 14. Good afternoon. Hi. Hey, Paul. Hi, Jennifer. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? Hello, I was getting nervous. I've been on for like the last 10 minutes, just waiting. In 10 minutes? Well, I always start, I always come on early just in case folks come in early to the night. Yeah. Yeah. We're still early. Just a few minutes. Yep. So one, one member did call and say that she was going to be a few minutes late. So, and that was Tashina Bowman. So Tashina. Well, Russell tell you, Jennifer that I probably was late about 80% of the time of the central office meetings that we had when we were principals. So this is the first for me. I'm, I'm doing quite well right now. I couldn't vouch for 80% of them because I was late for 50%. Oh, that needs to come in through Pat. Can you hear us? Hi, Pat. You're muted. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. Hi. Good to see you guys. Hi. Good to see you, Pat. Hi. Yeah. And Breanna is here. She's there. Perfect. Hi, Breanna. Hey, Breanna. Oh, are you guys? Hi, Breanna. How are you doing? Good. Does everybody know each other here already or? I know Ross and I know Wally. Yeah, I don't know Breanna, but I'm glad to meet you. Nice to meet you. Actually, it's the wrong, wrong wireless, Pat. Wally, Wally, Wally. I thought you said Wally. I said, Paul Wally. I know you very well. I thought you said Wallace. I said, No, Wally, Wally. Did I say your last name right? You did. You did. You did. I didn't hear it. I bearer. Hey, Paul. Paul Barkam is with us. Yes. Hello. Hello. Yeah, Breanna and I met at Town Hall. We got sworn in at the same time. You were swearing at each other right at first? Something. Well, not yet, but we're... But we, yeah, we were right there. We had an appointment at the same time. So it was there's a two for one thing. And hello, Alicia. Hi. So Tashina did say that she was going to be a few moments late. So I think she would have been the sixth person, correct? And is Deborah coming? Yeah, Deborah. Yeah, they're now seven of us. Yes, thank you. So hello, Alicia. Hello. I recognize you from somewhere. I don't know whether that's good or bad, right? Good. A principle, correct? I was, but no longer. No longer. Good afternoon, Deborah. Hi, Deborah. How are you? Okay. So I think we can get us, get started as Tashina will be a few moments late. So I would just like to say good afternoon and welcome to the First Community Safety Working Group Meeting. And for those who do not know me, my name is Jennifer Moyston and I'm one of three participation officers for the town manager and office and administrative assistant for the town manager's office. I'm truly honored to be working with you all. We're going to do great work. This is very exciting. And as always in local government, we have a lot of bureaucratic items to go through today. So we are going to get started on some of those. First, I want to say all of our meetings will be recorded and then they will be posted onto the website, onto our web page that we have here at AmherstMA.gov. The meetings are also in webinar format, which is the standard format used by the town. And it also means that we will only be able to see each other, the audience, we won't be able to see, and they won't be able to see each other. And there is also no chat or discussion bar where you can type into. So if folks have something to say during the public comment period, then they can just wait until the public comment. But I want you guys to also know as members that you're not supposed to respond during the public comment portion. So if individuals would like things to be put addressed onto the agenda, they should contact me ahead of time and then I will send it out to the group. And now at this time, I'd like to introduce our town manager, Paul Backelman. Thanks, Jen. Thanks for organizing this and pulling this all together. And thank you all for stepping up and going through the interview process, which was pretty intense. We had a great interview team that participated and we really have a very strong team here. This is a really important public body. It's something, it's an area that we really need to concentrate on. And the town administration, me and everybody on our staff are totally committed to working through the subjects that you want to bring to the fore in this. There's an intense amount of work that you have to do in a limited period of time. We want to provide all the support that you need to be able to do your work, but we know it's going to be an imposition on you. So we want to thank you for that. And Jen Moisten, who is here, is going to be providing the logistical and administrative support for this whole process. And so just again, I just really want to say thank you. And this is all new to us and we're going to figure our way through, but it's a very public process. So be prepared for there to be a lot of people watching and paying attention to what the types of things you're thinking about, but it'll be really important. Thank you. Great. Thank you. So now we are going, so for this meeting until we have a chair for the group, I will be running the meeting. And so the next item on the agenda is we're going to call to order the meeting, which officially started at 403. And we're going to do some introductions. And so because I'm a little bit corny, I'm going to say, I have a few introductory team building virtual activities for us to do. So one of them is that as you introduce yourself, which I will call because everyone's screen is different, I would like you to tell me what you are binge watching or binge watching worthy show. Okay. And so, and then afterwards, we have to kind of try to remember who's show is whose, if that works. And so I'm going to start with Mr. Wiley. I'm sorry, Paul. That's quite all right. It's quite all right. So outside of the binge watching, which you got me caught up in in my brain all of a sudden, also we're introducing ourselves. Just your name and why you would like to be involved in this working group. Sure, sure. My name is Paul Wiley. I've been a resident of this town since 1982. I've had the privilege and honor of working in the public school system from 82 to 2008. And the children have gone through the school system. And knowing a lot of folks in the town over those years and knowing the town quite well and knowing what the needs are, my interest is just contributing whatever time and energy I can to do the work needed by this community. And in the name of community safety, whatever that plays out to be, I hope to be a contributor to help us get to our goal. In terms of binge watching, I think I'd have to go with a combination of a couple of things because I don't get a chance to watch television too much. So we record a lot of things. So I do binge watch Trevor Noah at night and James Corden. And because I need some comic relief these days sometimes and trying to beg off of the national network news for a minute. So I haven't found anything to really, really binge watch yet. So I'll be working on it, trust me. Great. And Mr. Vernon Jones, Russ. Yeah, I'm Russ Vernon Jones. I've been in town since 1981. My children went through the school system. I worked in the school system. And, you know, I'm very committed to the things going well in town. And I, you know, I think we got to this, we have this committee partly because of people raising issues of racism nationally and locally. And I'm really interested in how we use our charge and the things we're thinking about to think about issues of race in the town generally. In a sense, you know, any racism anywhere makes the community less safe. So if we're about community safety, I think we get to think about that. And our process may perhaps can be a model for how the town can, can address things. And, you know, I don't think, you know, our police department is out there intentionally being racist at all. But I do think that in a situation with systemic racism and unconscious bias, that it's inevitable that it's reflected in the work of any department that's not very actively seeking to have an anti-racist focus to its work. So those issues are ones that are dear to my heart. And I'm, you know, just so happy to have the chance to engage in them with, with all of you and looking forward to getting to know each of you better. Binge watching, I'm forgetting the name of the show, but it's the, the, the one where the designated survivor, the guy becomes president when the entire, the president and the entire cabinet are all killed and runs the government after that. Hi. And Brianna. My name is Brianna Owen. I have been Amherst resident for the last nine years. I graduated from UMass Amherst, went to the high school in Amherst, and now I actually run a program through a nonprofit that serves young people in Amherst, Hadley and Hamden County. So I'm really excited to be the change that I want to see in the community. Yeah. A show that I am binge watching right now is how to get away with murder. It's really good. Highly recommend to anyone that has not seen it yet. And Paul. So fuel full disclosure. I did not know this question in advance. So I'm Paul Backelman, town manager. I've been town manager for just over four years. But I lived here a long time ago when I went to Hampshire college. So I'm a graduate of Hampshire college and then moved away and then moved back here for this position. And I love, I love Amherst always have and really enjoy working with everybody who's been involved in the town. My binge watch show. I mean, I don't do a lot of binge watching. I have a binge watch. I sort of have my sort of guilty pleasure with so the binge watch. I've just we just finished as the Americans, which I really liked about these deep undercover Russian agents who grew up and live in the United States. And then my sort of stupid thing I watch is Gilmore Girls. And I think I sort of watch that because I miss my daughter who's who doesn't who's in her 20s now. And that was something that was sort of traditional. So when that's that's like if I just want to like eat sugar, that's what I watch. And Alicia. Hi, my name's Alicia Walker. I have lived in Amherst for over 21 years. I grew up here. I graduated from Amherst High School. I also attended UMass. I now also have three children who go to school in Amherst. I am very excited to be a part of this group because Amherst is a community that I really care about. This is the only community I've ever been a part of. And I feel like Amherst has a lot of potential. So I'm really excited to be a part of some of a team that's going to see what our community needs and work towards what we can do to address that. And as far as binge watching, I don't have much time to watch TV at all. I usually don't. But just actually a couple of nights ago I was trying to find something to watch before I went to bed on Netflix. And I stumbled across the Queens Gambit, which is about the chess player, the woman chess player from I don't remember which year, but it was a while back when it was Tapu for women to be doing things like this. And she came in like a storm and beat everybody. And I really got stuck and watched the almost entire show in one night. And Deborah? Hello everyone. I'm glad to see you all and be part of this. So I've been an Amherst resident for 22 years now. I started out as a UMass student and graduated from UMass, then left for a couple of years and then came back. I have two kids in the school system right now. One is 16 and one is 11, both males. And one of the main reasons for me to get involved one is because of my children. They're African-American and Cape Verdean. I'm Cape Verdean West African. Obviously there's a lot going on and everything happening in the nation and the impact that it's having here locally too in terms of racial profiling. And as Russ was talking about racism, systemic racism, that's been something