 We're recording so you can go ahead. Great. Okay, welcome everyone. I am calling to order the March 30 governance organization and legislation committee of the town council at 901 pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public are able to access the meeting in real time via zoom or by telephone. So, let's see. I'm just going to check the. Okay, we don't have any attendees right now so just doing a quick check there. So we just need to confirm real quick that everyone can hear and be heard. Exactly. Thank you. I always forget. Okay, let's start with you Mandy. Present. Nica present. Jennifer present. Excellent. Okay, great. So, today on the agenda we'll just do a quick review so that we can talk about timing and things. We are going to go back to the town council rules of procedure based on the conversation that the town council had last week. And hopefully we'll be ready to bring back any recommendations that we may have so that it can happen in time for Monday's meeting. And then we have a discussion and vote potentially on the town council standing committee structure that's something that we've been sort of lightly discussing but haven't been able to have a robust discussion about yet. And it's possible that Lynn will be joining us for that. She did have some, some, some input that she wanted to share on that so I did invite her to join. And then we have the 2022 Juneteenth proclamation to review and vote on, and I have invited. So, we have Ms bridges and Dr. a male car she was I'm not sure is, is D part of that and Nica will DB. I'm not sure I had just followed up with my mom Deborah bridges and, and Dr. Milka she was. Okay, so we can ask if he if he doesn't come at 10. I've asked them to come at 10am. So, hoping we can get some things done and then we'll pause at 10 to make sure we get that done. It's, it's, we have some time on this one but since it was already referred. And, you know, things are moving pretty quickly I thought we would get this one done. So, I think what I'd like to do. Yes, Nica. I'm just trying to boss did receive his link. Excellent, perfect. Why don't we go ahead and start with the rules of procedure. And I just went back and listen to the town council discussion, just to sort of remind myself what the main points were. And I think, mostly the discussion revolves around rule six, and mostly the discussion revolved around the use of the word ethics, and what ethics means in this context and how and if what sort of recommendation might we want to make with respect to expanding what we already have. So let me just kind of go through the comments that I heard quickly from the town council so I think Andy had talked about whether, you know, just sort of the use of that word and then in a later comment after Kathy spoke about possibly referencing particular pieces from the ethics law. And Andy had suggested that, you know, we may not need to do that rather we have a robust law that the state has already put in place and should we just be linking to it. Mandy suggested that there was a place where conflict of interest was already being discussed and so potentially that might be, although in the description it also talked about ethics so maybe we can find a way to expand on that particular paragraph and rename it. And Lynn, I think Lynn's suggestion was to really keep it simple and just do a link to the mass ethics law. I'm trying to think if, if there was anybody else. Dorothy supported Kathy Dorothy thought that we should include some specifics in the actual rules. So that was that was the overall discussion and now I just want to open it up to members for ideas and things on this and Mandy do you want to bring it up or we do we want to discuss without it up. There we go. Yes, Jennifer. Yeah, I just had a question so it is the concern I don't know that there's something that should be stated that's not in the state law. I mean is that what you were getting that people were concerned about. That's a very good question. I think what I was getting is that we should be more explicit in our rules, and the concern was like Kathy pulled out three items, and I think she pulled those items out based on some conversations that there's some concerns have been having or some concerns, and just sort of things that have been coming up but my understanding is the ethics law is, it's not limited to those three items. And so therefore I think the counter concern to that was well we don't want to just pull three items because that could be arbitrary. How do you know which ones to pull. I didn't get that it was about including anything that wasn't already in the state law but if someone else did, please speak up on that. Right so if there isn't, then we could just probably link to the state law. Yeah, right. I mean that does seem like the simplest solution I'm sorry and I just spoke out I didn't see your hand. That's fine I'm just trying to train myself to use that raise hand. Yeah, and I probably should do so far. But no, I agree. I agree with with Jennifer at this point in less that unless we can identify something feel or otherwise that has been left out or that we would like to include. And also, could we be confusing at all if you know we're seemingly adding or explaining something if it is just kind of, this is the rule, the law what everyone has to follow in general. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that was sort of the concern. Pat, you. Yeah, I agree with Jennifer and Anika right now. So I just went. Yeah. I, there was. Yes Jennifer, go ahead. No, no, no, it's not that important. I was going to say that I thought what Mandy pointed out about 6.5 was actually it. I was sort of surprised at myself for having not seen that because I do think that that. What about the possibility of renaming that. And but bringing that up right to the front to the top of rule six and saying that we comply and just linking as everybody has said to the state ethic. We sort of right off the bat are talking about that. Yes, Pat. I can see the link to the whole ethics piece in MGL, but there's such crap going on right now around conflict of interest and people being attacked. I would rather pulling it out and sticking it in the front is like responding to that crap in a way that I don't think we should. It is important we all do the best job we can around conflict of interest. But I don't think it needs to be the thing at the beginning, just, and that's, that's a very quick reaction, but it feels right. Yeah, I'm just tired of how things are being used right now. I appreciate that intuition there on that. And I just I guess I wonder what other members of the town council who have expressed their concern about this. I think that what Mandy's doing here in my view is satisfactory. I think, I guess I just want to and I can't see. Our title of six includes the word ethics, are we comfortable with the order in which those words are used at the top and then in terms of the order in which we're actually going to address it. And maybe when Mandy finishes we can just scroll up and look at that to make sure that what I just did is conflict and interest and ethics, the MGL chapter is the reference that chapters actually titled code conduct of public officials and employees. So it covers both conflict of interest and the whole gift, you know, ethics sort of side along with the conflict side that one chapter. It's called code of conduct. But yeah, let me scroll up. Give me a second. Just so I understand Mandy are you saying that that chapter does not encompass all of the rules of ethics from the state. It does. I think it actually does. I'm working on confirming that and I'll add more if it doesn't. But it is not. It doesn't. The title is code of is conduct of public officials so it doesn't actually say, if you look at the sub sections like section one or two it talks about, you know, some of those section titles are corrupt gifts offers or promises to influence the conflict of interest of public official gifts offers of promise. Yeah, and so it talks, there's opinions of state ethics commission so throughout the sections it uses those words but the title is not and I just wanted to let people know that but I think that I'm working on it I think that might be the only chapter in MGL. Jennifer. Yeah, so I don't want to get to a discussion about specifics. I think some of the concerns so we prior to being on the council in December we had that new council orientation and Lauren Goldberg gave that over, you know, which is very about conflict of interest and when to recuse yourself. But now that we're back on the council I wonder if sometimes we should, I don't know how to have some updates so like when Lynn's acknowledged that her husband had been one of the signatories to the letter for the pickleball. I don't know if someone wouldn't remember, no, no they should say that. And even with Dorothy recusing herself with the Amherst women's club, she probably should have acknowledged that she worked with them, but actually the next day. I'm talking and it's not clear she actually had to because she's not an officer. She's a member of the way I'm a member and many of us probably are of Amherst cinema so I think some of it is it's, we may just need to check in because I think we can all inadvertently it's just very easy. Like, if my husband was a signatory to the pickleball, I don't think I'd know to say something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that, you know, when all else fails or when we're unsure. And this is what what this discussion has done for me is to help me see that calling the ethics, you know, commission and asking questions or whatever is always a possibility it sounds like that's a resource to us. And are you Jennifer saying that you would like something to be included in here that references. I don't know if you're going to check in that you're talking about or how. