Bernard Standard, the executive director of the Hopkinsville Human Relations Commission, plans to retire from the position in January, he told commission board members at their Tuesday meeting.
Standard has led the city agency since the summer of 1990. A native of Memphis, he moved to Hopkinsville in 1978 to take a job with Credit Thrift of America.
Prior to working for the commission, he was a board member for several years.
Standard said he will be staying in Hopkinsville and looks forward to having more time to spend with his grandchildren.
“I’m going to try to relax, and I want to see what else I can do to help in the community,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
Standard has been involved with numerous community projects as a member of Pioneers Inc., a service club for African-American men, since 1979. And he was a Junior Pro basketball coach for several years.
Established in 1963, the Hopkinsville Human Relations Commission works to unify the community by promoting diversity and understanding across race, ethnicity and gender. It organizes the annual Mayor’s Unity Breakfast, highlighting good works in the community, and supports activities for Women’s History Month. It also sponsors the Black Trivia Bowl.
Standard said it’s difficult to pinpoint the commission’s most significant projects during his tenure of nearly 30 years, but he counts the Study Circles conducted from 2007-2009 as some of the most important work.
Study Circles brought together several dozen residents to meet weekly and discuss issues affecting the community. The first year focused on race. Two other topics, policing and education, followed.
“There was a lot of racial tension that nobody really wanted to talk about, but it was there,” he said. “The Study Circles answered those questions that nobody want to ask. That was very significant in my mind.”
Standard believes the next big challenge for the commission will be securing support for a landlord-tenant ordinance. That effort failed last year.
A state law that spells out the responsibilities of tenants and landlords has “fine print” that requires each municipality to adopt it, Standard said, and Hopkinsville has not. A commission proposal to the council was defeated with opposition from landlords.
In other business at the Tuesday meeting:
- The commission approved the nominating committee’s recommended slate for new officers, who will begin serving in July. They are: Ron Hicks, chair; Molly Lewis, vice chair; Carol Kirves, treasurer; and Caratha Buckner, secretary.
- The commission approved a $201,810 budget for 2019-20; however, the members also voted to review the spending plan with an aim to possibly amend it in the coming months. Several members expressed concern that the budget is balanced with $64,538 in carryover funds. That would reduce the fund to approximately $15,000.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