that I've done because I've worked for UMass and I've done my own consulting around diversity, equity, inclusion, something that's very dear to my heart. But of course I want every citizen here in Amherst to be able to be themselves and not be racially profiled. I have to deal with microaggressions and different issues because of their race, ethnicity or any other isms. So for me I have a lot going on in my life in terms of the kids, work. I have an elderly mother and actually I have to say right now that I'm the main caretaker for my mother and she's in the hospital. So I might have to while we're meeting have to kind of step away because you know the doctor has been calling me from time to time so I'd have to take that. But anyway so that being said I have a lot going on therefore I'm taking part in this because I really believe in this and I think it's time for us to make a change and make a difference in the public, in the safety agencies and so you know I'm really looking forward to this and I hope we're going to do some good work. In terms of binge watching because I do need to watch something to kind of you know brighten my day because of everything that I'm doing. I love Dancing with the Stars. It's on right now, it's my show and you know I record it and I watch it whenever I can especially since we can't go dancing during this COVID time so that's me. Great and Pat. Hi everyone so I came to this country in 1983 from Nigeria. I have five children they all went to MS Public School System. I will say that they were fortunate they had very great education except for one I do have a child with special needs that didn't have good experience here as autism. I went to UMass, I've had several administration positions in social services and about 15 years ago I opened up a bako African restaurant in town for a decade and currently I run an old bako care a day health in in hardly. So in terms of what prompted me to join this group I've been very active in community pushing for social justice from the school system including discipline gap and achievement gap in the school system and in 2004 through 2018 the town actually created a racial profiling group which I was part of it actually a friend of mine Jackie Hazard was the one who encouraged me to join the group and it to me it felt it felt like a complete waste of time because we weren't getting much cooperation from the police department and so this year when I got an invitation from the town manager I am a very optimistic person and I said you know I'll give this a trial again and just go with the flow and you know perhaps with the momentum with what is going on in the nation maybe this is a time for our town to do something so I'm joining this group with open mind I'm excited I'd like to be positive and be hopeful UMass has been a great community for me and my family I come from a family of police in my home country I have uncles and cousins who are police officers and I will hope that one of the things that we will you know come up with is to find ways to also provide support to our police officers some of them who are doing a great job but we do have problem in this in this community being a parent of African-American children this is what we talk about all the time at home even when they were here before they all went on their way so UMass you know this is a time you know to really address institutional racism in our community so I'm looking forward to working with you all in terms of binge watching so my sister is here visiting so sometimes he will put on Nigerian video so that's really really good you know for me to like chill after listening CNN believe it or not I do watch Fox News sometimes MSNBC but it's good to really you know watch movies from my home country so let me shut up that's it so welcome to Sheena so what we're doing is a quick introduction of ourselves and our history here in Amherst and why you would like to be part of this group or what made you decide to be part of this group and also um you have to give a reference to something to Ben when you watch so we can learn a little something about you know um um so my name is Sheena Bowman I've been in Amherst since like I think it was like 89 I went to Amherst middle school went to Amherst high um put just graduated my third child from Amherst this past COVID summer um and yeah like I've um I don't know a lot of people know me from African dance my mom is like really involved with that um I am doing I'm working on doing a lot more work in the birth community I'm a student or assistant midwife as well as a doula been doing that for 16 years um and you know communities that I'm trying to serve our women of color our low-income people because they're dying at higher women to call in particular dying black women are dying at higher rates um it's like it's like for every it's like one to four or something like that like it's really hot it's ridiculous um and I think that it has a lot to do with representation and that being said um I've always been pretty disappointed in the representation in this town um as far as like you know people say that this town is so diverse and it's not it's not just because you have a bunch of people of color who are in the town diversity is coming from the top it's coming from who's making decisions it's coming from um who's interacting with community the community at large and um so there's no there's very little if not if any representation of people of color in um in higher offices whatever of in Amherst um another reason why I kind of got involved is because I've had um my my now 20 almost 25 year old my child was um stopped um there was an incident that happened a few years back on New Year's Eve um at a party that my son was at um he left the party before the incident but then got um stopped and detained by Amherst police um and it took a crowd of kids to make them let him go um he gave them his information you know he told him he wasn't part of this he you know and it turns out he wasn't he didn't even fit the description of who they were looking for um so that's a problem and also um I know that I've seen some incidents where um people with mental health issues are being targeted by Amherst police um and so I just feel like um there's a level of accountability that needs to happen and the community that needs to like formulate that and and help that um um help change what are how our community is and not also to make it so it's not we're not just we're not just police we don't have just policing we have we have community community you know we have our police working with the community being part of the community um um also I think that it's extremely important that um for all people of like decision decision making um you know whoever's making decisions within the town that they there needs to be um historical understanding of why change needs to happen um and there also um needs to be more understanding of mental health issues um I think mental health issues are really huge in this community especially after they you know close the hospitals down so it really makes it it how things are going um and you know what the focus is on and so on and so forth um binge watching so currently I'm binge watching a couple shows I'm binge watching half and half which is a show that was like on a while back in the 90s and then I'm binge watching and I love that I like really had a new new appreciation watching it like as an adult um and I and I think that um so that I just say find it hilarious and then I also have been binge watching one on one which is another show from the 90s that or the late to early 2000 um and yeah both of those shows are like streaming right now and I was just like I forgot about this show this is amazing I love this yeah so that's great thank you and so I am Jennifer as you know and I have lived in Amherst for the last 43 years when I think about it now it's really long time um and so I've watched Amherst transition from multiple stages um but I'm really just vested in the community my three children have gone to school here I went to school here I think I've spent more time on the Amherst football field than I don't you know probably than I care don't like to still a few more years to go um I'm connected to almost everyone here in some in direct or direct manner um except for you miss Brianna so I'm really looking forward to working with you and getting to know you better and uh Debra so I went to Upward Bound with Sid and um he was my counselor and so there's the connection there um and I'm just really excited that we could take these steps to move forward and making Amherst be the best Amherst that it can be out binge watching show right yeah so I tend to binge watch and then stop and then go back to it so there's a there's a couple of them and it really depends on my mood so uh there was a the handmade tail for a little bit which is a little bit uh creepy but that's a good one and stranger things and then on the lighter side of it it's the golden girls I don't yeah I have a thing with the golden girls I just you know it helps relax me a little bit you know a little blanche everybody needs some so um with that being said we have one more little uh corny group activity to do and so I'm going to give you a scenario there are a dozen eggs and a carton and 12 people each take a single egg but there is one egg left in the carton how did that happen wait what there are a dozen eggs in a carton and 12 people take 12 people each take one egg but there is still one egg left in the carton one of them shares the last person took the carton with the egg inside yes you will have a couple of weeks full of these wonderful things you have to get a you're going to have to get like a little drum roll right after that or either start the meetings earlier when my brain is more aware so we're going to move forward with the agenda and so the third item on the agenda are the rules of the road serving on a public body as some of you have never done that before and we're just going to say welcome to the local government 101 it can be a little bit much I'm going to do some screen sharing and I've put together a power point for us to kind of go through the items and fingers crossed that I like this all completely works 100 because I'm a little nervous okay so yes this is the community safety working group and this is our agenda for today and so now we're going to kind of go into here's what you need to know and this is the purpose of our community safety working group which is to make recommendations and alternative ways of providing public safety services to the community and make recommendations and reforms to the current organizational oversight structure of the Amherst police department this is our charge so each committee has a charge and that basically explains what the committee will be doing that's what they're charged with transparency and local government is very important so for instance that's why we record so that we can play later and people can go look back at what happened at the meeting and so there are two major things one is the conflict of interest law which you've all should have been certified and returned that to the clerk's office and for other reference there's Robert's rules of order here's a little bit of information on summary of the conflict of interest I won't go into it too far but basically there's no you can't hold your position over anyone really is the bottom line of that so here today is something that we might discuss and hopefully we can develop is each board and committee needs a chair some of them have a vice chair which I highly suggest in the anticipation that the chair is not available and then a minute taker so I do suggest for the minute taker that we that folks rotate and take turns so that everybody has the chance to a be involved in the group and not one person is is taking