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be with the ethics commission I'm just. Yeah, I don't know what that's why I don't know where if it goes here but I think that there's just to. I think that there are things that are inadvertent, and I hate for people to be criticized when it's it's because some of it's very gray, I think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good point. Yes. Mandy, I think you had your hand up first and then Pat. So I admit a lot of it's very gray, but it's our job as elected officials to know the law. That's why we have to go through training and to seek the advice of the ethics commission when there are questions about it. Um, you know, and, and yes, Dorothy may not have legally had to recuse herself, but she did have to legally under the law file a disclosure, which was not done. But you know, and, and so it's up to us as elected officials to know the rules to seek them out and when you have questions to ask those questions, I don't know how you put that into a rule of procedure though, because, you know, that's just what we have to do. And it, as I will say to anyone it is up to the individual person as, as attorney Goldberg will say, it's their job to do it and it's their choice on whether it's an actual recusal need or not right and then it's, or just a disclosure where you can make a choice where you can make a decision on, you know, uninfluenced by that association, and no one else can say, in terms of that, the, if there's not an actual conflict that you have to recuse yourself, if there's not an actual conflict but if there is, there can be repercussions. And so you need to make the right choice if there is an actual conflict because if you don't, there can be repercussions if there's not an actual conflict no one can say well you didn't have a conflict but you still should have and I can get stuff but you know how to put that in the rules I think we just reference the section. You know there's, I think that's what we do, and it's our jobs, you know, when you're a state employee, even if you're not elected it's your job to know and to ask the questions when need be and, you know, we can as officials council, you know, mentioned when we see something going on say hey, know your rules, do you need to do something. Right, depending on what that rule is, and think about that before you make any other comments do you need to do something under these rules but I, you know, when I mentioned that at the meeting I couldn't tell Dorothy she had to refuse herself I could just say, I know there might be something, think about it and do what you need to do. Right. No, I'm not even saying I'm just saying that was a case where because it hasn't been thought about before. Right. Well, it's the person who's looking at the agenda's job to think about it before and say, huh, I need to do something and, you know, we know one way that happens in public hearings that I've done, especially at the planning board is before you even you open the public hearing and the first question is, are there any disclosures to be made. You know, maybe that's something we need to add somewhere but adding that to every agenda item. It's a little cumbersome right because, you know, and so I don't know. I don't know the proper way to put that in the rules I would say, keep the rules sort of as they are on that level there might be a second section we want to reference which is the financial disclosure section. I'm trying to figure out what that means right now. So I might add that in. Okay, take a look at that and we'll go so Pat your hand came up and then down and then Anika's hand came up so oh and you're muted. Go to Anika it's fine. Great. Anika. Let me unmute. So I agree with both Mandy and Pat, I feel like it is, you know, we heard I believe it was in our orientation, basically, if anything, you know, if it looks walk smells like a duck, you know, so I think that if, you know, for instance, if we're looking at something like if it could be reasonably perceived that there could be a conflict of interest, you file a report, you look into it, and if we're kind of looking at all right if you have a community member that sells red shirts and, you know, is is up for, you know, whichever something that's going on with town council and you're wearing a red shirt to I mean you might want to say something. But I do think that it would be our responsibility to, you know, file what we need to file, and also but you know to, you know, support each other as well and just ask questions because I can see how with, you know, to Jennifer's point you might not think of someone supported the pickleball, you know, you know, could could this be perceived in a certain way but maybe just like refreshers of looking at your membership but you know what committees are on which this and just kind of you know looking double time is there something but you know and then so the last question would be, you know, if you're filing everything that you need to file you know your file your following procedure then, you know, making sure that I think especially for public that they know where to go to access that information. You know, and then, you know, proceed accordingly. Anika, can I just ask you a follow up when you say so the public knows where to go. Can you just say a little bit more on that one. Well, you know, for instance, if you know someone has filed like, you know, a conflict of interest or has, you know, you know, made a statement in regards to whatever we happen to be talking about a council they have. If they have a perceived involvement or otherwise and if these have been filed and are filed with the clerk with the state otherwise, just to ensure that the public would have access, you know, to be able to see these filings and have access because this isn't you know for us right it's also for the public so. Yeah, that's where this confusion comes so we're not, you know, consistently going back and forth because the question would also be like if you have a filing with this is this something that we and we could be and I'm just not aware. I'm not responsible to announce this every in any time that something similar or related could come up, you know, or do filings with the state serve as, you know, a finite example that can consistently be referred to. That's a really good question and Athena would you be able to just speak to that for a second with respect to how would the public access any filings related to disclosures and things like that. Yeah, so disclosures and that that would include disclosures like a blanket disclosure like my spouse works for a higher ed institution and so anything that comes up that has to do with the higher ed institution. There could be a potential, so a blanket statement like that. That's filed with the town clerk's office and then also if there's a specific issue that comes up that you want to that anyone files a disclosure about. It also gets filed with the town clerk's office and those are all public records so anybody can go and ask the town clerk if there's been a disclosure filed. And you could ask that in a number of ways you could ask if a certain counselor has filed a disclosure you could ask if anybody's filed a disclosure regarding a certain institution or issue, and they can provide those records. Thank you. That's really helpful. Pat. Yeah, I'm maybe wasting people's time but I feel like it is up to each counselor to err on the side of caution in the sense of, if I'm a member of I have volunteered at the survival center. I'm a member of the mobile market planning committee. Those are things that could come before the council and neither of those situations do I think would impact my decision making maybe the planning one. But I feel like my responsibility is to say, I have, I'm a volunteer at the survival center. I'm a member of the mobile market planning committee. I'm on, I'm on part of the governing body or whatever of the Hill House. I feel like what I'm getting frustrated with is that we're, we're being very cavalier about what we're part of. It doesn't mean you know Lynn can certainly vote on the pickleball courts, but I think you know, I think that her saying you know it was kind of funny, but that was airing on the side of caution and I think that we need to do that. I, as somebody who has difficulty with rules. So the more we jam packed in here to address every little thing is is a waste of our time and energy. What's here right now makes available to anybody who's even going to look at this off the council. They have an understanding of what where we're working from so it just seems to me overkill to do more than that. Yeah. Jennifer. I just say I agree having the link is, is good for the public. I think if we provide that we're good. Yeah, so it sounds like the general consensus is we do not need to include additional language. I'm going to pass it to Mandy in a second. I do, I do want to say that I think just maybe informally what Mandy suggested about our council president asking in the meeting not for every agenda item but asking, you know, if you review the agenda and you have if there are any disclosures, you know, just to kind of keep it in our awareness and sort of build it into the fabric of what we're of what we're doing from week to week. So Mandy, will you share with us what you're, we've done here. So I highlighted for the reason of being able to tell the council what we changed from the first reading to the second reading so that's why it's highlighted. And some people indicated that we should reference ethics somewhere so I changed the title, you know, to indicate its conflict of interest and ethics. That's what MGL chapter 268 a is the conflict of interest and ethics chapter 268 B is the financial disclosure chapter that looks like it's basically the stuff we have to do campaign finance wise. I'm not sure I tried to review it somewhat quickly. So the state page on on Massachusetts laws about ethics at mass.gov references both MGL 268 a conflict of interest law and 268 B financial disclosure law so I thought I'd just list both of them. As you saw because you could probably see my screen as I was editing stuff I put the hyperlinks into each of those so they will be if accepted, they will be just like this charter where there is a hyperlink to that section of the charter on the page or the MGLs where they go to that reference in the state laws so that they will take you to the legal law, not the website regarding ethics there's, there's a difference there these will take you to the law not the sort of website that says, here's what you can do or here's your ask