 Everyone should receive a message that pops up on their screen that says that this meeting is being recorded and it may also be aired or will be aired on Facebook and other YouTube channels. Excellent. Thank you, Jennifer. I'm calling to order the July 10th meeting of the African Heritage Reparation Assembly at 2.04pm. With the extension of Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. And I'm just going to do our usual soundcheck to make sure everyone can hear and be heard. And I'm going to start with you, Hala. Welcome. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, and Jennifer. Hi, I can hear and see everyone. Okay, great. And Dr. Rhodes. I'm here and I can hear and see everyone. Excellent. We can hear you. And Dr. Shabazz. Yes, I'm connected. All right. Welcome. Ms. Bridges. I can see and hear you. All right. Excellent. And Yvonne. Yes, I can see and hear you. Okay. Perfect. So I'm going to get us started with our first period of public comment. We haven't met before. A couple of weeks. So welcome back. And we'll start with our first period of public comment. And then we will have a second period of public comment later in the meeting. We do have a guest joining us. Counselor Lopes will be joining us shortly. So while she's making her way here, I'm going to go ahead and call for public comment. I'll read the public comment statement. Once and if other people joined later, I'll read it again at the second period. During the public comment period, the chair will recognize members of the public when called on, please identify yourself by stating your name, pronouns and residential address. Residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes at the discretion of the chair based upon the number of people who wish to speak. The age. Very will not engage in a dialogue, but as always, we'll be listening very closely. And if we can answer any questions, we certainly will try to do that. So if you would like to make comment, public comment, please go ahead and use the raise hand function. And we will bring you in. Hey, so we do have some attendees. I'm not seeing any raised hands at this time. But as I said, we'll have a second. Period of public comment later. So before we jump in and Jennifer, feel free to bring councilor Lopes, Anika in any time. And we'll just make sure that she can hear us and be heard. She said. Yes. Hi, Anika. Excuse me. I'm coming. I'm just grabbing a water. Feel free. Take your time. We're going to, we're going to go over a couple of things first. So whenever you're ready, no problem. Take your time. I'll just, I'm just going to take her just a few minutes to get water. Excellent. Okay. So I wanted to, since we haven't met for a few weeks, just to review on a public meeting, some of the timeline pieces that we've talked about, or that I've sent to you via email. So in terms of our timeline here, we are going to be presenting to the town council. Our final report and recommendations on August 21st. So that will be at the regular town council meeting in August 21st. As that time approaches and we, and we have a better sense of when our presentation will be out. Of course. Make everybody aware of that. It will be wonderful to have as many of us there as possible. Our committee is still in existence. So we're still a body. And so we'll probably have Jennifer post meeting. Either way for that night, just so that we'll, we'll call ourselves to order. And make our presentation. So that means. We have the next one too. Let's see. We'll want to get. We'll want to get the report and recommendations. To the clerk by the 17th of August. No later than that. So it can be placed in the public packet and any presentation materials that we have. If we're going to do a slide show. We'll also be placed in the public packet. By the 17th. So looking at the schedule, I just wanted to quickly check with folks about the next several Mondays. To see if you have any sense that you might not be available. That would be. July 17th, 24th and 31st. And then August 7th and 14th. And if you don't have a good sense or grasp on that right now, that's not a problem. Just let me know. I think we'll probably plan to post for. As many of those weeks as possible, but let's again, we'll revisit that at the end of this meeting so that we can. Determine where we're at in terms of the report. Can you put the dates in the chat? Jennifer, is that. Allowed to put the dates in the chat or okay. Can you repeat them more slowly than I'll write it down. Absolutely. Yes. So it's the next three Mondays in July, the 17th, the 24th. And the 31st. And then August 7th and 14th. And that would be at our regular meeting time. And then. We'll want to have our report and recommendations and any visual presentation materials ready to go to the clerk of the council by Thursday, the 17th. Of August. And then we will present on August 21st at the regular town council meeting. And as that. Date approaches, Lynn will give me a better sense of timing. And then I'll pass that on. To you. Are there any other questions about timeline right now or about just because I know. There was a little bit of confusion about whether we were finished in June and we are our charge. We asked the clerk of the council to look at the charge. And our charge actually says that we are finished either in June or at the presentation of our final report. And so this worked out really well in terms of council meetings as well for us to do this on the 21st. And hopefully Alexis will maybe be able to join us. That will be really great. I'm going to give a quick overview of that. Maybe with a baby. All right. So if there aren't any other questions. I'm going to just provide a quick overview in terms of updates. There have been some meetings that have occurred since the last time that we met. That I'm going to give just a high level overview on. And then as we get into the meat of the draft record, I'm going to give a quick overview of that. And then after I do this overview, we'll, if councilor Lopes is ready at that time, we'll welcome councilor Lopes. And as I do this, I'll explain what's happening with that. So Dr. Rhodes and I had an opportunity to meet with Sean last week. And Sean is our director of finance for the town. And it went really well. We had an excellent conversation with Sean. And he really grasped everything very quickly as usual. And gave us some suggestions that when we get into the meat of talking about the report, we'll, Dr. Rhodes and I will share that with you. I will also be meeting. Tomorrow with Lynn and Paul. And I'm going to meet with them to one, and then give them a sense of where we're at timeline, what sorts of recommendations we're thinking about. Think about how we might present on the 21st. And then also to review the legal questions that I'll be passing over to Paul to get responses from the legal council regarding. If there's anything that anybody would like me to specifically address with Lynn or Paul in that meeting tomorrow, then please just let me know you could tell me, tell me now or after the meeting at any point, just call text email. So those are sort of the, the higher level updates. And like I said, when we get to the report, we'll talk about Sean's. And maybe Dr. Rhodes will jump in on that as well. So we have a Nica. How is this timing for you? I'm good. I'm here. All right. Perfect. So. Hi. We just somehow got more keen into the, into the panel. I don't know what happened there. Let's see. Sometimes two will come in together. I don't know. Jennifer, are you able to move more back