all of the minutes but also so everyone can have that opportunity to be involved in that manner by taking the minutes so again as I said earlier public comment is a time for the public to bring their concerns to the group and there is always a designated time at some point during the meeting for public comments but we are the board and the committee members are not allowed to respond to public comment and the appropriate way if individuals would like something to be on an agenda would be to send it in to myself otherwise it could possibly get keep getting tabled and tabled through their meeting to meet it from meeting to meeting there is no gathering so if you all are at a separate event and there's four of you that are gathering or five of you that are gathering together that is considered a quorum and that puts you in violation of the open meeting law and as well as there's no speaking on behalf of the group as an individual and if Paul or I send you an email as a group please reply only to Paul and myself as opposed to replying for all because if four five of you are more reply to that than that too is a violation of the open meeting law as a community safety working group member you have no power individually but as a group you have all the power the power lies within the vote so we've got teamwork and a name and a yeah I there so we have some basic zoom etiquette we'd ask that you guys pay attention you have a comfortable working spot where it will be quiet which we all know sometimes that doesn't work out as well as we know your tech is ready to go your communication is ready to go and that you're being professional of course as they are all the meetings are recorded we use a zoom webinars to try to avoid zoom bombings a zoom bomb is when a group or an individual kind of crash the meeting and then they take control over the screen and we lose control and they like to bombard us with disturbing content if for some reason we are zoom bombed I'd ask you to exit the meeting and then re-enter the difference between this is sometimes an issue for folks so I just wanted to explain the difference between the zoom webinar versus the meeting style so we just have more control in a zoom webinar although there's certain things that we can't do like the breakout rooms and such but we won't really need we can't use those in this circumstance so that's okay and just to recap the working group acts by passing motions the working group can only act when there is a quorum of members present meetings must be posted at least 48 hours in advance as an individual members you have no authority to act but as a group you can act by voting on motions and again the power is in the vote and then that's that it's your little crash course on local government 101 so uh the next item on the agenda is to discuss the charge do you all have a copy of the charge in front of you I can pull it back up again if you would like give me Jennifer can I ask a question about the previous section the the local government things yes do we have an obligation to keep any email we receive relative to the work of the group or any correspondence we have with each other is or we required to maintain that in files um paul do you want to answer that one yeah so this is that's the public records law so any correspondence that this group generates to each other or to us you know through the town is a public record so someone can come in say send me all the correspondence that members of the committee sent regarding the community safety working group so one of the ways we try to address that is because we're not setting up you don't have a town email address or anything like that is if you would if you're sending an email you would copy Jennifer then that gets logged into the town server so if someone makes a public records request our it department will just search for everything and they can just grab it out of out of her email server but um you know this has this happens with some frequency and we will send if someone says I'd like to see anybody uh suppose someone says I want to see anything that this community talked about in terms of the police department we would ask you to generate give us any emails that you sent concerning this work not your other personal stuff but this this committee in particular um concerning police and you would have to think about this so one of the things I always think about is when I'm writing something I think suppose this wound up on the front page of the Gazette just assume that so when you're putting things in writing um just be cognizant that someone else is likely to read it other than the intent and it can be forwarded and all those things just you know we we want to make sure everybody is alert to what the possibilities are and how will the public communicate with us yeah so that so we can do two things um typically they would come into Jennifer who'd be the primary point person the other thing that we've done with other groups is we set up a sort of a listserv so that it someone could write to say community safety working group at AmherstMA.gov and then when whoever writes to that it gets sent out to everybody and I think that might be a good way to do it um because then that records it and everybody gets to see everything and I think that's just the you know and we will get a lot of correspondence from I think from the public um so that's probably the easiest way so no one's filtering what you're seeing I think that's good to hear too because uh similar to what Russ was asking there you know a number of us have been in the community for a long time and it would not be unusual for somebody to sort of sidebar our conversation and send you know Deborah in email or or me in email or Pat you know or somebody just because they know us so if if there's a way we can make that very public too that because the work of the community of this committee of this working group excuse me and the um uh and what needs to be shared is funneled through a particular portal yeah and I think that's that's a good question Paul that that you're bringing up because yeah we are I'm pretty sure we are going to get kind of questions from the community so for me you know what would be how do you all want us to handle that do you I think you know I think we need to set up that portable portal as soon as possible because I'm I can see that happening very quickly in terms of questions so if that's the way we need to funnel it then you know then we should set that up because I can see that happening also just so you all know too I didn't take it because I'm too busy but I was contacted by Emerson media already asking for an interview so they were asking me to be interviewed as part of this working group so that was the question that I had obviously I didn't I didn't I didn't do the interview because you know also I'm just too busy so I got back to them I said I'm too busy I can't can't do it and that was that but that's something that so how do we handle those things right because they are going to want to hear from us can we hold you know can we hold interviews I mean those were questions that came up for me afterwards so those are some of the things that you know I think we need answers to because also I don't want us to at least for me I don't want to hide things too I want to be transparent so how do we handle those yeah those are really good questions and that's really interesting so you decide as a group how you want to handle that you know you're the the seven people who are appointed to serve on this group and you you make your rules on this I can tell you what the town council does they have elected a president which is like a chair and what they say is the chair responds to all correspondence for us and all media inquiries go to the chair so there's one point of contact and then if the chair the chair can say oh can you take this or can you take this I'm you know it's I can't answer all these things but you will get contacted by the press seeking comment and what a lot of communities do is that oh I don't need I don't address this this goes to the chair and then there's you can have the conversations here it's up to you how you want to handle it though but again I you know I would always and some of those things always include Jennifer and so she's alert to what's going on as well as a follow-up if I may Jennifer and and Paul to what Debra saying I got the same invitation and I deferred it I said you know where we haven't had our first meeting yet so for me to go out they you know I think what they were asking us Debra is you know what do you hope to get out of this work yeah with the community and I you know I'd rather have a conversation people are going to work with before I put you know myself out there saying this is what I want to get out of it and so I just put that off until further notice yeah me too that's why I sidestepped I was like I'm too busy so anybody else actually I want to comment on that for the sake of transparency I was contacted actually like three days ago and I did agree to have the interview it was just 10 minutes I told them that I spoke just on myself individually that we have not met yet it was really brief interview so I did it you're going to air it tomorrow I think at 6 p.m yeah but I didn't I didn't speak on behalf of anyone I just spoke for myself similar to the introduction that we did today that's it I didn't yeah did you do well not right I don't know we'll find out tomorrow I was gonna say maybe we the woman said this will be like a few second play for something yeah that's what she said that's what I said if you did really good job we could talk about that we agree with that well I I also have a question or comment like I do belong to some groups should I still be attending those groups if issues about this group comes up you know how should I handle that that's a really good question I think you make your own judgment obviously I don't think you want to you don't exclude yourself from any of your social other things that you're involved with but you have to recognize just what you said before is when I'm acting as a member of this committee and when I'm not what hat are you wearing at that moment in time people won't separate they won't distinguish many times so and they'll say so yeah I don't think you're gonna withdraw from everything that you're involved in obviously there's the reason you're all part of this is that you're involved in a lot of things and you're connected to lots of people and that's what makes the group so powerful so I think just being careful about when you're speaking and people will say hey I got four people to all say this thing and you don't want to be and that's it being triangulated that way I don't think and Brianna did you have something to say so I was also contacted by Amherst media and I also didn't respond so I'm glad that we went over this for clarification so I got contacted too and I did I responded and I did do the interview and it was basically the same thing I said today like to you guys like it was just basically like this is why I'm wanting to be part of this this um this you know working group it's just important to me and you know so and then we talked about dual stuff so somehow it always goes to back to babies for me so and the intern actually asked me for Alicia's contact information Alicia I messaged you but I don't know if you've got my email I did see your email but they did not contact me yet okay okay is that okay because yeah I mean we are public you know we're public seven right yeah that's a condition is public I'm assuming right like if somebody contact me I'm trying to reach somebody from this group yeah I think that's um having having you all agree to how you want to handle that you you can say we all can do whatever we want you can say whoever we elect as our chairs you know any media request goes