a question type thing the informational website it's the law. So, so that's all that's been done. And that's consistent with what we've done throughout referencing the charter or and other MGL chapters so I think that that works. And then in terms of the title of rule six, if we could just go back to that real quick. The code of ethics conduct and debate is everyone comfortable with those three words and the order of those words or would we like to do something different there. Pat. Oh, Nika, I'm sorry, Nika, please. Okay, so I was, I had my hand up right before we went to six I just wanted to add that I think any way you did that's really helpful I think in this case, it is it's great to you know point to law whenever we can. You know so we're not caught with speculation or otherwise I think this is really helpful way to just point to law. Yeah. I agree and I support that those changes. And just last question on the ground rule six so was. Excuse me if this was brought up so was the word was a use of the word ethics here okay was there is did anyone have issue with that or was it was it okay here. No, I didn't hear any issue that the issue was related more to when I listened again this morning the issue was related more to we had the word in there but we were only touching on one aspect of ethics. So we've covered our bases by including the law now that references all of it. I think Andy did talk about the word civility as a possible replacement to the word ethics but I'm not sure that he saw that we had included it. I repeat that word I couldn't understand it I'm sorry. Oh sure I think Andy had a talked about the word civility. Thank you. Thank you, which we've used in other areas of this section. But other than that there wasn't. I guess I'm just like, did we want ethics to be the first code of ethics conduct and debate is that fine for everybody and I saw Mandy's hand and then Jennifer's hand. MGL title of code of conduct, you know or conduct of I think we could delete ethics completely and either just leave it as code of conduct and debate or leave or replace courtesy with civility because that's the word we were looking to replace with something and we came up with ethics. And ethics is sort of at least on the state level included in conduct. And so we could say code of civility conduct and debate or just code of conduct and debate, or just code of conduct, frankly, I'm not sure we even need the debate. Mm hmm. I know that does seem a little odd in there. Jennifer. This is I think if we're talking about conduct ethics, ethics is not civility and conduct it's its own category I think. So you'd like to keep that word in there. And no I don't think I think if we have a code of ethics. I mean if we're talking about civility and conduct. That's not ethics. Mm hmm. So if we go because we do have ethics further down. I think that's where ethics. I see ethics and civility being different. Mm hmm. This is the. I'm sorry. Pat. Oh, I'm sorry, Jennifer. No, keep. Oh, I see. No, maybe we should have ethics there because I'm sorry that's the overall rule in each section. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. That's like the rule six over over. Well, I think we should have ethics actually there because it's one of the sub. I think it's very different than civility. I think what Mandy was saying if I understood correctly is that the state puts ethics under conduct. So, but that might not necessarily be obvious. I mean it could say civility ethics and debate. It could is another option. Pat. I'm going to quote Allison wonderland Humpty Dumpty. When I choose a word Humpty Dumpty said it means exactly what I choose it to mean nothing more and nothing less. I think everything should be out of there except code of conduct. Let's keep it simple. Okay. What's happening for me is I'm trying to feel into like what does conduct mean. What you want it to. How about we just say how to act rule six, how to act using the method or looking for ethics is this the only place they'll find it. That's what I think. Yeah. If we add it into the title here, and they search for the word they'll find the actual rule. Another thing to think of you know, I was looking at the rule titles we've got preservation of order right to speak and vote conflict of interest and ethics and then we're down here with counselors conduct, public civility and engagement, and general rules for conduct. Conduct should probably be listed first no matter what if we're thinking about order, we should probably talk about conduct debate and conflict of interest or ethics or something there if you want to list them out they should probably be listed in the order they're sort of referenced within the rule. But I'm with Pat I think just code of conduct. I'm fine. Everyone would everyone be comfortable with keeping it simple code of conduct. Yes. Okay, good. So let's just go with that. So the changes we've made our we've changed the title of rule six, and we've added the MGL links for and expanded the title of conflict of interest rule, whatever role that was there. Okay. And Pat and Mandy, do we need to re vote this, like as a recommendation to go back for Monday's meeting. Is it, or do we just report back. I think Pat we've done it differently depending on what in the past I think sometimes we've re voted a recommendation that says, you know that or I think sometimes. The MGL hasn't and just the chairs reported hey based on comments here are the changes that GL is now presenting final version so it's, this might be a time to vote simply because there was so much discussion in the council. Yeah, so I think if we re vote our recommendation that would be good. And what I'd like to do is somehow ask or put in the report but maybe Athena can ask. And I don't know if this is appropriate to tell me if it sounds off but I think it would be really good for council members to listen to this part of our meeting before Monday if they have the opportunity because I think it was a really productive useful discussion so at least folks who want to know kind of what the discussion was. I'm thinking to our YouTube meetings in the report anyway. So I can just maybe put like the part of this, the mark for this. So, all right, Pat, do you want to make actually before emotion is made. Did anyone else pick up on anything. Anna, I know, listening back had asked a question about why and hearings we took out the, those in opposition those in favor but it seemed that she was satisfied with the answer that we provided so I didn't think there was anything additional we needed to review with that. But did anyone else pick up on anything that we need to review based on that initial discussion, before we go to vote to emotion on this. Okay. All right. Pat, do you want to make a motion. I do it wrong. Correct me, Mandy. I'm, I move that we accept the code of conduct as amended. Recommend the council pass or adopt. Okay. That one. Recommend the council adopt the changes to the rules of procedure as a man. Yeah. Yeah. My second, the rules of procedure not the code of not just this section the rules of procedure. It is the rules of procedure. It's the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Okay, Athena. Hopefully you've got that. I'm adding words I hope you'll give me for tweaking that but it's going to be what I have is to recommend the council adopt the changes to the rules of procedure as amended at the March 30 2022 geo meeting. Thank you. Okay. Jennifer seconded that right. Yes. Okay. Any further discussion. All right, so let's vote. Pat. Hi. I'm an I Jennifer. Hi. Anika. Hi. Mandy. Hi. Great. So that's unanimous. And thank you Mandy. So let me see here. Lynn was with us and now is not with us. And I'm not my thinking when she was here to listen in or participate in the discussion. About standing committees. But we need to move on to that now so, oh yes, Athena. I'm not sure if Lynn was was planning on sharing this with you, but TSO has this on their agenda. I think next week so they haven't had an opportunity to review and, and discuss the proposed changes I just wanted to make you aware that they intend to and they haven't had an opportunity yet. I'm glad you brought that up Athena because I participated or I was at the TSO meeting this past week. And I heard Dorothy say that there was a referral to her from GLL with respect to this matter and I didn't refer it to her. I think she meant that is and she was, you know, you were looking for feedback from her and rather than the way we normally use the word referral. Well, I say, okay, okay, that makes more sense because. So my understanding just with this committee is that I was asking for feedback from Lynn from the CRC chair and from the TSO chair, but not necessarily that it would come to a discussion of the full committee but Mandy did you do that and CRC what was So, yeah, I brought it to the full committee for the committee to discuss and then I wrote to you with what the committee's thoughts were, and I referenced it in the committee as GLL has asked CRC to have a discussion before they make any decisions or something I don't think I referenced formal referral but yeah like I did say GLL is doing this and they want to hear from the committees it would be affected by and so we did have a full committee discussion and it's up to the chair whether to do that or not clearly Dorothy has has decided to have the full committee discussion. And so, yeah, but it was done on that informal ish basis of GLL asked us as a courtesy to do this. Yeah, yeah. I guess I just Athena were you going to say something. Yeah, I'm sorry for interrupting. I'm just looking at the TSO sort of work plan for the next few meetings coming up and they have that on their April 7 meeting and it looks like Dorothy had planned to reach out to you Michelle to see if you could attempt to give any committee any context about that conversation when they have it on April 7 on April 7. Okay. So then I'm wondering, I'm sorry I missed that and I, you know, process wise, I think when Lynn heard that at the TSO meeting to she thought like, can you send me the referral and I was like I don't think there was one but So, I wonder, do we feel like we should wait to have this discussion until that happens. Okay. All