into the audience? I can. I'm not sure how that happened at all, but. All right. So. I have asked a Nica to join us today. We had a really great conversation with Ms. Bridges last week. If you recall, I think it was at our last meeting, which is now a few weeks ago, the committee asked me to be in touch with councilor Lopes regarding any recommendations that we may have surrounding ancestral bridges. And some of the historical work that has already begun. We've been talking about this for a long time. We've been talking about this for a long time, going years back that Nica's grandfather and Ms. Bridges father. Began in the community. So we had that conversation and something really, really amazing occurred over Juneteenth weekend. And I wanted Nica to come and to speak to the committee directly regarding that. And I think that we'll hopefully have an opportunity for people to ask questions or just have like an open conversation. After you are finished. So welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Hi everyone. So I was asked the specific hello. I was asked specifically to speak on the West side district. But if there are any other questions, I'm happy to answer those as well. Yes, the, the West side, the national historic West side district. The oldest African American neighborhood in Amherst Afro indigenous as well was established what was noted in the national register of historic spaces in 2000. So where where that might seem like it was a long time ago, even longer is the backstory behind that as I'm sure you can imagine that was no easy point. That was through, you know, my grandfather Dudley Bridges, but also should be noted that, you know, many other, many other members of these first families were involved. My great grandfather, Gil Roberts as well. So these were initiatives that even before it was done. Again, went on for, for many decades. So back in, I guess, when we first returned 2019, that's, you know, Bennett Bennett on the agenda for and social bridges really, you know, since then and, you know, and even before. So what was really significant about the day was that June 17. There's a couple of reasons that it was significant in regards to Juneteenth. It was the day that Juneteenth was established as a national holiday. And we're also, of course, we were uplifting those who, you know, from Amherst went to, we're in the 54th and the fifth Calvary. So, you know, of course, somewhere there in Texas on that day and then came back to live out their lives in Amherst. It was also significant as the 17th was Dudley Bridges birthday. And, you know, it just felt like this was 23 years just in the making of just having that, you know, recognition of, you know, some very, you know, humble folks that have just gone for decades and decades to get their history, which was really lesser known, you know, in Amherst or outright erased to be recognized. It should, you know, be noted that these were folks, they were so old school that new black people to them were black people that came to town in the 60s and 70s. You know, that's how old school they were and how long, you know, these initiatives had been going on. So, you know, this was a way of just doing like, and of course, to be noted, this work wasn't done for it just to be noted in a Google search. There was, there's also a lot of information within those Google searches that were left out that we have, you know, in documents that my grandfather left in videotape from both himself and my great grandfather speaking on these. So it's really, you know, was just a, a start and the least that we could do to have those efforts acknowledged. Thank you, Anika. And just in case, because there are people in the audience, I just want to make it clear because many of us know, Anika, as a counselor representing district, I should know this three, right? It's a three. Yeah. And also the executive director of ancestral bridges. So I just wanted to sort of tie that together for anybody who may be listening and is not aware. And Anika, did you share just in terms of what sort of what, what occurred on the 19th in terms of the unveiling and what, in terms of this committee, how we might support the ongoing efforts or whatever needs to happen. And it's not something that you necessarily have to answer now, but just to say that that question is out there and how the HRA may support the effort to continue and to be brought, you know, fully to fruition the way that it's been envisioned. Well, thank you. And, and yes, so we'll have, you know, further conversations, but I think just the, you know, you know, I'm learning rather than a lot of people had no idea about the West side district. And that it existed and that it had already been acknowledged and had already been in the registrar. So I think, you know, and also just having this information out there because it's, it's one of many areas that we have mapped out in the ancestral bridges walking tour, which is the first ascendant led walking tour celebrating the Black and Afro-Indigenous families in the region. We have all of those maps there, but what is really, in my mind, significant about this West side district and others that you really see, like if you're looking at redlining, if you're looking at the tracks, you really see how it follows these areas. There are so many who are left out. I can't even tell you because when we talk about archivists, we have to think about what the archivists have access to. Who was considered important at that time? Who did they get this information from? Many of this history has been rewritten for numerous reasons. So, you know, I think we're the, well, I know where the AHA can be most helpful is with helping this, this information really be uplifted factually. Because again, there was a lot that has been left out. There are a lot of the areas where homes that were there have not, they're not there anymore. There are a lot of people who at this time, you know, they didn't own homes. There are very few that built their home or own their own home. So many were, you know, renting in various areas up and down along the tracks throughout Amherst. There were many households where there were multiple families within the households. So as you can see, you know, they moved. So where they could have been on paper. So now they, you know, moved around where there was room, where there was space, and also out of the area. You know, you're talking about a time it was very hard to get by. So a lot of people had to, you know, leave the area. A good number and majority of them were with Amherst College, but many had to leave the area just to be able to provide for their families. And that could have been overseas and that could have been Springfield, you know, or wherever in between. But, you know, there are so many families and names that are left out of archives and other documents that it's really, you know, when you hear those, especially those who have the good fortune to live for 106 years. I mean, imagine what they had seen. So, you know, they're able to speak not only of their memories, but of the memories of their parents and grandparents and really, you know, put this together. And, you know, we're just so fortunate that because they, you know, it was such a small community that this is, you know, through oral history, especially, but also through documents that really connect when you hear like there was an unnamed non-white person who lived somewhere. You know, a lot of these names filter through. So, you know, we have, we're able to connect them, but this is of, you know, work that is spanned on for decades and decades. So I'd imagine that this could be a close and very important partnership and information for AHRA to help lift and get out to the community. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. And, and absolutely. And we want to make sure that in our report, that all of that, as you said, Anika is factually documented with its history and, and that's our goal here and for the purpose of having this discussion. So I would like to open the floor to see if any of the other members of the committee or if Pamela or Jennifer have questions for Councillor Lopes. And, and this certainly doesn't have to be, you know, the last conversation. I hope it won't be the last conversation that we're having. But if there are questions, this is the time. I just, I just have a quick question. You had named. Where the historical West side was district was registered. Can you repeat that name please? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Of the, of the area. Not the area, but the, where it was registered at. Oh, so it's a national register of historic places. If you just Google, like if you, if you Google. You'll, you'll see that it comes up. So it's like, it's not a, and to be, to noted, some people called it like a local historic district. There's a big difference. So this is a national. Yeah. And I can show you the listing for the national register for the state of Massachusetts. The, and if you want to take note of the link that I've put there to distribute in our, in the future occasion, that's fine as well. The, the, this is really a. Yeah. Before you go on, let me ask Jennifer to give you. The ability to share a screen so you can decide when to bring that up if you'd like as you're talking. Okay. So I think she's working on that. I'm sorry, go ahead, please. Well, I just really want to say how. Integral. I think this information is and then the need to highlight. And the work of ancestral bridges and. Anika's grandfather, Debra's father. It really goes to the core of one of the five areas of, of harm that we, we have talked about as part of reparative justice. And that's the idea of people hood. The, the awareness that people of African descent, African indigenous people have lived in this town, have contributed to this town, have been a part of this town, despite the legacy of slavery and of structural racism. In the way of black folks, a way of that, that we say it is they made a way. Out of no way. Okay. And, and this is what comes through and is so important to be, to really be highlighted. The work that was done as, as. Anika Lopes has, has stated, you know, for, for generations. I mean, going back well beyond the folks that have come here since the 60s. This, this presence of black home ownership of black people making a way out of no way in this town. And, and it's just something that is really important to, to be highlighted. The West side historic district as it shows on the, the website of the national register concerns Baker street, Snell street, North Hampton road, Hazel Avenue. It is of historical significance in terms of architecture, engineering, as well as what is categorized as event. That is to say the, the history of the town. It is, as far as architectural style, the homes there were bungalow craftsman colonial revival. And the area of significance historically concerns, architectural history, European history, black history, agriculture, community planning and development with the specific periods of importance being 1950 to 1974, 1925 to 1949, 1900 to 1924, 1875 to 1899 and 1850 to 1874. And so the other category they put it under historic function is agriculture subsistence, industry processing extraction, and an interesting category, domestic. So, you know, it, it is one of a very few, very few for the entire state of Massachusetts of historic districts that are that reflect a African heritage presence, African American history in this in the state. And so it, it really needs to be preserved, whatever may remain as well as to be part of the education and, and presentation of the history of the town. So I so welcome and relish the installation of markers. I relish the many ways in which AHRA can, can serve to amplify the need for this, this particular history of all our historic districts and of all our historic places to be, to be elevated as part of the work of, of reparative justice and broadening the history, broadening the history of this, of this town. Yes. Thank you, Shabazz. And I would also encourage you all to again, where you, you know, and sometimes if, if information is new, and you're reading about it, and it's exciting on, you know, the Google to really be in discussion with ancestral bridges because we have the backstores, we have those that have not been included, we have those who have been erased from this discussion. We have, you know, the information that deadly bridges left, you know, including what had not been changed, what had kind of been rewritten by those who wouldn't have thought that, you know, the black community who had been here, you know, who, who were not scholars or recognized in such a way would have access to. And, you know, as we see that, you know, this often happens, whether it is, you know, the black community, the African indigenous community, the indigenous community, we were not in the beginning, we're not made to know our histories anyway. We certainly were not made to tell them and be the authority of them. And so, you know, we do have this information there. So then I ask of you as I know sometimes when people get excited, these things become split and split and split. But so we can really, you know, honor those who, you know, work so hard and they, you know, they didn't have a nature behind them. They didn't have 2020 and the awakening behind them. I mean, these were just people doing what they were doing and what they had always done and, you know, not wanting to be erased for it because they wanted to see themselves represented because we all know, you know, that there's sometimes nothing like seeing yourselves represented, but, you know, mainly also for, you know, future generations and for their descent, you know, we were here and we are here. And, you know, so this, this story and the story of the West Side District has been, you know, really, you know, we talked about this, you know, in discussion in our, you know, the, in Juneteenth of 2021, and also your own committee member, Deborah Bridges has been saying this within the Civil War tablet exhibit since its debut on June 19th, 2021. So it's really nice to, you know, see this being, you know, embraced now and, you know, being colorful. But I think that all we can do to really keep that, keep this information tight and together and avoid pulling it apart and, you know, make, make them and making assumptions though, those who worked very hard for this to happen and didn't have the advantages of social medias and zooms and 2020, they didn't have that. So I think it's really important that we make sure that this is led and rolled out as they worked for and as they would have wanted. Absolutely, absolutely. And one of the things that we talked about when Anika and Ms. Bridges and I met is as we are working on the iterations of our report just to be able to share what we're sort of synthesizing with Anika and with Ms. Bridges to ensure that we got that we're getting whatever we're putting out there right and factual. And so thank you so much, Anika, for being here, we really, really appreciate