to the chair and they handle it because that someone's going to have to speak for your group at some point and so you need someone there who's going to be that person and it's probably better that that person is on in sync with how everybody else thinks or you you agree with what they're going to say because you're going to have this is going to be a process you know there's not going to be a you know you're going to have to figure out things as you as we move as you move along got it yeah and and yeah and for me just so you all know I mean obviously you know being a UMass employee too I have certain you know kind of and I talk talk to Paul about that I have certain things that I have to follow like for instance if if this group starts talking about like UMass kind of issues town gown things I have to refuse myself I can't chime in on those types of things so I'm going to have to kind of you know be clear and I'll point it out you know obviously the other thing too though I'm in an exception today just because I knew you all wanted to get the meeting started um you know before for this week but I can only do like meet like after five or maybe even like during lunch or something like that because obviously I can't be on kind of UMass time you know but obviously you know like today you know I'm just working an extra hour that an hour and a half that the thing but um but usually you know that's that's the case I think uh this group will be a big adjustment for me because I am a self-employed woman I'm used to doing things my own way so um you know I'm my my own boss so it would be quite an adjustment it's been a long time that I worked for somebody so big adjustment for me there is a lot with local government and and sometimes things don't move as fast as we would hope that they would um with local government either so it is an adjustment and um you know for instance I'm a board member of the Amherst survival center so it's very often that I have to recuse recuse myself from different topics um and just being in the community itself at a football game or when pre-covid um or any type of event when people approach me you know you just you really have to use your own discretion there and how you respond to people and what you say because what you don't want to happen is have them walk away and say well Jennifer told me this right because that's that's not the message that we're trying and again individually there's there's less power the power really is as a group together so and in our vote that's why I had one so it's very what we're going to go through is very clumsy and why is it clumsy it's because our our government is very transparent so every conversation you have is going to be recorded in this setting it's going to record so anybody can watch and participate and observe what has happened in the past so you know it's it's that and so it sort of will take a little bit of spontaneity out of things so um and the sort of how you might want to be talking about things more personally or or something like that sometimes it's so you have to think about that but um but it is how we are I think we value transparency over over the other you know anything else that would that's our top priority so Pete the public can see what's happening in terms of how the local government is working so did you guys want to have a well I guess maybe we should try to move on to the next discussion piece which is um identifying a chair and a vice chair and you know this is our first meeting and not everybody knows each other fully here so I don't know if you guys are ready to make a decision as such now does anybody have thoughts or does anybody volunteer is there anyone that wants to to be the chair and the vice chair I guess that would be the way I would kind of think of it is this something that we have to decide today no no no volunteers okay honestly I got a lot of my plate like I was like thinking about but I was like nah I got a lot of my plate right now um and so I'm trying to like I was like thinking about where I might be able to fit that in but I just feel like it'd be it would throw me into anxiety like craziness and I don't we don't want this to take you down can we nominate people absolutely Paul Wiley second I second I second Paul again I need a second yeah Deborah second second it awesome awesome so we take it you do you do such a good job with that Pat you might as well just keep being here well what about Pat as the as the vice chair as long as I don't have to do any work you're back on to meeting all the time so run it let me can I ask you just to uh you made a motion okay it was seconded can we discuss this for a minute because Paul you know in terms of the timeline for this and it's already been stated very clearly that there's a lot of work and there's going to be a lot you know of of demand in order to come up with a product in a very short period of time this is not an ongoing thing right so I did I see something somewhere that said by January 15th there's going to be some kind of a report ready yes so the chart the council has given us given me the responsibility to come back to them by January end of January so I put January 15th as a time to come back with a recommendation on the first stage of things and that's looking at other ways to deliver community safety services and I think the reason for that is that that bill that helps build into the budget creating budget setting process so we can get this going sooner than later instead of taking a year and then waiting another year to get it in it's I think there was some urgent there is urgency to get something what we can accomplish in in you know two months less than two months it's going to be a it's just we're going to be able to and there's holidays in there there's going to be a limit to that also you should be aware that you if you choose you can we have resources available to hire support for you you know consultants or somebody who can help you work through some of these things so that's an option that helps do the legwork in between meetings because it's too much I think that you might say we need research on different programs we want someone to come in and give us a report on it we want this instead of you all doing lots of different you know research on your own so you have that option so and we have you know appropriated funds to support this committee's work that's good to know because we're probably going to need that yeah can we get a support for somebody to be a note taker for us instead of rotating we could if you choose that okay so what do you say Paul to the motion you know here's the deal I'd be happy to chair all right and here's why because knowing most of the people here I know that everybody will pitch in I know if there's a bunch of skills here people I already know I don't know Brianna and Alicia yet well but I'm sure you know you're coming to this committee come with a particular skill set so I don't think any of us will abandon each other in the work and so and with some kind of support in the short time period you know somebody has to step forward right now I can't I don't think you know it's good that it's going to change too much before another few days although unless I would be ready to defer if somebody else is actually thinking about it and needs time to think about it Alicia you brought up to say you know do you want do we have to risk you know today and if it's not today then people want to think about it that's fine but I think we'd have to decide on what day we're going to make that decision so you know I'd be willing to you know I don't have to step forward if other people are interested in doing that and just need more time to think I just want to be respectful to the everybody here well I guess for me it would be like is someone else thinking about being a chair and we need more time because I guess since we do have a big amount of work to get done it's kind of like if there's someone else thinking about it we could definitely you know table it and think some more if not then I think we should probably move along with Paul. I also support the nomination of Mr. Wiley for a chair. Should we take a vote? I don't know I think we should take a vote huh? Yeah ask Pat. Yeah we should take a vote. Yeah we should take a vote. All right yes for me. All right it's a yes for me. It's a yes for me. It's a yes for me. All right I certainly vote yes I don't know. Does this count as a roll call vote? It probably does. Do I need to go through and ask each individual person by name? So yeah that's actually I think you actually did I think I heard everyone say yes. Yeah but it is a roll call but but technically when you're on a zoom meeting all all votes are by roll call and so that's what we just did. Okay congratulations. Thank you Paul. All right Paul. Yeah so your vice chair? Yes. Is that you Pat? Well I don't know let's discuss it. Is anybody interested in being vice chair? If anybody's interested I don't mind. Well I think we could do it two ways. Is anybody interested and then Paul was there someone in particular you'd like to have in that role? All right and any any person on the screen right now would be happy to work with like I said I don't know everybody's level of interest I know people have very busy schedules I don't think all of us fit in that description in terms of what we're doing so whomever would like to join that you know that being that role it would be great to partner with with them so I can't honestly and in all fairness make a choice within this within this group I think the choice has to come from an individual. I have a quick clarifying question so the role of the vice chair would just be to fill in when the chair is not present do they have any other roles besides that? Except if you get a chair that delegates a lot of stuff which he won't do but that is a good question you know that's one of the questions Paul maybe you can answer that. Yeah and I think you're right I mean the committee decides what powers it wants to give to the chair and to the vice chair and you know if the chair is in present then clearly the vice chair runs the meeting and sometimes chairs will sit in with when you're talking about the next agenda sometimes they don't sometimes the chair will delegate hey why don't you be our public spokesperson on these things and it's sort of a logic the committee has then decided who's our second in command in terms of that type of public outward facing discussions. Who is interested in the position? I'm actually interested in the position. Oh good okay. I'm hearing the stuff the responsibilities you guys all have it's amazing that you're all volunteering time to come here I actually have a lighter schedule I manage a program that works with foster kids in Hadley and I'm working remote so I actually do have a bit of a lot more free time right now and I make my own schedule so I think that would be doable if you guys were all on board with that. Yes I'm on board. I'd be on board with that. Yeah I second that. So do we do we need to do the vote again? Yeah why don't we uh someone like to nominate Brianna? I nominate Brianna as our vice chair. Someone second that please. I second. Any discussion? No. Okay. No discussion. Roll call. Russ. I. Pat. I. I'm going around the screen here. Deborah. Yes. Alicia. I. Paul. You're the Paul. He doesn't get a vote. He doesn't get a vote. Oh it's right. I guess that's and Tashina. Tashina. Hi. Okay you're in. Can I make a comment? I'm really glad about these um positions because I'm thinking intergenerational so to have the elders meaning an elder which I mean in that group myself Russ and Paul and then to have the younger generation so to to split the position I think is wonderful so that's why I decided to like you know stay back. I think it's wonderful. I agree. I like that. I like that very much. It's a nice