The Ad Hoc Committee on the Department of Civil Rights approved Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s proposal to reorganize the Affirmative Action Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission under a single director of a new Department of Civil Rights Thursday.

The Committee sent the final report to Cieslewicz and the City Council Monday, who will eventually vote on the proposal after the AAC, EOC and the Commission on People with Disabilities review it.

Chief of Staff Janet Piraino said it will be interesting to propose the creation of the department to the new City Council, who will be seated April 19.

“It’s certainly a controversial proposal,” Piraino said. “From the mayor’s perspective, it really strengthens the voice of civil rights and the reorganization takes money out of the administration and puts it into services. That’s a pretty easy thing to support.”

With the creation of the DCR, two department head positions would be eliminated and replaced with a director of the new program. Two or more existing managers would be promoted and a recruiter position would be added to the lineup, but all “frontline positions that provide services” would remain.

This reorganization would allow the investment of new funds into more services the DCR could offer, including providing city documents in multiple languages, offering translators at city meetings and enforcing the city’s minimum wage ordinance, a release said.

Spokesperson for Cieslewicz George Twigg said the mayor proposed the creation of the Department of Civil Rights after a survey, part of Madison’s Comprehensive Plan, was conducted last year on the quality of life residents felt in the city.

“There’s a huge gap between the quality of life that white Madisonians felt and the quality of life that minority residents, especially African Americans, believe there to be,” Twigg said. “One of the things the Mayor determined was that developing a single Department of Civil Rights would be a focal point for addressing issues.”

According to the survey, 72 percent of whites said they had a high quality of life while only 20 percent of African Americans felt the same. A little more than half of the Asians and Hispanics in Madison said they believed they lived a high quality of life in the city.

The current structure holds the AAD and EOC as separate committees.

The AAD is responsible for many key functions including investigating discrimination or harassment targeting city employees and the sourcing of minority and other business enterprises for Public Works projects, according to the Human Resources Department.

Responsibilities of the EOC include investigating discrimination claims and coordinating a range of activities such as cultural awareness events.

Twigg said the idea to combine the two departments was proposed during the creation of the 2005 budget last fall, but the City Council wanted the community to have input on the decision through a series of three public meetings.

“I think here, especially in Madison, it’s important for everyone to have input,” Piraino said.

According to Twigg, the committee listened to the views of the public through the forums, solicited input through letters and eventually decided the proposal to create a DCR was “a good one.”