it. And I just wanna ask if again, if there are any questions from committee members or from Pamela or Jennifer pertaining to this or to any, we're gonna be in continued conversation regarding recommendations more broadly regarding ancestral bridges. And that's something that we have agreed we will continue to discuss over the coming days and weeks and hope to have Anika back again to be able to sort of go more deeply into that. But I did want us to talk about the Westside district today. So well, Anika, congratulations on this. It's a huge thank you just for being here to share this and for us to be able to do what we can in the time that we have left here to uplift the work. And if there are no other questions, you can of course feel free to stay because if you don't have anything else to do, but also feel free, we'll definitely be in touch soon. Well, I wanna head out. I may have to stay a little bit longer to hear all of your doing especially if you had Rocky with you. But I do have a lot to do, but yes, let's please be in touch and keep you posted about when those signs will go up. So we can stand together with that whether as your committee or individuals. However, that works. Awesome. Okay. Have a great rest of your day. Okay, you too. Thank you. Just one thing to highlight again later Michelle, if you will send out that link, if people go to it, they'll see on the website of the National Register of Historic Places that Hampshire County, Massachusetts has 50 places on the register. And if you just look for the metadata of those that connect with any aspect of black history, it's only, there are only three. And that is the West Cemetery, which has the section with African-Americans who are buried there, including Dudley Bridges, by the way. It has Goodwin AME Church and it has the West Side Historic District. Those are the only places for the entire county of Massachusetts of Hampshire County. There's nothing in anywhere else. There's nothing in Northampton. There's nothing in Belcher Town. There's nothing in anywhere else in Hampshire County with any type of black history, except for those three sites that are national heritage listed. And the simple way you do it for the metadata is just go control left and hit black and it'll take you to the three listings. And as I said, it's only the West Cemetery, the black section there. It's the West Side Historic District that Ancestral Bridges is elevating to our attention, to the town's attention, and it is the Goodwin AME Church. So just pointing that out, folks wanna look at it many further. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stavaz. And I will send or ask Jennifer to send this link to assembly members. That would be great. All right, thank you. I'm gonna just stop this. Okay. All right. So let's, before we get into the draft of the executive summary of the report, just checking in with folks to see if there are any other questions regarding that or the timeline. Also wanting to check to see when people need to leave today so that I have a sense of how to flow the rest of the meeting. So Dr. Shavaz, quickly, what's your, okay, I see Ms. Bridges is three. Dr. Rhodes. Let's see. I can do till 3.30. Okay, Yvonne. Three, okay, Hala. 3.30. And Dr. Shavaz. Yeah, I'm blocked out for as much time as we need for today. Okay, so let's, we'll sort of meet in the middle there and probably try to wrap up by 3.15. I don't wanna go over too much without a couple of our assembly members here. So let me pull up, just give me one second. Can everybody see my screen now? Yes. Okay. And did everybody have a chance to take a look at the draft? This is the executive summary of the report. Yes. Great. Yvonne, you didn't have a chance yet? Okay, no worries. So in fact, Matia has been working quite a bit on the report, I think today. So I made a copy of what we started with so that Matia can continue to go into her original document. And so what we're looking at is a copy of that as it was finished, I think at the end of not this past week, but the week before Matia was on vacation this past week. So whatever has been updated today or in the next day or so, I'll be sending that out to folks or sending that to the committee for our next meeting. So I'm just gonna go ahead and start here just in terms of the general outline of the report. We are beginning, as you can see with the executive summary. We've noted here that the intro paragraph will be written last. And the reason for that is Dr. Shabazzat, our last meeting brought up, I thought something that was really important in that there is a history of our committee. There's a history of how reparations and the discussions around reparations have begun in this community. Even before the murder of George Floyd and the petition that reparations for Amherst worked on, there's a history that even goes back before that, that Matthew Andrews and Dr. Shabazzat and others were having. So what I thought was, let's see how our report sort of comes together and then we can go back and put that intro to really honor sort of the fullness of the landscape here. And then we have our appendices, as we know of them so far, I'm sure this will be added to and we'll want to review that. And then here we're starting here with a brief history and then some of the select findings that the Reparations for Amherst Group discovered in their research reports. So there's this particular structure, I've asked Mattia to look at the California Reparations Report. I thought they did an excellent job in their executive summary of looking at the national versus the state of California so that it gave the reader, whoever the, we're gonna have lots of different audiences reading this, but so that it gave the reader a sense of the harms that have occurred on a national level in various, whether we're talking about housing, education, health, and then also to be able to say in Amherst, this is how it looks. And of course this is only partially what we've discovered in our work. So this is a growing body of work really. And I'm just gonna go through this quickly and then we'll have a chance to open it up for questions here. And then of course we have a little bit about the town's commitment to unstructural racism. We have our charge and the pertinent information from our charge. And then the findings and recommendations. So we begin with this question of who is eligible for reparations that we've been discussing. Dr. Shabazz put together an excellent analysis for us that was his perspective that we then discussed in meetings together. And this is sort of the synthesized version of that. So we've talked about concentric circles. We've talked about the group one being at the center, the descendants of African heritage people who were enslaved in Amherst. And then as Dr. Shabazz explained to us in our last meeting, we go out from there. And again, I'm just gonna quickly keep going through and then we'll come back into each area here. And then we have our recommendations or we've started to outline our recommendations starting with the successor committee, establishing a town meeting for African heritage residents. We've talked about that being biannual and then establishing a $2 million reparations account and cultivating additional funding streams, town-wide programming on truth and reconciliation. So all of these we've already discussed and now they've been put into this draft. Developing a town policy for renaming streets and spaces. And I do wanna say in light of the conversation that we just had today about the West Side