balance. Yep great. Okay. So I don't have to do this anymore right? Jennifer one quick thing though. So in terms of like the you know what you're reading in terms of I know you in the PowerPoint I never got a copy of maybe I missed it in the email. I didn't get a copy of the charge and I didn't get a copy of yeah like the different positions and stuff like that you know so that's something that you can share with us afterwards. Yeah absolutely. I'd love to have that PowerPoint too. That was kind of I can send you guys the PowerPoint if you want. Oh that would be that would be perfect. I got it. I got that already. Yeah I didn't I didn't get that. And I also want to mention that there is a the committee has a page on the town's website that we're starting to populate a little bit and we'll put materials on there as you develop materials that so everybody can fussy what you're doing and we'll put the agendas the minutes your names and then if there's studies or if you bring in links to things that you want people to pay attention to we'll load it all in there so you can always find it in one location. Yep and then so I just I wanted to go back to an earlier conversation that you guys were having in regards to how and who was going to respond and how we were going to respond now that we have a chair established so for a point of contact and such do we do you guys want to have that discussion now? I think it would be a good time so because it seems like you guys have already contacted and before more people start contacting you sure you guys should have something in order yeah. So I guess I guess for me one would be I think even before talking about that do we have like is that portal setup or or something like that so that we can we can have that I can reach out to IT tomorrow and have them establish the email so that basically on the page it'll say contact us and it'll go to everybody including Paul and myself. Perfect so I guess the question I have is with other committees we have in town does it does only have to be the the chair that have to speak on behalf of the group I don't know how I feel about that. Yeah I mean for me like what I think what I think would be like you know Paul it could be the point of contact right and then obviously if he's not available Brianna would would be the one first to contact but then to kind of like make sure to sign different folks you know to do different things and respond for the group on different things you know I don't think it should always just be Paul or Brianna speaking on behalf of us at least that's my opinion but we'll also be having let me clarify I'm sorry go ahead go ahead I was going to say we're going to be having meetings and this will give us a chance to know each other and you know our work and and and our energy and availability and you know our knowledge base too what we can bring to this because um I would feel very uncomfortable that for example the press called me and said you know started interviewing me about something and and I didn't feel I've had personally enough information to answer that question so maybe some of those things need to be filtered through uh you know our committee and it's small enough in in that sense that you know we can get input from people um so you know we have to defy some way to have it so that any statements that do go out like for example it could be me it might be Brianna might might be Alicia you know responding but I think if if um we're able to you know collect that information in some way so that if anybody says something like that it's it's pretty clear that um it's something that can be abided by them and approved if you will by the committee okay so let me clarify it says somebody I run into some I'm not even thinking of media but say I'm thinking you know somebody that I know running to me and you know makes a comment or ask question and I want to speak just for myself I mean this is public meeting you know I want to speak for myself or they have issued they want brought you know brought to all of us you know I'm not going to make decision or tell them you know this is the way it's going to be but I will hope that our group will agree that we can express our personal opinion without saying we're speaking for a group if people know what I mean yeah yeah Paul so I think that's a good point I think that makes perfect sense I think what what um without just reference on the council what they if if a counselor is having a district meeting and they would like a representative from the group to speak they might go to you because they know you or someone else but what you say is well actually you should go through the chair who will designate someone to represent the committee at at your district meeting or whatever it is you know it might be that's what you want to do but also I'm thinking for the group that I belong to and our this group issue comes up you know I mean I would be tended to make personal comment not representing the group I just want to be you know this is the way I operate but when it comes to media I don't even like talking to media so I would definitely refer them to the chair and vice but I don't want to limit myself to express my personal view about something and people running to me and said you know how is the group going I can you know tell them that it's taped and like I'm not going to represent the group right about the work we do here and so I just want to say sometimes it as a town employee it can be really hard living in the town that you work in because people you don't want to get wrapped up and you don't want to say too much I personally because I'm an employee try to stay neutral with everything like I want to cure people's concerns and be able to give them some type of response back but not necessarily flip sides on one end or the other if that makes sense right so I mean that's a way to go about it too I would suggest that we just kind of funnel everything that comes from the public to the chair people are always going to ask you questions as your residents too right so you know you most likely can have those conversations but make sure they're the person you're speaking with clearly understands that you're speaking as yourself and not as a representative of the group and then for media and the bigger things you can say well you know we have a process where we you know we go through and then and Mr. Wiley can delegate to whomever he would like if you would like to do it that way absolutely that's precisely what I'm trying to say like when it comes to like formal inquiry like media or they want somebody a group wants somebody from this group to come and speak of course we refer to the chair and then it's up to in the fall to decide what to want to do I don't have any problem with that but I just don't want to like be fake and not say that's when somebody asks a question about the group after all this is an open meeting yeah there's you know no secrecy I mean I'm not going to speak on behalf of anybody I just want to declare because I've been contacted by different people and people have their you know concerns they're already already bringing up to me but we haven't started the meeting that is something I would turn it to the group that now I'm just being transparent right now letting people know I think that's that's important too because you know all of us have you know I know well Russ and Deborah Pat for sure have been you know in this town a lot and in some of the roles we've had people do ask us questions about things related to our employment and where we've worked and as school people and as university folks and and as business owners with Pat for example and you know you can run that through your own filter and I think one of the one of the things that you and I agree with you Pat on that is you don't want to see me evasive but you want to have a conversation with someone and be able to let them know the work is happening you want to give them an avenue to get the answers to their questions if they're related to the work of the committee that kind of thing I think that would be important and you know of course we're going to share some personal stuff with people you know let's let's be honest but we're not going to be speaking for the group yeah that's my thought yeah sounds good I'm good I just want to make sure yeah so while we're on that I have a question in terms of communication so Brianna and Pat and Tashina did I get that right yeah the three of you interviewed with Amherst media you didn't respond no she didn't who didn't I think just me and Pat responded that's me oh just I got it wrong okay I'm sorry yeah so that's okay so here's a question for for you to consider if that airs tomorrow and two of us are on the screen talking about what we want and the others are not there I wonder if that how that looks to the community one way it could look is that well those are the two that were available and the other could be like where's everybody else kind of thing right this is Amherst after all some people want to know they want to know they want to know and I think that's part of the being transparent thing so I don't know what people think about us all who haven't done it interviewing we have to be tonight because they're gonna air tomorrow we're just let it go I recommend that you guys get in touch with the lady to interview your guys she's already got in touch with me and I deferred it because I wasn't uh certain as whether or not I was was going to do it because we hadn't met yeah I'm okay with contacting her and just saying um you know hey you know my time freed up if you mind you can uh get in touch with me and we can talk tomorrow I can shoot her an email russ any comment no I wasn't I wasn't at I wasn't contacted oh really but I was I was appointed later than the rest of you as well uh which may be a factor there I don't know that we need to pursue the media around things but given that they're asking why did you want to be a part of this it seems to me like that's a question we could say everybody on the group can answer and can answer in the media make it clear you're not speaking for the committee if they ask about you know the meetings say they're taped you can go look at them but I think it'd be fine for any of us to answer a few questions from the media about our in our personal individual basis for the decision to agreeing to serve and when she when she when I talked to her because I talked to her today I'd like kind of push it off um she really did only ask the one question why that's right yeah you know it's like she really really did ask there was no like the only other thing she wanted to know was like um like who we were from the community like how are you how are you connected to this community oh this is the she was she made it very clear that was the only question that she had was she just wanted to know why are why are you interested in being part of this committee so it was like there wasn't a bunch of like extra questions that came up you know what I'm saying like you know sometimes I try to throw all this stuff in there and um she really was like she really stuck to it was like I was literally talking to her for like five minutes ten minutes at the most me too that was my experience too she's an intern and this is a project of hers that she is actually going to start tomorrow evening and it's a 15 minute segment and she was hoping to interview as many of us as possible and she would then select a clip like 30 seconds according to her um so my interaction with her was like less than six minutes she wanted to know something about myself to introduce myself so that and then she asked why um I hope to accomplish in this group and it's exactly what I said you know when we started this meeting today I didn't see anything on behalf of anybody I actually tried to discover prior to the interview to hold off that