Talking human relations with Pocatello’s city council

Pocatello’s human relations advisory committee met with the city council Thursday morning as part of the council’s study session.

The committee spoke to the council about its progress, how the city is doing and what issues still need to be addressed.

The committee said it’s been doing everything possible to prevent hate crimes in Pocatello. The committee said they’ve invited guest speakers of all backgrounds to Pocatello. They’ve held several community trust meetings.

When meeting with the city council Thursday morning, committee members told the council about some of their concerns in the gate city.

Jamar Brown, the chair of the human relations committee, said the recent issues at Idaho State University are still a problem.

“The international student situation is still real,” Brown said. “We are very concerned about some events that have happened in this community on both sides of that.”

Brown said there’s also another issue the committee is seeing in the community.

“In speaking with the transgender people in this community, and there’s probably more than people understand, they do have a real fear of using public restrooms,” Brown said.

Brown said they’re afraid of physical violence against them. And she said there’s fear on both sides, mostly because it’s something people just aren’t familiar with. She said that’s why it’s important to reach out to the community. She feels Pocatello police chief Scott Marchand has done a great job of that.

“Chief Marchand has been fantastic,” Brown said. “Anytime we have a concern, he responds. Anytime we have a question, he responds. He has been very proactive in the community.”

Brown said while there is always something else to work on, she thinks the committee has come a long way.

“I have seen extraordinary progress,” Brown said. “I think we’ve probably made more progress in the past four years than we had decades before then and I’m very proud of that.”

The committee did make some suggestions to the council. One suggestion was diversity training for local police officers. Another suggestion was that the city council try to help with the under-staffing in Idaho State University’s international programs office.

Brown said it’s not just racial or sexual orientation issues that they deal with. They see prejudice against people with disabilities and senior citizens, so Brown said their goal is to help fight prejudice against all groups.