(upbeat music) - Welcome to "Forum 360," the show with a global outlook but a local view.

Ohio has made some significant changes recently, both to civil rights laws and to the people who are enforcing civil rights law.

Well, we are delighted to welcome to "Forum 360" the new civil rights top cop in Northeast Ohio, Myra Cottrill, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission's new Akron Regional Director.

And we want her to discuss in this exclusive debut television interview for Ms. Cottrill, Director Cottrill, what the most significant changes are.

And especially what this will mean for discrimination cases for employers and employees.

Welcome to "Forum 360" Director Cottrill.

- Thank you.

It's a pleasure being here.

Thank you for having me on the show today.

- Oh, it's a pleasure.

So let me start by asking, what is the mission of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission?

- Well, the mission of the commission is to, that rhymes.

I'm so sorry about that.

- [Sally] I like it.

- The mission of our agency is to enforce Ohio's antidiscrimination statutes that are codified in 4112 of the Ohio Revised Code.

So essentially, our agency is tasked with investigating and finding probable cause or no probable cause in specific cases with respect to whether discrimination occurred.

And we cover areas in pretty much every walk of life: so employment, housing, higher education with disability.

We cover credit.

We cover a numerous amount of areas with our antidiscrimination statutes.

And specifically, we cover specific protected classes.

So for example, race, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex.

The full list of that is available on our website.

But essentially what we are tasked to do is to really enforce those provisions within the statute, and to promote the public policy initiatives that are found in that statute.

- Well, let me tell our audience a little bit about your background.

You've been in private practice as an attorney?

- Yes.

- You went to Akron Law School?

- I did, yes.

- You worked a stint at the Ohio Civil Rights Commission?

- I did.

I was actually, my goodness, I was actually...

I'm losing my words.

I apologize.

- An intern?

- An intern, yes.

I was an intern there at the commission.

And that really started my love for civil rights law and my love for public service.

So coming back to the commission really feels like coming home.

- You were also involved in communications issues?

- Yes, I did for a while.

My career took a turn and I was actually involved, I was involved in public relations compliance: so essentially lobbying, campaign finance, procurement law at State and Federal Communications, which is another Akron company here.

Local to Ohio, but our clients were national and some international clients as well.

- Well, so much of your job is not just enforcement, but also communication of what the requirements are.

- Absolutely.

We have a huge public education component to what we do here at the commission.

- But I think people would also like to know, there's so many things; we can't talk about all of your experience, but one of the things that you're involved in is a committee with the Summit County Juvenile Courts Restore Court?

- Ah, yes, and this really hearkens back to my private practice.

Before I came to the commission, I was a private practice attorney.

I did have my own law firm.

And part of my duties as an attorney, I worked mainly as a guardian ad litem and as a defense counsel as well.

And as my role as guardian ad litem, I was appointed to the Summit County's Restore Court, which essentially is the court that handles children who have criminal charges pending in the system, but who have also, either they're at risk for human trafficking, or they have been found to be a victim of human trafficking.

And that was such a pivotal point for me.

And that was such an important role for me.

Since coming to the commission, I have since ceased doing my work for the Restore Court just because of the time constraints of this particular role.

But it's something that is so dear to my heart and a cause that's so important to me.

- So you are very involved in helping the people who are the least able to cope, the most vulnerable.

- I really do try.

And I feel that that's part of my own personal mission and why I wanted to practice on the first place.

- Yeah, guardian ad litem is working to make sure that children's interests are taken care of.

- Exactly.

- They're not victimized by the system.

- So important.

Yes.

- So tell us, and you were also involved with Summit County's Collaborative Against Human Trafficking.

- Yes.

So that is very important group here in the county.

And it's comprised of many different service providers in the area that assist children who are able to, who need assistance with many different aspects.

It's really a team approach.

It involves licensed service providers.

It involves the courts, Akron detectives, law enforcement.

It really is a collaborative that brings together the community to help service the needs of people, not just children, but people who are impacted by human trafficking.

- So you bring to the commission such broad experience, not just the law, not just enforcement of the law, but a real dedication to those who are the most vulnerable in society.

- Yes, and it's truly important.

And I think that experience taught me how to empathetically listen to people, and to really dive into other people's experiences and help them and see them where they are, and really bring them forward.

And I think that's crucial and important.

And no matter what role, no matter what area of life that you're walking, and that's what's important to do.

- So you bring a very interesting and new perspective to the commission.

- Thank you.

I hope so.

- And we'll be talking about some of the changes in the law that the commission will be dealing with.

But before we get to that, by way of background, and you've talked about the mission of the commission, would you perhaps let our audience know a little bit more about what the commission does and how people might access it?

