 will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. With regard to public comment, during the public comment period, the chair will recognize members of the public. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name, preferred pronouns, 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. No speaker can cede their time to another speaker. The HRC will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment. So, welcome everyone. Let me call the roll. Liz Heywood is not here. Joy Eiffel, could you confirm that you are here, please? Okay, Laverne? Not here. Rizwana? Here. Deborah? Here. Tyler? Not here. Ronnie Parker here. Jacinta? Here. Okay, we have a forum, so let's get started. Happy New Year, everyone. Welcome to the Human Rights Commission. Let's just go down the agenda, then let's begin with the public comment if there are any members of the public. I don't think there are any. I don't know. Is it a no? Okay. Let's go around and do our member reports. Who would like to start? Okay. I'll just go around the box in front of me. So, Joy, do you have anything to report? I do not. Deborah? I do not, except to thank the DEI office yet again for another beautiful event, the MLK event on Monday was really lovely. Jacinta? Nothing to report. Rizwana? Basically, they are filled volunteer positions in Housing Authority Trust and several more also, and that is taking a long time. Basically, that's it. Okay. Laverne, welcome. I see you're here. Do you have anything to report? I don't have anything to report. Great. So, let's move on then to the action items. Before we hop into the action items, I just wanted to check in with Rizwana and see if she had anything in addition that she wanted to. She emailed us earlier today. Us? Not me. No, you too. I forwarded the email to you. Okay, Rizwana, go for it. Okay. Yeah. Actually, I am promoting a stance on human rights violations in Pakistan. And at that time, I had approached everyone and the procedure how I can make it a resolution has to be done with the signatures of so many members. So, I'm working on that. Actually, I have a resolution and I have written it down and handed to Liz and actually to all of you. So, because of the fact as a resident of Amherst, I had talked to another resident also who also actually wanted to actually support me in that because she said that a few years or like two decades ago, when there was a problem in Nepal, Tibet, they had supported Tibet. So, that was at that time, they didn't have a town council or something. But because of that, the name of town of Amherst came to the forefront. And when they visited Tibet, Dalai Lama remembered the fact that there was a town of Amherst who supported them in their bad times. So, he honored them when they went there and the relationships, the interrelationships really improved. And that also reflected on United States as preaching democratic values and also standing for it. And town of Amherst, the name became very global and it was honored. So, that was a good thing because we are all basically municipal, there are issues and all that. But we are also global citizens. So, I would suggest that we look into the problems, human rights violations that are documented. And just the fact that we just support it and record our sentiments and that will be pretty good because it will be part of the history. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. And basically, I have documented it. It's not just one political party. I'm talking about Christians, their Vanis there, all their human rights are being violated, media and so on. So, it's across the board. It's not a specific party that I'm looking at. So, it is very, you know, across the board. Vistwana, did you want to talk about Tacoma? Yes, Tacoma is awesome. Right, that I saw. Yeah, I didn't know about the Pakistan part. This is a systemic issue that is still right there in the criminal justice system that is not contributing to the lack of accountability. There's definitely a lack of accountability there and the police culture is still the same, blue wall silence and they are getting legal protections. And then when there was an investigation and prosecution, there was no prosecution basically. They are being handed 500 K in just because of the fact that they have to resign. And so what happens is in the end, it's just not these details. It's just the fact that there's no public trust across the board. There's no public trust and the lack of transparency and all of that strains the relationships with everyone. So, it is not that only Tacoma is happening over here also. I don't know whether you got to read that human rights score. We got the lowest score in the 10 cities in Massachusetts. And we earned like 74 out of 100 and we were ranked 10th. And we lost most of the points in the human rights. Because in the municipal, municipality also, we lost it as a town. And then there was a transgender inclusive healthcare benefits that the employer assessment Amherst did not give. And then they was not having a city contractor with a non-discrimination ordinance. So, there was nothing enforced. So, there were no points there. And then we lost five points in municipal services that was LGBTQ plus liaison in city executive's office. So, why? You know why? Because we lost 10 points for having no liaison or task force in the police department. So, right now, the issue is that all the leadership positions in the town are vacant. So, what are we expecting? That the liaison is not there. There is no protection for any transgender youth or anything. Because somehow the leaders or the directors are not staying in Amherst town of Amherst. Because I think it's what kind of environment is there that the fact that there might be that too many committees, there's too much of I guess discrimination because the middle school principal who was there, she also resigned because she was upset. And then the committees are not being filled. And the police chief is not there. So, if there's no police chief, the report also says there's no, you know, there's no policing also happening. So, that was very disappointing actually. There's no inclusive workplace also over here. So, the