commission, raised $198,000 for all its programs. How the council’s money is raised:

Corporate donations: $125,000 (63%)

Dues from cities: 43,000* (22%)

Fees from services: 24,000(12%)

Private donations: 6,000 (3%)

* Cities pay fee to support commission’s work in their communities

Source: Human Relations Commission; Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times