- Sure, so the Civil Rights Commission itself is a group of five individuals who are appointed by the governor.

And they're tasked with, again, reviewing cases that the regional offices have investigated.

They're tasked with public policy, and they're tasked with really reviewing the work of the agency.

And so under the commission, you have five regional offices.

Essentially what we do that are filed with our office and with our agency.

The Akron Regional Office specifically has five investigators on staff, and we also have some administrative staff as well.

And a mediator, a full-time mediator as well.

And essentially what we do is once the charge is filed, and we can talk about more how to file a charge, we can get back to that in a second; but once a charge is filed, we have investigators and mediators come and really look at the charge, investigate the facts that are in the complaint.

And again, our agency is tasked with doing that investigation to find if there's probable cause or no probable cause for discrimination.

Typically, our agency handles thousands of charges per year as a whole across our five regional offices.

The Akron Regional offices cover, our jurisdiction is 15 counties within the state.

Yes.

Pretty much here in Northeast Ohio.

And essentially, a person, if you feel that you've been discriminated against, you can file a charge either online: you can go to our website, civ.ohio.gov.

You can go to our website and file a charge of discrimination.

You can call our offices, and an investigator will sit down with, we'll sit down with you and figure out what needs to be filed in that particular charge.

And we'll help you draft the charge and send it out to you so that you can review and sign and send it back to us for that investigation.

You can also just print out the forms from the website, fill them out and send it to us.

Our offices are closed currently.

Again, it started from the coronavirus.

But again, eventually, people are gonna be able to come into our offices and file charges in person as well.

- So the physical building is closed, but people still have access by online or on the telephone, that type of thing?

- Yes.

We're still available online and we're available by phone to assist charging parties with filing those particular charges.

And that's charges in employment?

- Yes.

So employment, housing, public accommodations.

So if you feel you've been discriminated against in a place of business, you can certainly file a charge with us to investigate that claim.

Basically, disability in higher education, credit cases, those types of cases can be brought before the commission for investigation.

- So people can file charges of sexual harassment or age discrimination or disability discrimination, veterans discrimination.

- Absolutely correct.

- Race discrimination.

- Yes.

And you brought up an important thing: military status as well is something that's covered by our statute as well.

- And do you do any training for employers who might want to prevent unnecessary charges of discrimination?

- The Civil Rights Commission does have a very important component for training the public and for making sure that there's an education component to what we do.

We do have CLEs that we do.

- Continuing legal education courses for lawyers.

- Yes, absolutely.

One important one that we have coming up is the Ohio Academy.

And that is a CLE.

It's a full two-day CLE program that's dedicated for professionals and attorneys that are able to come in or do it virtually online.

And essentially, we walk through the provisions of 4112.

We walk through what our process is in the investigatory process, and what we do at the commission levels to help attorneys understand exactly what we do.

And also, it's not just for attorneys as well.

If you're a member of the public and you want to join, you certainly can do that.

Additionally, we do have town halls on occasion that we have in different counties, where we get together and we hear any concerns from the public.

And we address those concerns at those specific town halls.

And that's an opportunity to educate the public as well as to what we do.

But we do have presentations.

We do have a component.

Again, education in the schools is very important for us.

So sometimes we'll have presentations that we do for the public at large as well.

- With all the changes in the Ohio laws and procedures with respect to people pursuing cases of discrimination or defending cases of discrimination, the Ohio Academy sounds like a very important event.

- Yes, and that is going to be on November 30th and December 1st.

You can go to our website to get more information about those, about the registration for that.

- And people can sign up for that?

- Yes.

And online, Is there any charge for it?

No, there's no charge for it.

Feel free to go to the website and check it out.

- And is this the first time this has been put on, this Ohio Academy?

- Yes.

It's the inaugural event.

We're very excited about it.

- And will you have a role in that besides encouraging people to take part in it?

- Yes.

I'm very excited to say I'll be participating.

I'll be giving a presentation on our conciliation and consent decree process.

So I'm very excited about that, and excited to see anyone there who has any questions.

- I'm gonna be be asking you to talk about that as part of the process: what conciliation is, what consent decree is.

But first let me say to the audience that you've been tuned in to "Forum 360."

Our special guest today is Regional Director Ms. Cottrill, Myra Cottrill.

She is the regional director for the Ohio Civil Rights Commission's Akron region for approximately 15 counties.

The top cop when comes to fighting charges of unlawful discrimination.

And we were just talking.

And on behalf of "Forum 360," I'm Sally Henning.

We've been talking to you about your role and talking about a new conference that's coming up that you'll be talking about conciliation and similar topics.