only thing that I think personally is working is the DEIA department. So, it might be the fact that we don't understand the budget and then there's unexpected connection or unrealistic expectations of what we're supposed to do. But there's nothing going on. There's no ground reality. And the committees don't know that because the housing authority is the same. And the portals are still there. So, the leadership is a leadership vacuum basically. The crest is non-operational. The status is not as, why is it non-operational? Because the two consulting firms that have recommended that these are the things you're supposed to do, that didn't happen. And then there's a interim school superintendent is also not really there. And yeah, basically that's it. And the justice, there's a tangle of ideas within the volunteer committee for community justice. There's so many of them. So, okay, that's it. So, Pamela has her hands raised. Okay. So, I just want to clarify one of the things that you raised. So, I'm not speaking to the issues in Pakistan or Tacoma, but I do want to address the allegation about the town not meeting or coming in 10th on the HRC. It's also an HRC. So, there's an international nonprofit organization called the Human Rights Campaign that does an assessment of cities and towns across the nation each year looking specifically around issues that are related to the LGBTQ plus community. When I started in my position, one of the things that actually the town manager tasked the DEI office with was raising our score because he could not understand why we are scoring so low on their assessment. Though this past spring, in an effort to raise the score, I contacted all of the department heads and said these are the areas where the town is not scoring well. If you have any information about any of these topics, please forward it to me so that we can make sure that it is in the next report that's going. So, there are some areas where we don't, like there is no one who is assigned to be the LGBTQ liaison in the executive office. So, that's an area where we don't have a way to respond to that. But many of the other things that you mentioned, we actually do have in place and submitted it to the HRC and still received the low score. And we're actually at a bit puzzled because many of the questions, so for example, the question about whether there is health insurance that is provided for partners, actually contacted our insurer, supplied that information, it would be the same as pretty much the same as other municipalities in the Commonwealth. And for some reason, it's not being registered with the way, I don't know what went awry, but the actual things that are in place in the town do comply with the vast majority of the survey questions. So, that's something that we are definitely, you know, that as the town manager is very concerned about. And we made every effort to supply them with the information to show our compliance. Like the other thing that you mentioned was non-discrimination in the contracting procedures. Submitted that to the organization, but I'm not quite sure what the disconnect is around that issue. So, Jen and then Deborah. Wanted to give a little bit more clarity and background to the Tacoma story. I don't know if people know about it or not, but it was the three police officers who are basically being accepting $500,000 after being on trial. I just didn't, I just wanted to, because it was one I had reached out and asked if we could put that on the agenda. And so I just wanted to kind of clarify that because you had a lot to respectfully say. And so I just wanted to make sure that was understood. Yeah, I think that was really important because this is very important detail on the news that came out because the persecution and the case that ended and the results were very unexpected. So that was quite disappointing. So we need to keep that in mind that things are still not fair. So what should we do? Should we say something or have some resolution? Okay, I'd like to give the floor to Deborah now. Deb. Thanks, Roni. I'm just wondering if there's a way to not just wonder why the HRC didn't acknowledge the factual information and if there's a way to follow up and who would do that and that would be great. I just want to say as a queer person in this town, that's not an area where I think we're falling down. I think there's a whole lot of issues that immigrants and refugees and BIPOC people could raise, but that's just not one of them. So I'd love it if that could be turned around. And just as a matter of protocol, I know it's hard for me to respond to things that I'm hearing in a description without having any written documentation. I don't know if we should say something about Tacoma because I haven't read this information and I haven't thought it through. And I think, no, I'd love us to do something. I'd love us to do something concrete and make a difference. And I'm wondering what the right process is for that because I am confident that every city in this nation has a heinous thing going on that we could make a statement about. So one of us sees an article about Tacoma. Should we make a statement about Tacoma? What about the 700 other municipalities which nobody happened to read an article about? So I'd love us to have a systematic approach to that. And I'm really appreciating, Rishwana, that you brought this to our attention. As far as I'm concerned, we certainly can do something about Tacoma and Pakistan that I would love to see the information to. Thanks. Pamela? So I reached out and will continue to reach out to the HRC. I actually, when I submitted the initial response to them, wrote and said like, if there's any question about documentation, and then I did not receive an immediate response back to them from them and like two days before the deadline, then got a response. So we scrambled really hard, Jennifer and I, to gather more information and submit it. So yeah, we'll definitely, and I will also say that the HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, to be clear, had a series of webinars in advance of the submission process for their survey, which we attended. So yeah, I don't know where