District, Metia will be updating this to recognize that the West Side District has in fact been established. And so I think it says somewhere in here that there hasn't been, there are no roads, no squares, no markers. So this is where we'll be able to expand on the West Side piece that Councilor Lopes just spoke about. And then we have some other recommendations that we are working on, including the University of Massachusetts, the reparations for Professor Edwin Driver, Amherst College and the Coleman family home and any other recommendations we may have there. And then this piece around a town-wide resolution in support of state and federal reparations, which we do have, we do have something and I have to actually go back and look at what that is. So let me stop the share quickly and just open the floor up just sort of broadly for people who have questions or comments in terms of the overall structure that we're working with. And I see that Dr. Shabazz has his hand raised. Yes, thank you again for all of the work going forward and putting this together. I think this does gather together a great deal of what we have worked on and what we have spoken about and I think begun to reach some consensus on. I would like to say in the select findings on the history of structural racism in Amherst, one, those are several very good bullets, but one that I think is missing that we had, that it's come up over our work is of course Amherst College. There's mentioned there of UMass and of the what happened toward Dr. Edwin Driver. We can possibly even flesh some of that out a little bit more in terms of UMass, but there's no bullet about Amherst College and I think it really helps to amplify. I mean, that's a major institution in our town and yet we have the research that is going on already on the Amherst College campus and research that has already been very well established showing the linkage through former trustee Israel Trask and some of the founding trustees of where the very wealth that helped to establish Amherst College was tied to slavery, slavery in the slave trade. So I think there is an important bullet that might be placed on that there. Got other things down the line but I don't wanna hold the mic too long. Okay, and just to note that Matia is in the audience. So she's here observing and noting any feedback that's coming. So any other questions or comments about the overall structure of the report? I do, given the timing, it's really important that Dr. Rhodes and I have an opportunity to share with you what we learned in our conversation with Sean and to be able to present to you what Sean's feedback was. And so if that's okay with the committee, I'd love to be able to take this moment. And Dr. Rhodes, does that sound right to review with the group what we talked with Sean about? Yes. Okay, would you like to do it or would you like me to start it? Once you start and I'll get my notes, go ahead. Okay. So I don't know how familiar your folks are with Sean but he is a very open-minded and creative person and he's very good at sort of taking in information and taking what people are trying to do and then trying to find solutions for that. And I really appreciate that about him. He's also the director of finance. So he is the person that works most or one of the people that works most closely with the budget and with the town manager. So he really understands. I think it's important to preface that the conversation we had with Sean was, he can't, you know, Sean wasn't there telling us making any promises, put it that way about anything. He was simply giving us some feedback about how we might look at the recommendations particularly the recommendations around the fund, of course. So we, Dr. Rhodes and I reviewed with Sean what we were envisioning and that being the successor committee, that being the biannual town meeting, we talked about the model of the CPA. We talked about cannabis and the declining revenue and so what that means for us as a committee whose funds have been committed based on cannabis, annual cannabis revenue. We've also had the opportunity to talk about how the funds may be used, whether special legislation would be required or not. So that was sort of the basis. And initially we pitched the idea of having a dollar figure that this committee would say, okay, you know what? For example, unless we have $50,000 per year starting in FY25 to use toward reparation initiatives, we can't really do much until this fund is fully funded in 10 years. And so that's a problem. And so the solution or the proposed sort of way that Sean encouraged us to think about this is instead of asking the town to sort of pretend that the money is in there and then work on some formula that would require several different appropriations to occur, various votes from the town council. He suggested instead that we try to get the money into the account more quickly. So that our recommendation would be to sort of escalate the timeline or push the timeline more quickly by making a recommendation that would sort of forego the cannabis piece and say, okay, we wanna get to the $2 million instead of in 10 years in five years. And this is how we recommend that happening. This is what we're asking the town council to do. The other piece, and then I'm gonna let, I'm not let asked after Rhodes to jump in here, but the other piece I think that Sean cautioned us about is the formation of a committee. And I know that it seemed at least that we had our heart set on having a successor body. But his sense was if we could sort of get the policies in place, he thought the idea of the town meeting was excellent. He said he thought it was different enough that it would be something that people would be really interested in, but that perhaps there is a way for us to create recommendations for the CPA committee, as well as to the town manager on the community block grant funds that would be within the sort of realm of reparative justice. So I'm gonna pause there, Dr. Rhodes jump in and what did I forget? I don't know, yeah. My recollection is that he wasn't telling us not to do committee. In fact, I was thinking that we needed the successor committee. There is no way for us to ensure that our wishes are taken forward without a successor committee similar to what happened with Crest coming on board and then the CSG, whatever that came. There's no way for us to do it. That's one. So having that successor committee is important. If we have the successor committee, then it is possible for the successor committee to utilize the funds that are available in conjunction with funds that are available, say via CPA, et cetera, and do matching fund kinds of things for purposes of AHRA objectives. In other words, you can double your funds by matching up, say the AHRA, et cetera, et cetera. We want 50,000 to go towards A and that impacts the CPA and CPA, would you throw in, we're requesting you to throw in another 50,000 so that we now have $100,000 going forward to do a particular project. So that's what I heard coming up. The other thing is that money, that we already have about 400,000 plus in there. I don't see abandoning the cannabis model going forward. We just need to solidify that to make sure that stays there. Whatever amount of money there is that should go there. In addition to that, the suggestion I heard is how do we then multiply that or amplify that amount of money via the town council and asking for additional funds so that you're able to accelerate the amount of money going into the fund. But it cannot be either