Would you back up a little bit and explain to people what the process is when they file a charge?

- Sure, so when a charging party comes in and they file a charge of discrimination, first what we do is we inform the parties.

So the person who's filing a charge is called the charging party, and the person who is responding to the charge is called the respondent.

So essentially we notify the parties.

And at this point we give the parties an opportunity to mediate and to kind of enter into an informal mediation process, which gives the parties an opportunity to get in a room together with one of our trained mediators.

And we have one dedicated mediator here in Akron, who again has years of experience in handling mediations, and also with our civil rights law.

And essentially we try to resolve the issue.

And that's one of the key components that is so important at our agency, is giving parties an opportunity to resolve their disputes in an alternative way outside of our process or outside of the court system.

And that's so key and crucial.

So there's a mediation process, and that's voluntary.

So if you're respondent or you're a charging party- - A respondent, an employer, or someone who owns housing.

- [Myra] Correct, yes.

- Someone who's been charged with discrimination.

- Exactly, so you don't have to engage in the process, but it's available and there for you if you want to.

- And free?

- Yes, absolutely.

And so there's the mediation process which may go forward or succeed or fail.

Then essentially we have the investigation process, and an investigator is assigned to the case.

They will ask the respondent to respond to the charges through a position statement, which outlines their particular position on what the charging party has alleged in their complaint.

And we can request documents.

We do have subpoena power, so if a respondent is not cooperating with us, we can request those documents, request those interviews through subpoena if we need to.

- You can be cranky.

We can be cranky.

We prefer not to be.

Essentially we're a neutral agency, and we're not advocates for any one position or another.

But what we're tasked to do is to really look at the statute and look at the law and look at the facts of the case, and determine if there's probable cause for discrimination or no probable cause for discrimination.

- Is there is or is there or is there ain't?

Is it here or is it not?

- Exactly.

Exactly.

And so the investigator will look at all the relevant documents, interview witnesses, interview decision-makers, if it's an employment discrimination case or if there's a person in housing who made the call, that is the subjected issue in the complaint.

The investigator is tasked with that, with reviewing all of the facts in the case.

And they're not doing this in a bubble.

They're coming to their management, they're coming to me.

We're talking about it in our meeting.

So it's not just one person who's making a determination in any particular case.

It really is a group effort from the agency staff at the commission level.

At that point, when we're ready to make a recommendation as a commission, we do make that recommendation to the commission at large, whether it's probable cause or no probable cause.

The commission does review- - When you say probable cause, you mean probable cause to believe there might be discrimination or no probable cause, reason to believe there might be discrimination or no reason.

- Thank you for that clarification.

That is exactly correct.

- I'm just trying to, so thank you.

So with all of these things going on, what are the changes that you've seen to the law that are the most significant, that the audience needs to know about?

- Absolutely, and there's a critical change to the law, especially in employment discrimination cases, specifically if you are a charging party, before the law changed, that's SB 352, essentially before that law change in 2021- - Statute dropper.

(Myra laughing) - Thank you for catching me on that.

I appreciate it.

So essentially, before the law change in 2021, a charging party could go right to the justice system, right to the court and file an employment discrimination lawsuit.

Now there has to be an administrative, you have to walk through the administrative process first.

- You have to file with the agency.

- You can't just hire an attorney to make sure a charge is filed.

- Correct.

- You have to go through the process.

- You have to go through the process.

So you have to come to our agency first and allow for that administrative process to play out.

Now a charging party can file a charge.

And within 60 days of filing that charge, they can request a letter.

It's called a notice of a right to sue.

They can request that letter and then take their cause to court.

However, the law change is crucial and important because it really gives us an opportunity to really look at that.

And it gives the parties an opportunity to really come together and do that informal mediation first to see if there's an opportunity for resolution on it, and to see if we can, again, relieve the court system a little bit, relieve the burden on that a little bit.

Another big change from the 2021 law change is that our statute of limitations went from six years to two years.

So it's crucial in employment cases.

we have two years from the date of harm to investigate that claim or at least to bring that claim.

The charging party has the ability to bring that claim to court.

The Civil Rights Commission, our jurisdiction is one year from the date of harm, the last date of harm.

So on unemployment cases, it's one year.

And for public accommodation charges, it is six months.

So that's really crucial.

- So people can't sleep on their rights.

- They cannot sleep on their rights.

Correct.

- They have to know how long they have and they have to act accordingly.

- Correct, and I do wanna clarify the antidiscrimination on employment, the statute of limitations is two years.

The Civil Rights Commission has one year from the date of filing to act, and to bring a formal complaint in that process, or to find that there's no probable cause and decline to bring a formal complaint.