right. Okay. So, let's see here then. I'm going to do that. Everyone okay with that. Okay. Okay, great. So, let's then wait, we're going to wait until 10 o'clock on the Juneteenth. The only thing I just wanted to check in with you and Nika. You had said that there were some additions to the Juneteenth proclamation that were like local pieces or something that you had clarified. Would it be useful for us to look at those now before our sponsors come so that when our sponsors come we're just doing the review, or do you want to do that with the sponsors that piece of things. I think that it would be fine it was just the there were the titles of the regiments that were there that were, you know, that were not listed correctly and then there's just one regiment that was not acknowledged that is, you know, that should be included so that was it they were just inferred there were the titles. Okay, so we can just do that when they make that I mean I don't think that it would matter when we were the other. Because I'm sure everyone would want their titles to be listed correctly so I mean a few. However, we could put it in if we want to fill her or if there's something else we can discuss in the interim that's fine too. Sure yeah so the other item on our agenda is the to begin discussing the equity review lens process. Jennifer I see your hand. Yeah I didn't know if I should, I thought if we had some time I was going to save this for items not anticipated 48 hours so if we have a little time should I. It's not a big item for discussion but at constituent actually wrote me. After the Jennifer will you just pause for one second just because I've not run into this situation before I just want to make sure from a process perspective. So, somebody help me out here, if there's an item that a counselor brings to a committee meeting that was not anticipated. That didn't have to be put on the agenda within that 48 hours it's fine for it to come direct at the meeting Mandy Pat Athena's under the section when we get to eight. I didn't know if you want to do it out of order for me at time. One of my suggestions was we've got 15 minutes till 10, we should maybe do items 4567 and eight. If we can get through all of that in 15 minutes which is public comment minutes announcements next agenda items not anticipated and then go back to Juneteenth and presentation discussion after that, because we can get all those little things done maybe. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. So Jennifer why don't you go ahead with that item and then we'll. Okay, so it had to do with at the last council meeting where we were discussing the polling locations, and this person said, would it be more, I don't know efficient to have before the polling something, and that maybe it's not going to happen for 10 years. It goes to the full council, it goes to a committee first to, to sort of review it, and she even suggested to go to TSO. And so she was writing to me saying I see you're on GL. Is this something GL might refer to TSO. So I didn't know if really again how I should get that out in the conversation. So we don't have to discuss it now I just passing something we want to refer to TSO we may or may not but is so is that come under 48 hours not anticipated or So given that GL committees don't tend to have the capability of referring something to another committee even if it's already been referred to that committee I'm not sure it's something GL deals with per se, but I would say for Jennifer, bring it up with Lynn as president. So the next time it's on, it can be part of the discussion, you know, the first time discussion was just, oh we're going to try and vote on this or we're going to have a first discussion and all. And maybe part of that discussion needs to be should this be referred especially given all of the different concerns right now maybe it's best to refer it instead of keep bringing it to the council. So I would talk to Lynn about something like that. In terms of getting a formal referrals somewhere, maybe you're at least bringing it up at discussion. Okay, and Lynn might send it back to GL, but we Lynn right. Okay, thank you. And could there be clarification why would geo so this constituent came to you as a member of GL on polling location. And she go to TSO. Okay. And I said, whatever she first wrote and I was like, okay, you know, that might, and then she went back she goes well I see the GL is really who, you know, sort of addresses committee responsibilities and you're on GL so that's how. Yeah, that's all it came about okay. So I thought it was a good suggestion. I think it's potentially part of the committee charge discussion of, would you want to add review of polling locations to a TSO charge. Right, exactly. But I should refer I should ask that of Lynn first and then she might for this for the specific discussion on the current discussion regarding polling locations. Okay, otherwise you can just bring it up during committee structure discussion. Okay, thank you. Does that make sense both of those things can be. Yeah. All right, good. So thank you, Jennifer. So I don't. I have another unanticipated item or next agenda preview, which is income appointments. We need to get started on that and the first thing that should show up on the agenda is the review of the bulletin board notice, which technically under the recommendation procedures needs to come to GL before it gets posted. It should show up on the next agenda because we don't have a lot of time, depending on, yeah, there's just not a lot of time because that bulletin board notice needs posted for two weeks before we can determine a sufficiency of an applicant pool. So if we don't post it till April 13th, we can't declare the pool sufficient until the end of April. So it really does need to be on the next agenda. Okay, we're taking it up under unanticipated items. Okay, and just to make sure I'm clear, because the finance committee is full. So what you're saying is that GLL's job is to make sure or to declare isn't at least one impending vacancy so the resident members are appointed for one or two years and their staggered so every year there's at least one impending vacancy and so GLL's role is to recommend an appointment, whether that be a reappointment of someone currently on who wants to continue or someone new if they don't want to continue there is a term expiring June 30. And our goal should be to make a recommendation on who to appoint starting July one in June, so that there is no empty space there. Okay, and so what is the actual agenda item called for the 13th. Recommendations to finance committee resident members or appoint recommendations of appointments to finance committee right resident members and then I always list what part of that I'm doing which would be bulletin board notice bulletin board. I'm going to look back at, at previous with George, George, because I'm CRC does the other two that the Council does. Thank you. I can walk you through that George also left a nice timeline to in SharePoint so we can help walk you through what all needs to be done and when. Okay, excellent. Pat, did you have your hand up. I did but I don't need to speak now. Okay. So just kind of continuing then for the next agenda just so that you know what, what I had in mind and then taking these things into consideration so let me just look here so we'll be coming back by that point to the standing structure as long as TSO has that conversation at their next meeting will deal with the impending vacancy, the finance committee thing that Mandy just brought up. We are set to review will hopefully be set to review the plant resolution that we receive emails about pretty frequently. Hopefully the sponsors will be ready for that and I have invited the community sponsors to that meeting. And then, let me see by April 25, we need the Jewish American heritage proclamation but because so, yeah, our next agenda is going to it's going to be there's going to be a lot to it then we'll have to do the plant will have to do the Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation does anybody have an update on that. I know Jennifer you were you kind of involved with that with Dorothy Pam or I just wanted to follow up with her she was really taking the lead on that. Okay, that would be great. Are there any other items that people thought would be on the agenda for our next meeting, other than what we just discussed. Okay. So, let's adopt. It's 952 let's adopt the March, or yeah let's adopt the March 9 meeting minutes. Mandy would you bring those up. And just while Mandy's doing that. So the reason the meeting last week got canceled is because I inadvertently posted an extra meeting because when we met on the ninth that was an extra meeting and I decided not to meet that following week so that's why that happened. So, yes, Pat. Can I make a suggestion. I always read the minutes in advance of the meeting and I, I'm hoping that other people are doing that as well so we're not reading and checking the minutes that this this, I would like to see I'm being cranky because it's so early in the morning. I would like to see this sort of be an automatic thing, and that unless somebody has read it and they see something that needs changing or addressing. It should be pretty simple to, you know, make the motion to accept the minutes as written or in or as amended, if there is an amendment. It just would speed things up a little bit. I think. I think that's definitely sounds more efficient if we can. So maybe if you like haven't had a chance to review it and we get to that point just say that you need a minute to review it but otherwise we'll assume that everybody has reviewed it so are there any amendments. Great. So, I moved to adopt the meeting minutes for the March 9, 2022. GOL committee. Do what you want with that. Okay. DeAngelis I think I heard Mandy seconded for that's fine I don't. Okay, whoever. Okay, let's vote. Anika. Yes. Okay, Jennifer. Yes. Mandy. Hi. I'm in I and Pat. Hi. Excellent. Okay. So those are approved. Are there any announcements. Okay. Um, let's see. I think it falls under an announcement. What's, what's in it? What's a proper announcement for GOL. I am working on not saying that I'm really old. I think it falls under an announcement. And called me on it in a good way. And, but I do have to say I really am old and I was 76 on March 11. That's a totally probably inappropriate announcement. That's a great. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Yes. And I'm March 6th. So we're, we're Pisces. Oh, we have to get. Oh, I have to wait. Yeah. Yeah. Happy birthday, Jennifer. No, I just said happy birthday to Michelle too. Yeah. Happy birthday, Michelle. How old are you? Um, I turned 42. All right. A baby. Yeah. Mandy. Oh, Jennifer. I'm going to go to Mandy and then you Jennifer. Yeah. Can I just stop the video for one minute for me? Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's okay. Yeah. Yeah. I shouldn't. Nevermind. Yeah. Yes. Can I do that per second? Okay. Of course. Yeah. Thank you. I'm Mandy. I was going to say it a proper announcement. She almost never has announcements, but if you, you know, if someone wanted to make an announcement, it could be things like, oh, this coming Friday at 2 30 is the flag raising for the child. Abuse awareness and prevention month proclamation that, you know, we're going to have an announcement. Okay. Well, that just sort of touches actually on what I was going to announce, which is, and I don't know if it falls into an announcement, but since you said that Mandy. So there have been some questions that have been raised around. Proclamation resolutions, commemorations. How are they properly made available and noticed to the community, particularly when there's an event attached? So like, for example, with the Ukraine, that came forward by community sponsors. We worked on that here. It didn't make it into the community calendar because there was a sort of a gap in the process where, because it wasn't like the human rights commission, for example, that was bringing it forward. It didn't get to one of our community participation officers. So I am meeting with our community participation officers on. Well, tentatively Monday, but it may be at some other point next week, just to kind of talk about those process pieces of particularly proclamations, resolutions and commemorations. So that was my announcement. So if you have any feedback. That would be helpful around that. Please share it with me. That is a proper announcement, Michelle. Okay. I didn't really make a big deal about it. Okay. All right. So it is almost 10. And I do see that it looks like we have Ms. Bridges in the audience. Did. And if she could be brought in Athena, that would be wonderful. Anika, did, did Dr. Shaba say he was going to be. Able to join us. Let me just check. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Welcome, Ms. Bridges. Nice to see you. We're just waiting a moment to see if Dr. Shabazz is going to be joining us. So since it's not quite 10, but maybe what we can do, Mandy is. Yep. Telepathically communicating here. So. Yeah. I need to know the full list of sponsors. Yes. Okay. So let me, I want to make sure that I don't miss anybody on this. So hang on one second. So I can refer to. My email. Anika, do you know some. Well, I just, I just have a little correction. So Deborah is. She caught it first. So we have a lot of sponsors on this. No surprise here. So we have Lynn. Dorothy. Mandy. Anna. Myself. Anika goes with that. Anika is right. Is your hand still up for a comment on. Anika, please. No. Right. And then. Did I admit Jennifer, did you write to me and say that you wanted to sponsor this? I'm sorry. I think I responded to Lynn. That I did. Okay. I don't think I saw that, but I had a feeling that. Okay. Great. And then. Pat. Small correction. It said, should say community sponsors. Since there are multiple. Yeah. And Pat, are you putting your name on this one? I would love my name on it, but if you feel, yes. Okay. All right. So I think that covers. Covers it all. Just reviewing one more time. Okay. It's already passed. There are eight. There are eight council sponsors. It's past. Yeah, exactly. So. Dr. Shabazz is not here yet, but, um, Anika, I'm going to hand this over to you to. Bring those changes, please. That, that you had talked about earlier. Okay. And if my mom could correct me if I get this wrong, because. She is the voice for this. So for, and I don't mean to be the person to bring us down to the end, but I think I have to because this is where. Uh, okay. So. Okay. If I'm not mistaken. That title is the. 54th Massachusetts volunteer. Infantry regiment. Right. And that would also be the same for the 55th. And then the fifth. The, uh, for the fifth should read the. The fifth Massachusetts. Volunteer Calvary and now Calvary regiment. Calvary regiment. Okay. Sorry. Um, um, if people that they, most, most people don't know that the 55th and if you wanted to put after that, the 55th was actually the sister regiment of the 54th. What does that mean? Yeah, what does that mean? What that was was, um, when, uh, black men in the country that were slaves back then and free black men. Heard about the 54th in Massachusetts. They wanted to join. They couldn't, I mean, from all over the country. Yeah. And of course it was a little bit difficult for them to get, just to get to Massachusetts. Um, so by the time they got to Massachusetts, the 54th was at its capacity. So Governor Andrew authorized the 55th, which was the sister regiment of the 54th. Thank you. They weren't all from Massachusetts, but they got to Massachusetts. So they could join. Wow. Thank you very much. You're welcome. That's really interesting. And I do see that Dr. Sheba's is here. So, um, if we could bring him in, that would be great. While we're doing that, I'll talk about some of the changes you'll see, which are, I'll talk about the more substantive ones later, but the, and the semicolons, all of that I went through and, and made the changes to the capitalizations and all. Um, So something like, and where it's crossed out of the Massachusetts. Yeah. Um, that, that's because it said originally 54th regiment. Of the Massachusetts fifth cavalry. And now here, I can show you what this one looks like now. Um, so it will read, um, including Amherst residents, Christopher John Henry, James and Charles Thompson, who served in the 54th, 55th and fifth. So we might need to reword that sentence. Right. Because Christopher Thompson. Charles Thompson. They were in the fifth Calvary. Okay. I'm going to pause for a second. I'm going to pause for a second to, um, I'm going to pause for a second. One second. I'll be, let me just pause. And that's good because I'd like to welcome Dr. Shabazz. Um, and also ask a question. Dr. Shabazz, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay. Um, would you like. Dr. Dimitri Shabazz to be included as a community sponsor with. Um, I think it would be fine. Okay. Great. All right. So, um, maybe we. Dr. Shabazz, can you make sure I spelled her name right? Just would be a E after D. Okay. Like that. And, um, D M E. And then another E. Yeah. Thank you. That's it. So let's go back to Ms. Bridges. Um, please continue. I'm sorry. I didn't raise my hand. Sorry. Oh, don't worry. Christopher and Charles were with the fifth Calvary. What did you just say? And they weren't the members of the 55th. What? Yeah. I'm trying to figure out how to recognize the 55th. In this somehow. Do we want to separate? Well. Dr. Shabazz, we're just started figuring out, um, this paragraph where, um, Trying to get this more clarified and organized here. Uh-huh. That sounds, I mean, that's. Yeah. That sounds weird. Yeah. That sounds really weird right now. Can you say more about that, Mandy? So if you read the sentence that recognizes connection to Juneteenth, pays homage to soldiers, including the Thompson's from the 54th, the Thompson's from the fifth members of the 55th, who were among the soldiers in Texas for liberation. Where they are laid to rest in West cemetery located in Amherst center. Well, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how to disconnect to what is going. Definitely needs included, but. And it almost felt to me like, and I don't know how others felt about this, but that this was like so poignant and powerful. With respect to Amherst that like, could this be brought up to, like further up in the, you know, proclamation or should it be? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I don't know if to tie everything together is, is best. It just that particular. Paragraph was really powerful and, and sort of. Yes, please. Yes. And you just jump in any time. I know. We'll be. You know what it is. I can't see everyone together. So, but now I'm scrolled up better. Okay. So just a point now, like I believe that this proclamation was written before. The authors would know about the, the soldiers connected to the 54th. Fifty fifth and, and the fifth Calvary. So, I mean, I agree with that because it's, I mean, if we are, if we're talking about. The student union, there's our related base from Amherst and as we moved this up. For the black history month proclamation is kind of where, where it starts. And I also just wanted to. Point out because there are. Quite a few soldiers. That were, wait a minute, I'm sorry. saying, but that we're paying homage to the African American soldiers, because we are naming a handful of over 300. You know, so we're, you know, where we are focusing on for for Juneteenth, we're focusing on that military action that came from the Black soldiers. I, you know, we again have over 300 from the area. I think we wouldn't want to, we want to be specific and not, you know, not excluding. And also, when you say we're among the soldiers in Texas for the liberation, it was the fifth Calvary, not the 55th, where that went to Texas to liberate it was it was the fifth Calvary. And last, I'm not sure how the other sponsors or anyone involved will see but where it says for we're among the soldiers in Texas for the liberation. I mean, I think that are we lessening the significance that yes, this was a liberation, but that we have folks who were among the brave who went and put an end to slavery in America, at least in, you know, title. To really, you know, honor them for that and also the connection that we here have to that. Yeah, yeah, which is nice here and from here in the front like that. Amherst, the 300 that you referred to as the Amherst area. Is the West Cemetery piece somewhere? Yeah, it is. I'm I'm working on that. Okay, yeah. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, because I was trying to move up the regiment to the top. So let me show some markup for a second. So we're creating these two whereas is separating them. Does this Deborah and Dr. Shabazz does this read good for you guys? You all for now and we'll get down to the West Cemetery part later, but And Pat, I saw that while while Mandy's working on this, I saw that your hand was raised. Yeah, yeah, it was a minor point where it says including over 300 residents of the Amherst area. I think it should say from the Amherst area, but that's very minor. Is there a word missing there between whereas and pays homage? Yeah, we yeah. So I do think that we should go through paragraph by paragraph once we sort of straighten some of these pieces out just to make sure that everything looks good. But before that I just Dr. Shabazz, did you want to add anything to In the long in the long whereas it's We pay homage and then you start with the African Americans, then you say including over 300. So it sounds like it's the 300 is referring to African Americans. Yeah, and that's not that's not the case. So it might want to be maybe just pull that out to note that, you know, over 300 soldiers and sailors came from the Amherst area. I'm trying to look up up ahead. Or maybe that's even further down. But but I see the way you're we're approaching it is to try to telescope the the action to to Juneteenth and to the participation of of our soldiers from this area from Amherst in that particular action and I think that that is that's that's you don't want to bury the lead that is the lead to Juneteenth. But then the larger story is, you know, that there were three over 300 soldiers and sailors from the Amherst area that participated in the war, not not just in the in the action in Galveston. Right. Yeah, that's true. You're right. She was when you when it says including over 300 residents that that seems to read like that's 300 African American residents. That's not the case there. So I've attempted to change. Yeah. Let me know if that's okay to you guys I removed the African American at the front and added it in front of the specific residents we name. That's good. That works. Okay. Anika that works. Yeah. Okay. What do you think she was. That work for you, Dr. Shabazz. Well, we can come back to we can come back to this one. Just to make sure, but. Mandy are you ready to bring it up to the top and we'll go through paragraph paragraph. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Just the West cemetery one when we get down there. Okay. I have a question on the title. Do we generally date? Like, do we each year update to say 2022 and the reason I'm asking in this case is because I think Ms. Bridges and Anika have brought forward information. New from last time. Okay. Okay. Let's make sure we got the sponsors look good. And Mandy, the town of Amherst human rights commission, that was, they were the, with Jennifer, Jennifer essentially wrote this, right? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I just, they have been the, I think they were the sponsor last year. And so. Okay. I'm. I'm going to sponsor this. Yeah. And this is, this is sort of one of the questions that I have for that meeting. Because it, it, it, it's been, I think, really amazing for us to involve community members in these, in these proclamations and resolutions. So, like Jennifer wrote this and you know, have we ever had staff sponsors on these things? So these are the kind of questions I want to ask on Monday. All right. So let's see, let's start with the first whereas and just raise your hand if you have any questions or. I'll just say I added the word on that. I think we got deleted. There were a number of changes between last years and this year's, and I think that on got accidentally deleted. Great. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Just one thing, if you could change. The whereas to issued the emancipation proclamation. the Emancipation Proclamation because I'm not sure from what I can remember if he actually physically signed anything that day on January 1 it was actually written the preliminary document was written in September to take effect on January 1 so I don't think on New Year's Day he actually signed anything important change yeah okay any other changes on this one here okay um let's see second paragraph just all those commas but one other thing on that and I'm just being I guess kind of nitpicky it says within any state or designated part of a state that was really limited to those in rebellion because actually Delaware New York all these different northern states that or and border states were untouched even though you know we're untouched by the proclamation so if the way it reads there by any within any state it's not yeah it was in rebellion okay great paragraph two yes Anika I just have a comment and support and thanks for the for community sponsors and participation because and and acknowledging um Jennifer and the Human Rights uh commission that you know um you know for putting this together so this is a lot of what you see you know if you google um Juneteenth and then you know it's really nice to have that input you know from Dr. Chavaz and then you know locally what makes this ours you know to add this in and so I just wanted to you know say that just for as a you know just an appreciation for the community sponsors today and those that have joined us recently oh I'll take that I'll take that that big verbal kiss all right that's great um okay so paragraph three so this is where Mandy we split out into two paragraphs and is everything looking good and clear let's just take the two of these so paragraph three and four together um is everything looking good and Dr. Chavaz your hand is up so please okay no I'm good and that that paragraph looks good okay great all right three so let's go to then paragraph six so we're on the one that starts Juneteenth as a reminder yeah I'm curious what the with what Anika and the community sponsors if the did this paragraph does this resonate and is that if there are any any changes to that one I'm sorry which one or which um so Juneteenth is a reminder of explicit mistreatment look good yeah okay all right so now we're at Juneteenth is a second independence day is it to our nation or for our nation or seems better yeah four does seem to sound better and I put a semi colon we tend to try and do one sentence per whereas so I did a semi colon I wonder if a comma might be better instead of a semi colon right here yeah comma I have a dash in front of the warehouse oh that dash is a deletion of a space oh okay sorry no that's okay my changes are really yeah did it say influence that the between that and african-american influence that the to recognize the many contributions and influence yeah and Anika I see your hand is up oh um okay I didn't mean to do that sorry so I'm just feeling really called to ask or just sort of put something out there that maybe Dr. Shabazz or Ms. Bridges or Anika would be able to respond to if you'd like in just that in the recent years actually just in the past one or two years I literally like walked into JCPenney and seen like a Juneteenth setup you know what I mean with all sorts of like sort of like a celebratory as they do with New Year's Eve for example you know where it's very much being marketed in this way that on one hand seems wonderful that there's accessibility and awareness being brought to this and on the other hand feels like what's happening is what happens with a lot of these things so I was just sort of curious what thoughts were around like the connection between the reminder of the explicit mistreatment and then the celebration piece and like if there are just any thoughts about about that I would appreciate hearing them but no pressure at all just if it's can you be a little more specific when you're talking about near the question or the connection between I guess the real question is like how do folks particularly white folks that may just be learning about Juneteenth and maybe are learning because they saw a JCPenney stand when they walked in you know how do we how can we really on a more deep level understand what the purpose of this celebration that has now been signed into you know in Massachusetts as a holiday and hopefully will follow so that's the question and it might not need like a big answer I just wanted to put it out there that I feel that disconnect and I just want to kind of bring that forward. I'm sure Shabazz and my mom would have more to say but I think that also the fact that it was we're acknowledging that it's considered a second independence day and then just the nature of Juneteenth always being connected with Jubilee which is a celebration so it is a day of celebration and I think that you know when you know when you have people learning about an event through napkins at Target or whichever you know you can have that disconnect that goes through you know it channels party but in a sense it really is but I think that when people think about the 4th of July they understand that there was meat and what sacrifice and whichever was behind you know that celebration to lead to it but you know other than that in my opinion we're in you know this is after 2020 and you know I think if we keep ourselves centered on what is behind these events because we have some others coming up thank people cultures that are really popular and trendy now and you know we might see the same type of napkins show up in Walmart for you know Native American History Month so yeah Heritage Month rather you know an Indigenous People's Day so I feel as long as we're really connecting with what's behind that you know where we can encourage others to learn that story. Yeah thank you I really appreciate you. Dr. Shabas did you want to? What what what counselor Anika Lopes said is what I would second I would only add you know I'm my my own political orientation is that is is anti-capitalist I think capitalism has run its course and it's time to give way to a to a more socialistic of movement for our political economy but at any rate until that happens commercialization is