we're meeting today that I really don't have any information to give her about our group and I couldn't speak on behalf of our group but then she explained to me that it's a project that has to start tomorrow evening you know I kind of now I was trying to help her I mean she says do that intern you know to get her work done so that she can get it she's also senior at your mass she's graduated in May so it's a you know academic program for her I guess okay trying to help her out more than anything else well I do I do think our committee needs to build a relationship with the community in our roles on this committee we need to be accessible and transparent exactly and I think we can can help ourselves by you know being responsive where we can even though we keep none of us can speak for the committee boy I'm going to struggle with this group I am just used to speaking my mind oh my goodness that was the the the end game for my question just to see that we were all comfortable with either doing it or some of us didn't do it we felt okay with it but it sounds like and I think you know all the input says this is this is pretty easy very very and so if it's our first sort of salvo into the community through Amherst media it'll be a pretty good one because people will hear that five-minute comment or whatever it's going to be so okay yeah she didn't even know who I am um I believe the executive director for Amherst media contacted Vera my friend so Vera forwarded the email to me and connected and then the executive director connected me to the intern student okay so all right so so people you know the folks in the group feel like they can make that comment and feel comfortable about it I would say we just go ahead and go forward and follow up yeah and one thing Paul like just for the future and I think this discussion was great in terms of what everyone was saying because I think what we might want to think about is that right is the fact that you know folks are going to be coming to us so in terms of making sure that we are visible so we might want to think how do we want to do that right it's not just creating that portal so that folks go there but also to be able to say communicate that yeah you know we're here you're doing this work if you all want to kind of you know this is who we are if you all want to know how to share because I really want to get input from the community this can't be just going to work in a silo right well I would think that with you know setting up meeting schedules and you know future planning and that kind of stuff we will will undoubtedly take a more we have to because we're seeking information to take a proactive kind of effort to this work and so if we're taking initiatives and people are seeing that too in a very public way I think it'll help all the way around and create a more positive exchange between the the town and this group not I mean a positive not a more but a positive exchange so we're good we're good okay so next meeting date and meeting schedule Paul I have to ask a question in terms of did you have any any vision or Jennifer in mind for what that schedule might look like are you going to leave that all up to us a lot of it depends on what you know looking at the charge you know I don't know how frequent you know we we should be having meetings in order enough to give us time to do the work in between well Jen Jen I just talked a little bit about this yesterday I think I think you won't meet next week because it's Thanksgiving clearly but I think you're going to need to meet weekly until Christmas basically and see where how far you get and we were just thinking you might your first couple meetings will probably be information gathering times to meet with people you think might give you guidance Jen do you think she might yeah so I think you know there's a couple of things that needs a that needs to happen well you have to gather information from three three to four places right so public safety you need information from there you need information from the other community organizations and agencies that help support the different communities that serve the different communities in Amherst and then you need input from the community itself so somehow you have to figure out which is the best way to do that I yeah yeah okay so I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week I know I just looked over you're trying to tell everyone goodness so we had thought possibly you know it whichever way that you want to do it but you know there's police and fire that you're going to have to connect with and then there's places like craigs door and the Amherst survival center and Mary Beth Ogowitz over at the Amherst senior center and the folks from craigs doors did I say your craigs doors and then there's also the community input that would be needed what about so when you're saying to get input from certain agencies like I mean what about the human rights commission I mean folks like that and then also I mean I really want to be able to get that information and I don't know how that would go but like from young people you know what I'm saying I think to make sure that we're getting some agencies that are connected to young people because that's who I want to hear from and young people from all economic backgrounds yeah so I worked with some of the youth over the summer and we got to come up with a creative way to get the youth to voice their concerns um for one I don't I feel like they're not very trusting um of us adults and also um I call me judgy I don't know I've had kids you know I have kids from 25 down to four so um this younger generation doesn't really know how to express themselves they get very stuck in what's going on in their head and they don't necessarily know how to articulate what their needs are and we got really stuck when we were working with the youth group um trying to get we have you have a few little you know a few kids that would speak but we it was so hard to like get this information and you could tell that they were angry and you could tell that they felt disrespected and you could tell that they were like very frustrated but trying to get them to like work through that in a in a way that we could like put something tangible behind it was really it became really difficult um um so I just wanted to put that out there because you know like you know whoever's willing to front that stuff like really needs to like figure out a way to really get them get them engaged to get the information that we need to get out of them in order for us to help make those changes because I'm telling you I it was like it was like pulling teeth even to just get them on a zoom call was like pulling teeth and when they got on the zoom call nine times out of time they didn't talk and it was like it ended up being all like come on guys we want you to talk and we're trying to give them you know things that might inspire them to talk and they just wouldn't do it um so you know that's that's just something to think about um I also wanted to put out there that um I would be interested in um I'd be interested in working with the police in the fire like the police and fire departments but I feel like we need more of an outline of what exactly we're what exactly we're looking for like you know what I'm saying like what we're what are like I don't think we have we haven't really laid out expectations um and we haven't like I feel like it's easier to have a conversation when you know when you're going to somebody and you're like look you know I feel like this is difficult because a b and c like what are you guys what are your thoughts about that you know like to get their thoughts about it and I don't feel like we really have laid out expectations of these different organizations or like yeah I think I'm saying yeah I think the chain is right we've got some work to do with each other before we meet with anybody else so that we can really plan the questions and and structure what we're after as I should mention I should mention um youth I kind of agree with you but we already have some youth group youth groups in in town like the school system I'm thinking about Fuku several years ago when um a local radio show radio yeah Northampton in Northampton wanted the town officials including the superintendent and the town manager not you um and some parents committed members to to speak on racism on school racism and it was through Poku that I was able to tap some of the youth that came and they spoke eloquently yeah I think about racism so I my point is that are some I've been new to tap some of those youths I remember when I ran uh restaurant I will have some of my white um business owners called police on some of my youth after when they got up from school just hanging out behind the uh my business building what I did was actually I kind of turned back to restaurant into like informal after school program I will bring them into my restaurant offer them just cool water that they want snack um ask them how their day went today I send them downstairs in my basement to you know make sure that they complete their homework I actually got an award but I got an award by the Ames Gaze for the work I did with with the youth just one-on-one informally I think that um I agree with Ross about we need to do some work within ourselves before you know so that we know what our goals are in order to reach out to different groups but there are some resources we can tap into to collect information I think but I do agree with your passion excellent it is an excellent um idea and a group to like reach out to I just like my whole thing is I just don't know what's going on with groups like Poku with the pandemic and not actually being at all and like how connected and that's the thing that concerns me is that you know with this whole pandemic you know people are they're harder to reach but they're also you know there's a whole they're going through a whole slew of depression like I'm like trying to like maintain myself and I'm like I can't imagine what the kids are going through as like every they're everything normal every bit of normalcy has like been taken away from them what I'd like to suggest maybe if I'm sorry go ahead sorry Paul yeah I know we we don't have that much time I just want to make quick just just so you know Tashina I haven't in on that my my son is a vice president of Poku so there you go there you go you'll get everyone on there that needs to be on there and then and then there is this youth with uh who my right who my right commission um I have a Monica cage Vera's daughter I mean if we look deeply we will we'll find some youth that can give us a good feedback for sure petula so what I was going to suggest is that you know given the the short time we have right now too um I would think you know this is an introductory meeting where we're getting a lot of information we're sort of staging some of the things we have to do already and uh it'd probably be important for us to to start building a meeting schedule and creating agenda for that that first meeting that actually includes these things so that we can create the foundation we need going forward because you have to have some clarity on what we're doing and some purpose so that you know whatever we're doing out there's going to feed into what's going to make this group effective so I I'd like to you know push us to think about um um meeting I don't know whether we some uh meeting times whether we did it as Jennifer did you know and others have done you know with doodles or whatever because people have very varied amounts of times and available but I would like to see us have a first meeting after the Thanksgiving in that first week of December if we could and um so that's one thing I'd like to like to push for now um and if we can as Pat Paul was saying you know this could be a weekly thing if