or. It has to be both. If you make it either or then you were fighting, it's oppositional and not very good. So yeah, I think that's it for me. Okay, Dr. Woods, I think we did hear two different things on Sean's recommendation on the committee. So I'm gonna, I'm looking back at my notes. And we can make whatever recommendations we want, but just to be clear, what I heard on the committee is that Sean felt like creating another CPA type committee would add, do you remember that? No, I wasn't saying creating another type of CPA committee. Definitely not. I'm talking about a successor group to the AHRA. I see. And that AHRA successor group would be responsible for dispensing funds on a going forward basis. And they would do it in conjunction with other groups such as the CPA that has funds so that you can do matching funds. And that is an important thing. The other important thing was the Blacktown Council. The Blacktown Council. The town hall that would inform this particular group going forward, our successor group going forward. So yeah. Yeah. Okay, so yeah, I think, again, I think we can make whatever recommendation we want around that, but the idea was to try, I think to tap into like, so we know for CPA that there's affordable housing, historic preservation, open space, and there's a fourth one that I'm not remembering. Dr. Schvaz, what is it? Yes, recreation, exactly. So if we could, as Dr. Rhodes said, have initiatives that come through that fall into one of those categories that also meet the needs of a part of justice, then we would basically have a potential matching situation where we would say the reparations fund is coming in with X amount and we're asking CPA to come in with X amount for this particular initiative that falls under the category of affordable housing, for example. But Sean also felt that there were other sources such as the CBDG or CB, yeah, the community block grants where those recommendations go directly to the town manager, he gets that pot of money and he determines how that money is used every year. So we would be making recommendations directly or the successor body would be making direct recommendations to him. And then again, the idea was to ask the council to accelerate the fund so that we make the $2 million commitment, we get there quicker. And that is through some combination of continuing to do what we've already been doing and then to add an additional amount from Safe Free Cash each year so that we can cut this timeline down, you know, maybe in half for whatever it is this committee would like to recommend. So let's just pause there and see what questions and thoughts there are around that. And oh, please, Yvonne, yeah. Can you repeat why he felt we didn't need to have another committee? Yeah. And then also to add to that, I'm just curious about how the work that we've done will move forward, because, you know, and correct me, I'm just, you know, I'm not sure how long it takes to get things moving, but if we also put forth this Black Assembly, would they be moving the work forward? I just feel like there won't be any oversight to work moving forward. I think, thanks, it's a great question, Yvonne. I think, so again, this is what I heard and we can touch base again with Sean. I think his concern about the creation of another committee is just sort of the amount of resources that are required to have a committee of the council running. So you have to have people who want to be on the committee. You have to be able to go through a prop town manager as to go through a process of vetting those people, making sure that that committee has members, as well as staffing the committee. You have to have staff liaisons who are available to staff. So another model might be that we have a plan. We're handing over a plan, essentially, that includes having this Black Town meeting on a biannual basis. And perhaps it goes to the DEI department. I'm just coming up with this in my head right now, is perhaps it goes to the DEI department and the DEI department is sort of the holder and overseer of the plan that we put forward. So again, I do think that there's a really good case to have a successor body. And on the other hand, I know how much it takes to keep a committee rolling and having people that are willing to participate in the committee. And with the Black Town meeting in place, if it's happening twice or three or four times a year, to bring Black folks together and building on the BAM membership, it may be that having a whole committee is more cumbersome, but that is really left to us as a committee to decide. It sounded like Dr. Rhodes felt strongly that a successor committee was needed. So I'm curious. I do, because if we do not have a successor committee, we will become just a member. We will be like not having the progeny to carry our generation forward. Or we can't, not having anyone, any group there that is present will ensure that we are not remembered and that we will not have, there will not be a way to dispense those funds in some coherent, organized fashion. So yes, there is on the front end work that needs to be done, but once that committee is in place, that work doesn't have to be repeated again. It's only has to be done once. So yes, I definitely believe we need to have a successor group, whatever you want to call it, go forward. I'm very curious what other members feel and also to hear from Jennifer and Pamela as well. Dr. Schvaz, did you put your hand up? I can wait if someone else was. I wanted to say that I agree. I think that if we don't have a successor committee, then there has to be some kind of really formal town supported body that moves the work forward. Because I agree with Dr. Rhodes that this work will get buried. I mean, because it's so multifaceted, there's so much information in there, so many different ways, so many things that who's gonna be able to look at that, who's not supposed to be focusing on that and make sure those things are moved forward and implemented. I just don't see it happening unless there's a body to make sure that that happens. Thank you, Yvonne. Ms. Bridges or Holler or Dr. Schvaz, do you wanna weigh in on that? I'm in agreement as well. It doesn't have to meet weekly, it could be monthly. I don't know if it has to be a town appointed, something but some body that is, yeah. Cause things do get buried, they get lost, other things get prioritized and thank you. Thank you, Holler, and that's a really great point that you're raising is that the charge it could be very specific that the committee doesn't meet on a weekly basis, it doesn't meet, it's not that it has a very set schedule even perhaps so that folks who do want to consider membership are clear upfront about what the expectations are for them to be a member of the group. Anyone, Ms. Bridges, I think I see- Yeah, sorry, I don't see the little hand up but we need to have somebody move forward as we just spoke earlier, things get erased, things get lost and that always happens. I don't wanna see it happen again. And once this committee, this assembly gets it together of what we need to do, that needs to be moved forward with people that we know will move our work forward and not erase things that have already been erased and put back on, we don't want them erased again. We don't want things to be lost and that's what happens. Thank you, Ms. Bridges, absolutely. I have an agreement with what I'm hearing from my colleagues. I think there are a couple of different things from the report you all are giving us. And I'd like to, before going to the