- So one of the big differences between the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission is what for the individual person.

- Well, we do work really closely with the EEOC.

They're considered a sister agency to the Civil Rights Commission.

So you can file your charge with the EEOC directly.

You can file a charge with the OCRC directly.

Sometimes they'll be what's called a dual-filed charge.

So a charge that you file with us will also get an EEOC number.

And we are investigating on behalf of the EEOC as well.

So again, for a person who is just coming to the commission, again, you can file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

You can file with us.

Oftentimes we will coordinate to make sure that our resources are used most efficiently in order to investigate those claims that are coming before the commission.

- So how does the Ohio Civil Rights Commission communicate to, if you'll excuse the expression, Joe Lunchbucket, I mean in a sense of the ordinary person who walks in the door.

How do you communicate to that ordinary person who's never been to law school, never took a course on Equal Employment Opportunity Commission law or OCRC law, how much time they have to do each step of the process if they feel they've been unlawfully discriminated against.

How do you- - We are in constant communication with our charging parties that come to us and have questions.

We're always available to people.

So again, if you have questions from the outset before you file a charge, you can always go to our website.

You can give us a call and talk to one of our investigators who will walk through the specific statutes of limitations that are applicable, and walk through the process of filing a charge.

At every step in the process, there's someone available at the commission who can walk individuals, and that includes respondents who've been accused of engaging in a discriminatory act.

They can come to us and say, "Hey, what is going on here?

What's the process?

What can we do next in order to make sure that my claim is getting investigated or that I'm responding the way I need to respond in order to address this charge."

So essentially we're not gonna talk legalese to you.

Access to justice and equal access to justice is really important to us.

And as a member of the bar, you're more than aware of how important it is for people to have access to forums where they can bring their claims.

And it's not always available for people who can't afford counsel or afford an attorney.

In this process, we're very public friendly, and we're very forward-facing in that.

In that we understand that part of our goal as an agency is to provide that education, and to provide people with an informed way to interact and engage with the process so that they A, feel involved and don't feel excluded.

- I'm very interested in your emphasis on conciliation.

I've often said that employers and employees know their cases better than eight strangers on a jury.

And that they ought to have the opportunity to form a resolution that fits them much more so than people that are just dealing with us for a very short period of time.

- You're right.

And that is such a crucial part of the OCRC's mission, is to try to again give parties an opportunity to come to the table and work something out before you come before a tribunal, before you take a suit to- - Before you hire experts.

Before you expend 2,000 hours.

- So essentially when we make a determination of probable cause, that means the commission has investigated and they found that there is probable cause to believe that discrimination occurred in a particular case.

- It's time to talk.

- It's time to talk.

- So what's been the most fun for you in your new role?

- What's most fun for me is probably the people that I work with.

They're passionate.

They're engaged.

And being able to really dive in and discuss these complex questions, and to really dive into the case law.

And dive into the cases that we have at the commission with people who are dedicated, with people who are passionate about what they do, who share that love of public service.

That's my favorite part about this.

- Okay.

Let me throw you an oddball question.

Not what we talked about.

What advice do you have for children who might want to be involved with fighting discrimination or being aware of it or dealing with it in their own lives?

- Great questions.

So first of all, we do have an MLK contest.

It's the Martin Luther King- - Junior.

- Yep.

The Martin Luther King Jr. contest.

Thank you.

And it's open to 6th to 12th grade.

And essentially it's an essay contest or a multimedia contest.

You can go to our website and figure it out.

And there's a prompt there and you can enter the contest.

And that's for children who are interested in really delving into that and exploring that issue further.

Additionally, my advice is for children to get involved in the community, to engage in public service, and to seek out voices that are diverse.

Essentially listen to people who are not like you.

Listen to people who have different life experiences than you, and kind of cultivate that empathetic ear that's so crucial and important.

- And don't hesitate to give you a call if they have more questions.

- Absolutely.

Please, yes.

- Well, how long have you been in the job now?

- Oh goodness.

I've been at the job since July.

So only a handful of months.

but I'm learning every day and so excited to be here.

- Well, on behalf of "Forum 360," we wanna thank our special guest, the new regional director for the Akron area, and it's 15 counties, the Regional Director of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, Ms. Myra Cottrill.

We thank you on behalf of "Forum 360" for being here, and for your commitment that you demonstrate to those who are the most vulnerable in society, and not just people who are perhaps the victims of discrimination, but also employers trying to grapple with it.

- Absolutely.

And to and to others in the community.

On behalf of "Forum 360," I'm Sally Henning.

- [Announcer] "Forum 360" is brought to you by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, the Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and "Forum 360" supporters.