we could um set up a doodle like then say what what day each week might we meet and at what time then we can we can put some assignments out there and get some things moving any thoughts on that other people Jennifer I'm sorry yeah no that's okay um so I was going to suggest something similar to that in that I think the first step is I send the PowerPoint out so that everybody has a clear understanding of what the charge is and what the expectations of the group are um and by the next meeting people have a better understanding so that you can have some type of conversation about what then what group that we need to meet with next um or what we need to what you guys need to do next right so we can just have we can have another meeting without inviting anybody to the group so that everybody's on the same page and has a clear understanding of of where we need to move forward to I think that makes sense I think it might also help us to have a little conversation right now about possible meeting times so we know I mean if we're working around Deborah's work schedule and maybe other peoples let's get some idea of what kinds of times can go on the doodle exactly I also would like like if we can if it's possible um to try to have the same day and same time like for me because like then I can like chip out that time and be like this is what I need to be doing at that time versus you know trying to figure out each week where where I need to be because that because 80 that's why so does Thursday work for everybody every week Thursday evening Deborah you are off from work at what time five five five o'clock I could yeah Thursday works it looks like Thursday but we have to be at five five to six thirty so you're saying you're available five p.m. or after five I'm available at five got you okay how does I'm off the clock at five so okay you're suggesting your first meeting a couple people suggesting your first meeting be Thursday the third at five thirty no five o'clock it's five it's not at five five o'clock I'm gonna push it too late because I know folks have dinner and all that stuff so five o'clock because it's fine for me could we could we make five work well let let me ask about Thursdays because okay we it's gonna hit Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve oh that's right yeah I'm wondering the third is difficult for me but okay so what are they works for people are Wednesdays an option what if we did a Tuesday Tuesday okay Tuesday would be better for me than Wednesday so Tuesday does not work for me I could do Wednesdays okay I can do I can do Monday what about Monday does Monday work for everybody I can do one Ross well let's let's go to let's go to Russ's state that what does Wednesday look like for everybody just that I have a I have a standing staff meeting for four to five on Wednesdays and sometimes they go over a little bit so that's what could we meet at five thirty on Wednesdays would that work for you I was going to say yeah five thirty it's fine five thirty on Wednesdays I can do five thirty on Wednesdays okay that works for me that's December 2nd yeah five thirty that's usually when I visit my grandson but maybe he'll join the meeting he's he's two years old he has a lot to say so he might be in want to try that folks I think it's important to hear the voice of youth don't be surprised so everyone don't speak too fast on that because you'll be here in my room so so five thirty we're going to try to do five thirty for on Wednesday that's every Wednesday every Wednesday every Wednesday every Wednesday okay all right sounds good okay and so um so yeah so Jennifer you're going to send that information and uh I could be I'd be happy to to to put out a an initial draft of a first agenda for folks if they if you want to take a look at it I can do it on on google or just do it by email if that helps get the ball started rolling um and then and then we should contact we should contact you if there's something that needs to be out or we need we want to add to the agenda that's what I'm suggesting yeah just let it be a starter it would be a draft agenda and I'm taking some notes based on what we just said today but you're gonna I'm no doubt have some afterthoughts and then we can you know develop an agenda in terms of what we're working on what kind of decisions we have to make those kinds of things so all right is it open to suggestions for the agenda before you make it or do you want us to see your oh and then make suggestions absolute to me I that's a great question I didn't I was just offering that as a lead but certainly Alicia at any time and um you know because that actually helped and I would encourage anybody to do that if you have thoughts on it now question about that so if I did have something that I wanted to suggest for the agenda I would communicate with you via email and then would I also send that to the entire group or just to you personally I would send it to the entire group okay I think I think what they were saying before is it send it to the chair and then a copy to Jennifer so it can be kept on the arm so can there there can be a trace of it and there's just no to everybody because it puts us at risk for being in violation of the oh just for sending this agenda okay yeah just anything that you could possibly all come up with a decision on like should we add this that puts us in in in violation or at risk of being in violation general rule of thought we don't send anything just just whatever specific like one specific person and Jennifer okay okay yeah I mean if you have like an article that you want to share with the group that's fine but anything that like anything else you should probably just channel to be on the safe side it looks like a decision you want to get it right I want to do that okay and if you want something shared with the group I would send it to Jennifer and say please share this with the group it's okay just cleans it up because she's not subject to the open meeting law as a staff person sounds good okay so I'm sending the power point now okay that's advantage of being at work while we're in these evening meetings well Jennifer the only other thing would be also once you get that portal so I will send you an email tomorrow I'm it's really good about getting things like that done so I'm quite sure it'll be done by the by tomorrow excellent and just to be clear for the Wednesday meeting it's 5 30 until what's the end time I mean how much time do you guys think you need do you think that an hour and a half is enough do you think you need two hours two hours I mean because of the I'm not as sure that there's a set time that it has to end if we post it as in right yeah like it can go over but we can't start earlier than scheduled correct Paul or that's oh yeah I think it would be good if we could block out two hours let's hopefully not use all of it sometimes but yeah I think at least at the at least at the beginning I'm sorry sorry okay at least at the beginning if we can block out two hours and maybe if I load get less than maybe we can go one and a half hours but at the beginning I'm thinking two hour block the other thing I was I wanted to ask a question about really quick um is that are we going to at any point going to have like um allow for for community to ask questions like have open discussions like have community input or whatever like through like through at the end of our meetings yes so under the town charter you have to have that in every meeting you have to have allow a time for community comment so at the end of this meeting the chair will say is there any community comment there isn't anybody in the audience but anybody who usually you have them two or three minutes to say what they want and then that you don't respond to it but I also think you'll want to figure out you start talking about how do we engage just like we started talking about how do we engage the community it's not just us people coming to you it's going to be you going into the community and engaging with folks yeah so I have I have something I want to bring up um which is more like a cultural thing since we're such a diverse um group and I'm happy people have other ideas they want to bring in but I come from a culture where respect is very very critical how do people feel uh by in terms of how we address each other I don't like to be called by my first name just like that everybody knows me for that so are people okay to put mess messes master town manager you know principal whatever and that you know that's how I was raised so I don't know what it's worth I don't know what you know people want to chime in on that yeah for what it's worth I was on a zoom meeting once where this kind of came up and uh in the you know how you name yourself in in the meeting was important for a lot of people as well as their you know the identification pronouns so they you know they actually put it right there in the in the title so if I wanted Mr. Wiley you know they you know they put it in it it's whatever you wanted to be how you ever you want to be addressed in that thing for that particular meeting it seemed to work for them so when I when I type the names into the zoom because I have to put you in as a panelist uh if you send me either how you would like your name to be listed then I can adjust it so so if you would like yours to say Miss Pat Anabaku or Miss Pat or Miss Anabaku and does she know once pronouns after hers I can do all of that I just need to know so if you send me how you would like your name to be listed then I can change that from the very beginning of the meeting most people call me Mrs. Pat I'm Anabaku and I'm you know that's my culture that's what we're used to if you ask a lot of Nigerians um especially as you get older it's very important that you know we call people respectfully yeah it's a big it's a big thing for me actually yep no so and if you just send that in an email so that I have the correct everything correct Mrs I just said it I know but listen you gotta everybody sends it in an email then there's no there's no issues right so yes can I make a suggestion sure um can I suggest that we all just send our preferred names or way to be called to Jennifer as well as our gender pronouns like I think I'll just do both yes yes I agree very good and we also have the capability to rename ourselves in this meeting I mean I think I think we should send it all to Jennifer but if you don't like the way it comes out you can rename yourself by clicking on the three little dots in the upper right corner of your video so um I'm just looking back I don't want to cut off any discussion here about that certainly but I'm looking at the we did our next meeting date and meeting schedule and we've been talking in and out of future planning which I think is going to take place between now and the first meeting certainly um there's a general public comment and I think that was referred to already and discussed and I was just wondering if there were any other comments about that or questions so I wonder if you want to put a time reference on it I don't know that all like the human rights commission allocates a specific amount of time but we don't allocate a specific amount of time for the individual to speak and then something as sensitive as the topics that could be coming up here you might not want to or you might want to it all depends as of today we don't have any attendees but my guess is as we continue on and dig a little deeper into the work that more attendees will be and this will be at the at this at the end of our meeting correct no anywhere you place the public comment anywhere I heard be at the end before but and um do we know how we accept public comment is it they call in on zoom or do they submit it in writing or so they would be they would raise their hand okay so I can I can see them and they can raise their hands so will