always a facet of holidays and anything that that becomes popular people are going to try to monetize and commercialize it but what I want to mention really on on the the deeper thing I think I'm hearing from you Michelle is that the I would say have on the town of Amherst website if you could ask Jennifer to put the link put a link to President Biden's proclamation on Juneteenth Day of Observance 2021 when he signed it into effect as a national holiday Juneteenth Day of Observance that that whoever wrote that for him did a really good job of addressing the the tension of addressing the what is at the heart of what I'm what I hear you saying Michelle if I could just say one part of it they take a quote from Psalm 30 proclaiming that quote weeping may endure for a night but joy come cometh in the morning end quote Juneteenth marks both the long hard night of slavery and discrimination and the promise of a brighter morning to come and it goes on to say my administration is committed to building an economy and a nation that brings everyone along and finally delivers our nation's founding promise to black Americans together we will lay the roots of real and lasting justice so that we can become an extraordinary country of the extraordinary country that was promised to all Juneteenth not only commemorates the past it calls us to action today and there's more but but the essence of it and it's not a long proclamation but the essence of it really gets at is a good resource for people who want to read who want to reflect on that tension between you know engaging this this hard issue in our history in our past but also connecting it to the relevance of what what we're trying to do today and what we should be about for the future absolutely thank you all right okay so where were we here then whereas we're down to this one okay which was actually these three to begin with and we tried to last year we tried to split them up again trying to keep sentence one sentence per whereas so thoughts on this is how they were split up last year thoughts on whether that should continue or not or yeah put those together then the question is how to put them together in one sentence yeah he's immigrated yeah how were they originally put to I thought the one the version I saw they were just put with semicolons in between is that if I may on the first two that you're trying to merge if you just remove the semicolon in the and and the whereas on the next one and just bring that up and connected with the word with so Texans began blah blah blah um and historical cultural readings with some communities purchasing land for Juneteenth celebrations such as Emancipation Park in Houston Texas okay so it just connects those two right away Mandy I think so you there you go okay okay I got disconnected somehow sorry about that yeah you came back very very quickly yeah I did are we connecting these into one whereas so you could go ahead Dr. Shabazz can you say that again yeah you could eat can you hear me yes yeah you can easily connect those two because it's all one series of actions that you're saying that this is what Texas blacks did in response to to Juneteenth so so in addition to cookouts and so on and so forth some also purchased land such as the Emancipation Park in Houston Texas so I just was saying that's easy because it's all one one series of actions yeah so connecting all three is the suggestion well I have to see the third one again I just was on on those two warehouses that third one yeah the third one I'd have to see again I it's not showing on my screen okay it says can you highlight it again there you go can you see it now Dr. Shabazz no no I have a just a black square for oh so maybe if I refresh but I might it might drop me out could you take away the highlighting and just drop the sentence down Mandy so that it's the space emphasizes it yeah is that better Dr. Shabazz okay I read I read can you hear me yeah yeah I I read some um refresh my screen so now I see it and I see we got yep we got those two and then is that the third you're trying to pull in yes as street families you know you could move that one in with the one about Amherst residents beginning organizing 2011 because that's kind of the same point that the the celebration of it has moved out of Texas over the years including including it moving here that's great so whereas freed families uh that immigrated from Texas to other part of the United States carried Juneteenth celebration the celebration of Juneteenth with them including here in Amherst where residents began organizing community-wide celebrations as early as 2011 and then and on to the to the next whereas yeah that can't see they for they carried going to be shifting to my phone okay as freed families immigrated from Texas to other parts of the United States they someone said delete the bay I think it should be I think it should be he said to take it out I'm sorry including in Amherst where residents began organizing community-wide Juneteenth celebrations that's good and and that this this section here was something that was in last year's proclamation that got deleted in the initial draft here that I thought was really important to include yeah um and I just want to last year we didn't have the privilege of having Deborah bridges or the Shavas is here Dr Shavas here and so we tried to figure out how early it was um and I know at least Dr Shavas has been one of the organizers I think from the beginning is 2011 the correct year Anika do you have some sense of that I I think that he would say yes uh 2011 for my recollection that's the year that's um okay he has said okay we tried to do our research as best there I feel like that that number is ingrained in my head okay okay good well that one looks good so let's go down to whereas supported by I just added the year in okay okay and so oh pat please I'm wondering because Dr Shavas brought up the fact that Biden made it a national holiday so that should be here too that both things happened and they both happened in 2021 they're on about the same month or weeks from each other yeah absolutely day of observation yeah the Juneteenth day of observation observance I thought observance yes I'm sorry observance you're right and he should come before Baker for many reasons though if we're we've been sort of looking at things locally first in these and then that's true that's it's both ways you could look at it both ways but yeah I agree principally I just don't like the republican coming first it's not a good reason first year that Juneteenth was declared a national day yes observation observance observance sorry I think I heard Anika say yes yes I know that right within that I believe it was in the last month the monthly so in month or two leading up to last year's celebration it went from this first year being acknowledged as a state as a state holiday and then federally yeah the federal was Juneteenth oh yes I heard it was just it was just two days before it was June 17th right really hey double double one Mandy do we ever put links in these having the past but we certainly can I think it would be good to link this to that proclamation right that would be great I think that was a great idea that I don't know outside I have one other question and this might be a demanded question for proclamations in general and now okay obviously we're here there's a link so the the link is acknowledging this other proclamation and where it came from but if if there are sources like do we within proclamations ever need to credit sources if they're being pulled or no like for instance if content in a proclamation has been pulled from another source do we need to know that we did in the plant medicine resolution I know we had asterisks at the bottom that cited certain things because that one was really heavy with sightings but I'm not sure generally speaking for proclamations Pat or Mandy do you or I think for some resolutions we've done it especially when they're on matters that are a little less widely known and so it's a way to help the counselors and the public understand where those facts are coming from I'm not sure we've generally done it in proclamations that doesn't mean we can't I did add the link for this part it should have a hyperlink to it now and was there something Anika that you felt like you wanted to cite a source for this uh no no just in general I was just say you know just like for consistency if it's something that we we do yeah you know if information say has been pulled yeah and so we need to fix this last whereas because it's where we would leave the west cemetery item because we moved the other half up of that whereas gosh that is just such an important it really is it's just I mean is it yeah okay go on because you're doing something there's an attempt I really like the language I think that it's very clear I just wish that it was further up um but oh we could move it further up it um we could move it up here before this one I think that's a good place for it makes sense yes I think it's nice to start with you know who we're acknowledging this and especially the connection here right it's so amazing we have this connection for a small town yeah there is it's a bright light for a small town it really is it's me proud and I think that's also like getting you know that point across is this really is something for all residents um yes you know whether they've been from here for a thousand years or two days to really embrace you know absolutely is that acceptable wording anyone want to suggest any changes the only question I would have um to miss bridges and to Anika is whether those people should be named I mean my question I could go a question I thought I could go either way give it to my mom um I think this is a great way to also call attention and honor the west cemetery um but I do think that if you call any specific names you need to say among others um you know because we have a there are a lot of unmarked graves you know there are other folks who are um on the tablets and this is kind of where you you separate names from tablets or the actual people and their stories you know so yeah yeah so you would be more comfortable just leaving it without the names or would you like to add the names that we know and then