City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez has completed an unprecedented fourth term as the chair of the San Diego Human Relations Commission (HRC) and has decided to not seek re-election. The position is typically held for no more than two one-year terms.

“I am honored that my fellow commissioners voted to re-elect me four times, but I think it’s important that other people from different backgrounds and communities become officers,” Ramirez said, who will complete his term as city commissioner in 2011.

The commission advises the mayor and the city council on ways to ensure equal access to economic, political and educational opportunities and protections and accommodation in businesses and public agencies.

Former mayor Dick Murphy first appointed Murray-Ramirez as a city commissioner in 2003. In 2005, the commission elected Murray-Ramirez as vice chair and one year later as its chair.

“The Human Relations Commission has always had a reputation as being a very strong board but Commissioner Ramirez has really taken it to another level,” said City Councilmember Todd Gloria. “It has become a far more active board in terms of looking after initiatives and really championing policy changes that the city should look at.”

During Murray-Ramirez’s tenure, the commission took a number of stands against perceived GLBT injustices and in favor of pro-GLBT civil rights legislation including, endorsing state Senator Mark Leno’s bill to proclaim May 22 Harvey Milk Day, first in 2008 (which Gov. Swcharzenneger vetoed) and again in 2009, which the governor signed; requested the San Diego City Council to pass a resolution in support of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which the council did last June; and supported legislation to lift the federal ban on people living with HIV-positive from visiting the county, which President Obama signed last October.

“These are important positions and tend to get our council and our mayor to be aware of these issues and to take a stand,” Murray-Ramirez said.

Current mayor Jerry Sanders honored Murray-Ramirez for his work on the commission at a ceremony last month.

“Nicole was an early leader in the gay community and has been an extremely effective advocate for gay, lesbian and transgender issues – not just on the local level, but nationally as well,” Sanders said. “The value of the counsel Nicole has provided to city officials over the years is immeasurable.”

Former city councilmember Toni Atkins, who initially recommended Murray-Ramirez to the commission, said that one of Murray-Ramirez’s biggest accomplishments was building bridges with other communities.

“He made that a priority,” Atkins said. “Whether they be African Americans, Filipino, Latino, he really felt that it was important to support all of the other disadvantaged or minority communities.”

In 2006, when the Muslim community was experiencing a rise in hate crimes, Murray-Ramirez arranged a group of commissioners and community leaders to meet with local Islamic community members for an educational forum on Islam and visit a local mosque and Muslim center.

After the 2007 San Diego County fires ended and it became known that public employees had required only low income, homeless or immigrant evacuees to provide proof of identity and legal residence to access emergency services, which effectively denied many of them of such services, the HRC, under Murray-Ramirez’s stewardship, advocated for the passage of AB 2327, a bill requiring that emergency services employees do not ask for information or documents to determine eligibility for emergency services. Gov. Schwarzenegger signed the bill in the fall of 2008.

That same year, Murray-Ramirez spoke out against a proposal to build a six lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach Park, which would have severely impacted a scared burial site of the Acjachemen Nation. The California Coastal Commission eventually rejected the proposal.

“That guy is an advocate for human relations across the board,” said City Councilmember Tony Young. “It was good to know that Nicole was chair of the commission because I know he believed in the basic idea of human rights and human dignity.”

The commission’s election committee is expected to elect Vice Chair Bruce Abrams as its new chair sometime this week.

If elected as the commission’s chair, Abrams said that he “will carry on Nicole’s mission of outreach” and “expand on it further.”