you Jennifer will you let us know if we have like is there a way for you to let us know if we have an audience yes absolutely and then I think you can see now actually if you click on the participants button and then there's people there's panelists and then there's attendees do you see two different things oh okay okay so okay that makes sense so we like as people like log in or whatever we can see who's in attendance okay and so is there like gonna be a running link as well so that like for me who lives on facebook and social media half my day um I can post like hey if there's anybody who would like to like sit in on the meeting blah blah blah here's the link you know so the meeting has to be posted 48 hours in advance um we don't have us I I'm a little hesitant to put a standard link in case something changes or whatever the case may be um so just I will send everybody the link when the agenda is posted which is when I usually create the link so that's at least 48 hours um and then you can copy the link and then you know put it on facebook and move forward from there and Jennifer is the link posted when the meeting is announced yes so if you go to amherstma.gov under the calendar portion of the page of the front page uh the meeting is posted there as and as the way as it is with any standard meeting so you know most likely by november 30th or december 1st no by november 30th at minimum we'll just say the 27th you should be able to go to the website and um click on december 2nd and the community safety working group meeting should be posted there the the only differences that you will get a link as a panelist individually and then the public will see a link to the meeting in general yeah but Jennifer can promote people into the room to speak when it's time yeah just to clarify yeah that was what I was gonna say so so can we when when Jennifer sends us the link just I want to be clear so when Jennifer sends us the link can we share that on facebook no so it's only once it's posted on the website no so what happens is so if you recall I sense um you got a specific invitation for you as a panelist oh and then I sent the agenda the link that is on the agenda you can copy and paste and share out or tell people how to access the agenda and they can move forward from there what you receive as an invitation as a panelist please do not share um with anyone else I don't want to have to boot anybody out of a meeting right Russ I think you had a question you can yeah I'm sorry Debra no no that's why I wanted to clarify because I was confused by that yeah Russ you had a question a while back yeah I don't want to talk about this now but I'd like to ask that we have on our agenda a discussion of this webinar format for meetings um I think that the I understand the importance of zoom mobbing uh but I think zoom now has features that we could beat on a regular zoom meeting where participants can see each other and I think it would build our credibility as a transparent uh group with the community but I understand that's a just a complicated discussion but I'd like to have it on the agenda next time okay it's on okay can you see me Paul yes hi all right so I just have question for the town manager so I did stay membership seven people or night people like you're going to be recruiting more people or this is it I'm just curious so the interview team and interviewed everyone who had applied and they've they had recommended this group of seven and felt pretty comfortable with this group of seven um and if you sort of say we really need someone and that represents this thing or that thing we will um I had to move forward on it but at this point I think they're comfortable and I am with this group moving forward so it's seven member okay I just want you can we can go to nine though but we don't have to okay thank you Paul we're gonna have to change our names yes because uh something we'll figure it out um okay um wait one question one quick question yeah go ahead um is there I feel like I feel like are we allowed to have somebody who is under 18 part of this committee or should is there someone who's like 18 around like that age that we can get part of this committee so the human rights commission typically has a high school student on it itself so yes which is great she has a lot of insight we'd like to see a high school student um as part of this committee uh so I don't know how anybody else feels about that but yeah yeah I think that yeah we can get um you know high school students I think high school age would probably be you know the better age because obviously we're any younger than that can get confusing but like a high school age student to to be part of the committee that would be great yeah so I don't know but obviously we need to we need to figure that out sooner rather later because also we don't want them to play too much catch up it wouldn't be fair to them right exactly yeah exactly so I mean I guess if if there's um I mean the easiest way is like if you know people just to like send them the application to have them you know apply or whatever I think that would be the easiest thing um okay I mean maybe I don't know maybe your son can you know put the application out to the members of poku past and present I don't know how much how many he has contact with but that might make yeah I feel like it makes sense because it's like we do have a very good broad range of experiences and ages and so on and so forth but I feel like we need like this is going to affect them more than it's going to affect me you know and so I feel like they we need to have their voice more directly especially yeah yeah especially could Jennifer or Paul can you all send me that link again the invitation um to be part of it because obviously I can pour that to my son Phoenix and he can share it with our poku to see if anyone from poku would want to be interested in applying yeah and it would be great if um a black male uh youth you know to show interest is what I was hoping for this group to include and Tashina thank you for raising that yes and I just have a question uh for uh Paul um so we all went through an interview process by a group if we were to add someone uh add a student to this committee would they have to go through that process to follow a protocol or could there be another method of putting a student on on the on the working group um well if they want to be a voting member of the group they would have to follow that process we would do the interview I make the appointment the town council would review in a in a in a point just like everyone here that what's happened with everyone here um I mean we could think about a student um non-voting member who wouldn't we have done that with some committees um it still went through sort of the process so yeah I would I think you're given a conversation um voting membership would be a stronger message voting for sure absolutely yes and yeah and so I think yeah I think that I think that's like I'd feel more comfortable if they're a voting member yeah then if anyone else has any other adults too that I can touch with um different group youth organizations you all should share that link too yeah actually Jennifer sent it to me too because um I'll send it out to the um the use of Black Lives Matter group and so I'll just I'll send it out to everyone because we have seven of you and then so there's still two slots so if you know folks who are interested you guys can invite whomever to apply all right and I don't I don't see Asian community represented in our group no and I have someone in mind it's a it's a a community that we're not well in tapped with and I'm starting to slowly build relationships with people from the Cambodian community and the um Chinese community as well but it's you know it's it's slow we can't meet in person we can't do things live in the way that we used to so trying to get everyone included has been a little bit challenging is anyone Spanish here or you are okay okay um I would be open to having somebody else also though because I'm Puerto Rican and I'm not sure you guys have much knowledge about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans but I grew up very American I'm the first generation here I speak like bootleg Spanish um and yeah I'm more American than Spanish I would say I think a lot more with that culture I will try to reach out to Asian community because I have some connection to see you know I'm not promising anything but it will make me feel real youth and Asian person join our group absolutely agreed so we're going to work this feedback through Jennifer and you know another sort of funneling down some of this information in terms of creating an agenda I think Alicia brought this up a while ago in terms of could anybody it doesn't have to you don't have to wait for me to create the agenda I'll be working on it be happy to accept topics for the agenda for us to consider on on the third so that would be just a reminder to folks it's it's the second a second I'm sorry yeah yeah okay yes yes second thank you um are there any other pieces of business we need to pull together for this particular meeting I know we had talked a little bit about public safety looking for other organizations that we can reach out to and tapping into the community itself did we want to set like homework or different organizations that we can reach out to to talk about at our next meeting or I think Jennifer did you mention something about you started a verbal list going and I'm that was a question I have very similar to be honest too about could could there be some kind of a list of folks folks slash um agencies groups that we would want to outreach to under the umbrella of you know safety yes if you could get that to us and I think you know again part of the job I think would be to what are the kinds of uh ways we're going to communicate with these groups to get the kind of information we'd like to to have so it's a matter of you know developing some questions uh figure out who is going to contact whom that kind of thing and I kind of envision that happening the next meeting so do so do we send the mixed suggestion to you Jennifer just send you list okay yes so if you know of organizations I only spoke on a few but if you know of organizations even just send them and we'll get a nice list going and then we can talk about how to reach out and maybe we can have like a larger meeting with and invite them or but however you guys decide to move forward with that when do you when do you want that Jennifer you've got other lives and I'm sure to deal with when you want that information well it can target something I mean it would just need to be in time to roll out with the agenda I think because that would be of top discussion so from now I mean and it's not limited so okay you know perhaps uh Tashina thinks of one today and then you know in a week later has another one to add so that's fine it can be a rolling list okay enough send it to you in an email right yes please at moistenjay at amherstma.gov sorry pretty resigned yes okay anything else anybody I thought this is a very good meeting good start getting to know one another so it is good yeah nice to meet every meet new people too folks um so without any other things coming up would someone like to make a motion to adjourn rest first I'd like to say thank you to Paul for agreeing to be chair and to Brianna for being our vice chair and to say what a pleasure it is to work with everyone and I move we adjourn second thank you Russ you like to second that motion Pat thank you all's in favor hi hi hi that does not going to be a roll call vote and uh Brianna and I accept food anytime you want to say thank you everyone and um I wish us all well I think we're going to do some great work happy Thanksgiving yeah have a good holiday be safe thank you everyone thank you have a good night bye