successor question, talk about the money question. So what I'm hearing then is that the committee the color of money is very specific. And so if we're trying to create a $2 million fund, then let's have the very clear recommendations about what we're recommending to the council in regards to, and again, all we can do is recommend that they work to establish that $2 million fund and get it to a place where we can be clear on when revenues from that fund would be spendable. Not touching the principle, but first of all, getting the fund to $2 million and then when would the revenues of that fund, again, going with the 5% idea, when would a 5% payout from the $2 million be available and then to understand that is a time in which one could begin to work toward starting to draw from that fund specific funding for projects. And so it seems to me between now and our next meeting, we ought to meditate on what is a realistic recommendation to make. And so for example, I'm not sure how the budget is ending up for this past fiscal year and when the certification process will begin to look at unspent balances and begin to certify a certain amount of free cash. But how can we recommend that this fund be made such a priority as to going ahead and maybe making a claim if there aren't other things, the entire free cash coming up be devoted. Next year it could be different, but if there aren't pressing issues as after the certified free cash is made this year that one could look at how can one maximize the contribution from the certified free cash toward creating the $2 million fund and then take that up next year, take that up the year after that in terms of what the amount be. And so we need to think about that and think about how to make a really clear and strong recommendation about reaching that financial goal. Secondly, I'm hearing what about the other funding streams and what will we recommend in our other relative to community development block grant funds relative to community preservation act funds that we may have recommendations that would fall under that rubric, as well as I'll say, even thirdly, grant writing because there are actually private foundations, public resources that are out there that have called for proposals that repair the justice projects such as those we are recommending or maybe you recommended in future could very well be financed by those resources. So for example, the truth and reconciliation aspect of what we're recommending. There are foundations like the Kellogg Foundation, Kettering Foundation, other kinds of foundations some of whom we even our town may very well have a track record with that could approach and say, hey, specifically as a model for other American towns, other American municipalities we'd like to fund a truth and reconciliation initiative that ties in with our Repair to Justice plan and we'd like $200,000 could you put or whatever may be the amounts that they're granting certain things are granting. So there are then perhaps three other buckets that will want to make clear recommendations to say that the community, the town council should establish within the community preservation committee, act committee, a priority that projects within the four areas of that are funded by CPA that relate to the African heritage community be given a certain priority relative to the funding that's available there. And then similarly around looking at community development block grant community development block grant as I understand it though would have to be about certain specific places in town, certain specific geographical locations that we would be a requesting funding for related to Repair to Justice project. So we have to think about where that might be and how to make more concrete recommendations about that rather than just say, oh, CDBG funds are out there for us too. And then thirdly, as I said, private foundation funding and the like that could perhaps support some of our initiatives. So all of this being said, then it takes us to then what happens after this report is turned in and the question of a successor body. And what I'm hearing though is that where we still need to be more directly thoughtful about is whether that successor body is one that is a creature of like as we have been for the last almost two years is a creature of the town council and appointed by the town manager or whether it should be perhaps something, a committee that is elected out of the representative assembly that we're recommending. So out of this black town meeting, a certain group is vetted, is approved and becomes that successor group to move forward projects and proposals both currently in our plan, as well as those that may be brought from the community to wanna go up to the town. And in other words, this goes back to our prior discussion of whether we see the successor group being more like a Jones library, board of trustees, that is something that is given its charge and selected by black residents of Amherst and or whether we see it continuing to be a creature of the town managers and town council. And I think we need to just squarely take that question on debate the pros and cons of each and make a decision about what our recommendation is going to be. I'm hearing right now coming off of the, that from how Sean is seeing it, that maybe it ought to be more of the Jones library trustee kind of model. That is an independent group of people charged with working with the town to carry out the reparative justice plan and selected by African-American residents. I'm not putting words in Sean's mouth, but sound as though he didn't think that the future would lie in a permanent committee being created by the town council or a long-term committee being carried out by the council to keep this work going. That's what I'm hearing from you all's report. And I just think we need to then debate the pros and cons. And so maybe our liaisons can give us any, some other perspective to think about this question. But anyway, that's how I'm seeing it right now. Thank you, Dr. Shabazz. And just aware of the time I know some folks have to leave. I really, I would very much like to hear Pamela and Jennifer's perspective on this. So what I, if people have just a few more minutes, if we could hear those perspectives, call our second period of public comment. And then at our next meeting on the 17th, I will just clarify, and like I said, these were Sean's recommendations. He fully understands that we are as a body, you know, in the position to make whatever recommendations we would like. But I think that he genuinely is trying to steer us in a direction that he thinks will be embraced by the town council and the manager, and that will carry the work forward. And he even sort of said that, you know, if it's hard to keep people engaging on the committee to keep it, especially depending on how many folks, you know, numbers of people that you're having on the committee, that that could actually work, instead of institutionalizing it with the town, that that could sort of work, it could work to sort of reverse our progress if you're just trying to chase to get people to be on the committee. So yes, please, Pamela, and then we'll be able to come back to this next week first thing. And as Dr. Shabazz suggests, debate it and formalize our recommendation. Pamela. So I'll be very, very quick. So I agree with Dr. Shabazz that the emphasis should really be on securing the funding as quickly as possible, because until you have that in place, you're not gonna be really able to do that. If I heard Dr. Rhodes