HRC adopts advocacy rubric, advances communications push and briefs council-supported plat-amendment effort

The Oklahoma City Human Rights Commission approved an advocacy rubric intended to standardize when and how the commission will take public positions and advanced two outreach efforts: a communications plan to expand the commission’s visibility through partner organizations and an operational update on a city-led plat amendment project to address racially restrictive language in historic plats. Commissioners voted to approve the advocacy rubric as a decision tool for evaluating advocacy requests. Commissioner Dean Couch moved to approve the rubric; the motion was seconded by Commissioner Brian and the commission voted in favor. The rubric lists evaluation criteria such as alignment with the commission’s mission, commissioner capacity, urgency/impact, resident demand, and existence of partner organizations. "Part of this ongoing transparency effort is outlining the actual process of what we decide to do whenever we do advocate for certain things," Cindy Wynne, speaking for the ad hoc committee, said while introducing the rubric. Commissioners agreed the rubric should be accompanied by a documented process, and the commission assigned the ad hoc committee to return with an explicit process at the next meeting. The communications committee presented a short, shareable outreach strategy aimed at expanding the HRC’s reach through local networks such as homeowners associations, churches, arts groups and nonprofit partners. The plan’s central message — summarized in the proposed graphic and talking points as "Do you know?" — is meant to prompt community members to think of acquaintances who might need HRC resources and to pass along the HRC website and complaint information. Commissioners discussed measuring outreach impact by tracking website hits and partner reports on distribution and agreed to test the approach in community presentations and tabling events. In a separate, substantive policy effort, staff briefed commissioners on the city’s plat-amendment initiative to address discriminatory (racially restrictive) covenants recorded in historical plats. City staff estimate there are roughly 6,000 plats in the city records and a working estimate of about 2,200 plats created before 1968 that could contain discriminatory language. The city plans a pilot of three plats to refine procedures (notification to property owners, historic-preservation coordination where applicable, planning commission review, city council approval, and recording of amending documents with the county). Emma (compliance staff) also said the program is pursuing university student assistance for mapping and document review and that volunteers may be used to comb scanned plat PDFs for target language. Why it matters: the rubric provides a transparent decision tool for HRC advocacy; the communications plan aims to increase resident awareness of the HRC’s complaint and referral services; and the plat-amendment project is an operational city effort to annotate or amend historical plat documents so discriminatory language is no longer operative as a property-record statement. Actions and follow-up: the commission approved the rubric, accepted the communications committee materials for use while refining metrics, and asked staff to continue developing the plat amendment pilot procedures and volunteer mapping plan. Staff flagged that the plat amendment law allows municipalities to amend plats but does not "erase history" — a separate archival record would retain historical language while preventing the text from remaining an operative constraint on property use. Commission logistics: commissioners discussed outreach staffing for an August 5 tenant "know your rights" event at the downtown library and identified volunteers to table; staff offered to provide printed complaint forms and outreach materials.