say among others I I mean I I think that it could you know be nice about your repetitive because they are it does connect them you know um to where they actually are and just the significance of um the west cemetery in general which you know a lot of people are not even aware of it um we're just having a conversation obviously the other day and a lot of people just assumed that we were talking about wild wood or you know something as opposed to like one of the most historic cemeteries that's in the center of our town um so I think that it is it's nice to connect that but I I think it would be important to make to say you know among others others because you know we're we're definitely leaving people out yeah okay and it's african residents who fought in the civil war some of whom including I think we don't need some of whom we don't need some of whom I think you're right whom we still need whom though yeah yeah yeah and then I added back the town center because Anika's yeah words and and and I'll indicated that that's an important part the location of that cemetery is quite important you know what um oh he is it says talking permitted he's not in here but um Dr. Shabazz can you hear us and and let's see if we can hear you okay my question is for both you and my mom I feel so casual over here um but um so I know that we're linking uh the Thompson's and they are you know all of these folks really are connected and lineage but um Andrea may if I'm wrong but should we be should we list Henry Jackson his name at all I mean should should his name specifically be included or are we opening up a can of of worms where we're gonna have to have a whole other list of names as well no I um I'll speak to that to say I I'll have to think a minute more on Henry Jackson but I know Jarvis Jackson is is kind of curiously not missing here he's one that died he's one that died in on the in Texas in Brazoria along the river so he was at Galveston and then he was part of a detachment that branched out after that so I would say Jarvis Jackson's omission is perhaps a little more curious than than than Henry okay or we could even put like Thompson's Jackson and Jackson's and others however that would be that yep so Dr. Chavaz do you know which regiment Jarvis was part of yes I can't look at it right now on my cell phone to be to be confirmed about it but I want to say he might have been in the um he might have been in the fifth Calvary yes he was there you go okay he was sorry yeah and then there's this other guy Sanford who's actually on the mural that you know that looks out onto the cemetery and uh Sanford you know died there as well there's the son of the Amherst college president that serves so you're right if we start to name drop and weclamation I mean we could swell this yeah confirmation out considerably folks we are missing important folks yeah that's why it's important I would recommend anyone who has not been to see this to see the Civil War tablet is a bit go because this year you will see all of the name celebrated Amherst college president you will see them all um and hopefully we move towards some sort you know a document and permanent space where all of this information um can be seen all the time whether John whether Jones Library or somewhere else yes one day one day it will happen yes it will it will should we say and others then in this in this um in the paragraph that we're talking about do we need to say and others so in this one we have the and others yes but in the one above that yeah should we in this one say and others bless you a blessing to keep a consistent you know yeah yeah yes and Anika has it ever been discussed when this was um being worked on previously to include anything about the tablet have the tablets ever been put into this or thought about being put into this proclamation well I'm seeing here that some of this is actually the um uh pit pieces of it are from the announcement from from last year's Juneteenth celebration and I think that's where you know the folks were added in um and I'm not sure if it is appropriate for us or how we do this and maybe there is something that we could do for GLL as we see you know many other folks do think and um around like say their names you know so I don't know if there's a way that we could move and and towards like if we were talking about I mean because there's there's a number of them for the African-American soldiers but there's not that many I just feel like for probably a proclamation for a um a paragraph that'd be a lot but I don't know if it would be appropriate that we also like attach for that reading whether we have community members youth whomever if we actually have all of these names listed and have people say their names like you know so we have you know so we're honoring everyone and then just you know maybe in general or maybe you know as we've had a link to and I mean we you could get all of the names for my mom but as we have a link to the national the other proclamation maybe there's even a link where all of the names could be listed yeah that's a really good way of doing it um I agree with that too and I would further say something you said earlier I don't know if it could be in the be-it-resolved or just be as a link as well but encouraging people to go and see the templates somewhere ought to be ought to be part of our call I think that makes sense Mandy yeah I saw you were going for that and yeah that makes a lot of sense yes and I was going to say you know I invite you all to please come and you'll get a different sense of everything you'll get a different sense of really what we're talking about here when you see what's been set up here I think you'll get a better understanding I agree and I think it's more poignant than even if we put it on a website and somebody can go there and look at pictures or or just see names when you walk in and you see those big six foot you know 600 pound tablets and the the the attention to it that was given over a hundred years ago by the by the veterans who who commissioned it you know it's it's it's powerful it is very powerful I mean a quick I had a young child come in with his grandmother and he saw his great great grandfather's name on the tablet and he just lit up and to see things like that he just lit up and I want to bring my class back and can I tell him about this and I said of course that's that's the the type of what that brings out that's why I love doing it and you know it's just you know if I keep a look on the face it's amazing in fact I'll add to the poignancy to say when when I went to Washington D.C. and saw for the first time the Vietnam War Memorial and was able to touch the name of my older cousin that gave his life in that in that in that uh terrible war that brought it all home to me as well I cried I mean I cried right here on the Washington Mall so you know it's it's something to see it to see it in person yeah I'll have my last chime in I think that it they also allow us to take what they represent which is not just like a a war monument which I understand they are but really taking just that grit and and that perseverance and innovation and how you know these stories can act automatically have life changing impacts for just so many youth whether they're connected to these folks or not um you know because we all are in in so many ways and I think you know like what Shabazz just said the Vietnam or or even if you go um to you know if you go to your city and you see the the monument for even 9-11 it's just like you're seeing what has just come out of horrific horrific events and just connecting with that and seeing names and how that proposes to to move forward I feel is really important that we focus on here like this this event these tablets have so much to do with being like part of the fabric of this town you know right I mean it really brings it that this is connected to Amherst something that changed the world actually has some connection yeah and we could all learn from that's relevant today you know so the sentence or the part of a sentence I added was we encourage the community to view Amherst's Civil War tablets located in the bank center to honor all of our residents who served in the Civil War only caution is we need to make sure that that if they get moved when they get moved when they have a permanent place obviously the this will be updated right they would say at their temporary location yeah this is this is no no it's it's the 2022 proclamation right it's only good for a year well that's good and this year they will not be moved they will not be moved in 2022 I'm pretty sure let's just take that all right well this looks great I'm looking at the time and I'm sensitive to Athena also being here and maybe having to move on and our community sponsors so if there aren't any any changes other than any other comments changes Anika would you like to make a motion to to declare this clear consistent and actionable okay I move that we declare the June 20 the 2022 Juneteenth proclamation I'm sorry I went right out my head clear clear consistent and actionable consistent and actionable yeah uh if there a second I second all right all right I think Jennifer seconds all right uh let's vote on this then um starting with Mandy I Jennifer I Anika I Pat I and I am an I as well so this passes unanimously thank you thank you Ms Bridges and Dr Shabazz thank you very much uh send to Dimitri uh Dr Dimitri Shabazz our thanks as well and um oh yes okay thank you she was here for part of it we were driving together and she was here for part of it and thank you all for your work counselor okay no thank you bye bye bye all right so because Mandy made a really good suggestion earlier on in the meeting with our 10 minutes that we had um we don't have anything else that we need to cover unless there is any um yes Mandy just make your statement that there's no public for public comment oh yes thank you and let me make sure that's true again it is um okay there is no there are no attendees so we do not need to make public comment um or have a public comment period so if there aren't any other questions or comments then I will move to adjourn this meeting at 11 o 2 a.m. thank you good meeting thank you everyone great meeting thanks so much bye bye