correctly, there's about 400,000 available. So I would be working with Sean and others to think of a way to get the fund up and running in the next three years. So if you were able to count on $100,000 from the cannabis money and looked to a couple of other funds to secure you another 100,000 in three years' time, you'd be at the place where you, you know, a million dollars at least. So that would get you going. So I, that's where I would put my time and effort. And I think actually there are a couple of ways you can think about a successor organization. So providing support for the boards are, you know, it's very staff heavy as far as the staff time of the town. So you could think creatively, like you could think, do we need a successor organization now or do we just need a small group to work on funding? And then once the funding is in place, should we have a successor organization? That's one sort of creative way to think about it. And then the other creative way would be to think about, is this work something that could be part of the charge of an existing committee? So could it go to the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee as part of their overall work as another group that would be committed to pushing forth the work with the same sort of passion and commitment that you have. So I'll just stop there. Thank you, Pamela, both really helpful. And I just, before we go to Jennifer, I just want to, in case folks who are listening, we haven't really, maybe in a previous meeting we've talked explicitly about setting this fund up as an endowment fund so that the interest that the fund gains is what we use, the investment money is what we use for initiatives and the principle stays locked in. And so that's, I think that the council will see that as a really good model and a way to look at this. The other thing that Sean said is because we can all see that the cannabis money is declining, we, and because the town has committed to this 2 million, we have a good argument in there for accelerating this because the town's committed, you can tell they've deepened the commitment has been deepened and they've followed through on what we've already discussed now for two years. So yes, Jennifer, please. I was just going to comment on the, I really like the idea of the black town hall. I do think that funding needs to come first and be the priority as of now, but, and then figuring out the success of group. But I do like the idea of the black town meeting mostly because our black community is already very siloed and it's an opportunity to get the black community to come together as one because we are very siloed. And then as far as it goes for staff's work and the effort that they put in, for someone who did town meeting and made packets for town meeting, when we had town meeting, it's no different than having a committee that's going to meet monthly. You just do everything in one chunk of a time. So as far as I'm concerned with that, I don't really see a difference. And if you add this, so that was really all I wanted to add. I've been here for 10 years. Yes, I go back that far. Town meeting at its finest. So Jen, it's also great. Can you repeat that last part one more time? Just say that one more time, what you suggested in your last piece. Oh, I was just saying that the town, you know, having the town meeting is no different than having a monthly committee. You just do all of the work in a chunk, right? So we had town meeting twice a year, as opposed to having a group that met monthly, but I also see value in taking people from the black town meeting and having them operate in the same manner as like the select board. I see value in that because we're empowering our own black community. We're bringing people together. I just want the groups not to have to use funds from the AHRA to do things like create packets and mailings. And so you have to have someone who's gonna carry the weight of that. Absolutely. Okay, that's what I thought you said. Okay. All right. So let's just pause here and call our second period of public comment. Jennifer, for somebody who's coming on a phone number, how will they raise their hand? Is it pound nine or pound, anyone remember? I have to leave. Okay, thank you, Yvonne. No, great to see you. We'll see you next week. Sorry, it's star nine. Star nine. Okay, so if you would like to make public comment, this is our second public comment period. You can use the raise hand function. If you are coming in on a phone number, star nine will show us that you have your hand raised and we'll be able to bring you in as well. Brother North Star. Yeah, there's one person. I'm going to go ahead and allow them to talk. That's what I'm talking about. Well, thank you. Hello, everybody. I just got a brief text that come in on and I've been listening and I've been hearing some really, really good things. And some of the things that I heard, of course, I don't quite know the terminology to all of that. I heard a lot of things, languages. I haven't spoken in quite a while. I'm sort of a aesthetic all over the place. But let me see if I can draw a parallel line between some of the things that I heard the funds should be acquisition immediately. I agree with that. And then an assembly, a successor assembly, of course, there has to be a lineage for where it should all go. And so there has to be to honor the process of ascertaining the funds. You have that group that then, yeah, the successor assembly should be self-determining people, people who is designated toward to determine for themselves, and because we do believe in self-determination and not having overseers over us and to be able to know how we want to move with that. And so I hang my head on that hook very heavily. Yeah, I think that's about, I think that's about all I would have to add to that. Please to meet each and every one of you and thank you for inviting me to the call. Thank you so much for being here and for your comments and hope that you'll come back to future meetings as well. Okay, is there anyone else who would like to make a comment? All right, so I'm not seeing any hands, any other hands. And just to remind us then, we will meet again the 17th next Monday at two o'clock. In the meantime, we will have an updated draft that will go out and I'll receive some clarification on some things that came up today. I will also be bringing back a report from my meeting with Paul and Lynn, and I welcome any questions that you might want me to bring to that meeting, which is happening tomorrow at 4 p.m. And I think that is about it. If there are any assembly member reports, this would be a good time. And if not, I can move to adjourn the meeting. I won't stand in the way of you adjourning, except to say thank you again, Michelle, all your hard work, particularly through very difficult times, but to keep our little ship moving. Really do appreciate you for that standing firm. Jennifer knows, maybe others know, but Jennifer certainly knows, Brother Nostar brings a legacy, brings a history working within the community, promoting recreation, promoting use of open space, a lot of the CPA funding kinds of things he can really give us good ideas on, having promoted the old school, old young basketball games, having done so many things over the years. So, this is what we count upon and look toward building on as we move in the future. But thank you again, everybody, for your time today. Thank you all too. This is a great meeting. And we'll go ahead and adjourn at 3.30 on the dot and see you next week. Have a great week.