UCHRA Board Begins Work On Consumer Involvement

The UCHRA Board asked staff Thursday to audit the 17 non-governmental officials on its agency councils and committees.

State rules and many grant applications require that consumer representatives be included in UCHRA committees and boards. These consumers would be citizens who take advantage of the services offered by UCHRA, a chance to give the agency feedback on its work. City and county mayors would select consumers to serve.

The board discovered last month that, instead, many of the boards included business executives or owners.

“In recent years, it’s my understanding that the executive director had a pretty strong hand in selecting the folks who are the consumer reps for the various counties,” Agency Attorney Danny Rader said.

Rader called it a “potential conflict of interest” for the executive director to select members of a board or policy council. He said that group could be deciding issues related to the director’s employment.

Rader said the UCHRA bylaws do not match state statutes or grant requirements. Further Rader said, the way the UCHRA bylaws were implemented do not match its own rules.

“It needs really to be completely redone,” Rader said. “You need to bring yourself back in the line with the law.”

UCHRA Staff will compare the names on the board list with those on its consumer list and report back to the board March 29th.