the disconnect is, whether we're not wording things in the way in which they want it to be worded or whether it's not being presented in the way that they wanted. I'm not quite certain what they're looking for. I would say that as a straight person, I do have concerns about the treatment of LGBTQ people in Amherst because of what I'm reading and hearing about in the schools and sort of ongoing little news and tidbits. And often when you hear little and you're on the periphery of the issue, it means there's more going on. So I sort of, I do feel that we need to pursue this. The thing that I see the most is really the BIPOC, the racial piece in Amherst. But that's just what I see. I do think, well, our next subject really was to talk about how do we come up with statements? Who writes the statements? How do we say this can go from the Human Rights Commission? What should be the statements? And in some respects, it seems unimportant because you're thinking, well, who cares what the Lammers thinks? But actually, we are who we are and we're part of this bigger system. We're not unconnected to larger society. And I think that when we see something, big part of our job is to hear violations of human rights in Amherst. And so when we hear any violations, I feel like we should be able to put out statements about that and take a position and not worry that just because we're talking about one thing, we're not talking, we need to talk about everything that's happening in the world. We cannot humanly do that. But we should take positions at least as a minimal step as a Human Rights Commission. So I also, I was going to put forward two things. One is this whole question of deciding how and making state public statements, expressing our concerns about violations. And the second thing is, in terms of what we do, it's receiving complaints. And how do we make that a more sort of meaty and meaningful thing for people so they can feel like they can come to us? That's one of the things we do that no other committee does. So how do we do that the very best we can? I think those are things, in fact, I would like to hear thoughts about and maybe from the people who haven't spoken first, Joy and Laverne and Jacinta, if you have anything to add before we go back around. Do you have like, are you not interested or do you feel like it's whether we do it or not is not that big a deal? Because all of those are, or do you feel like somebody else should be doing it because you don't want to be in the center of that? Like all of those are legitimate points of view. It would help to know a little bit because we don't want to go down the route of trying to do this thing and getting votes and trying to get some kind of consensus if there really isn't an interest in doing that within the commission. I mean, I can speak from my, I am interested. I think that we should, I agree with what most people have said here. So that's why I really haven't chimed in anything else because everyone's kind of saying what I, on my mind. Yeah, I think I'm just like a little, I don't know if you can kind of see it, a little tired in the moment, that's all. But in terms of, I think Deborah's response really resonated with me about sort of data or just kind of like this, I always find it important to like share, not only just acknowledging, but also sharing information is really helpful. And just, yeah, more transparency as Rizwana was saying too, like there just needs to be transparency all around. And so for that I, I agree with Joe, I agree with you, I agree with everybody wants to like, do something about the matter, even though like I feel like local government in this scenario, it's really difficult to get things rolling. It's a lot of baby steps, but yeah. Lauren, did you have anything to add? I was going to wait until just to finish, but I, I know I'm trying not to say what was already said, but so I kind of agree with Deborah and that like some of the things I really want to support, but I just don't have the information like in the same thing, like I just need to any time to think about things, you know, before I can respond about them. So if I get information in advance, that would be helpful. So I'm just going to hold off on the hands just for a sec, just to not lose this thread. So it sounds like all of us want to be more engaged in what's happening around us, but we want it grounded in data. And it would be really great if each of us, when we see something that we think is important that the Human Rights Commission should act on, if we could gather the information about that and send it around. And then at the next meeting, we can say, okay, here's a statement we want to make about this, you know, whatever the issue may be. If that's the kind of thing we could agree to, then I think it would be really helpful in helping us to stand out and be active as a Human Rights Commission. So then we'll go to Pamela and Rizwana. So you've said exactly what I was going to suggest, which is that as a protocol, you might want to agree that if someone has an issue that they want to bring before the commission, that they send the background information and a draft proposal or resolution to Jennifer and I to share. And if it's a local issue, something that would really need an immediate response, you might consider hosting, having a special meeting so that you can be timely and in the moment. And if it's an issue that's not local for which, you know, you're making a political stance or standing in solidarity, that you hold that until your next meeting. Because, you know, for other issues that are non-local, you're not going to have a huge impact. It's not, it doesn't have to be an immediate response, but you can still stand in in solidarity on a specific point. So that at least provides you with a protocol for how you might go forward, Rizwana. Yeah, I totally agree with you, Rani, because that was the problem I was having. I had all the documentations, I created everything resolution. But what I've discovered is because of the procedural complexities or bureaucratic, there's a lot of inertia. So the fact is, I did send all the proper documents and the resolutions. So how do you go to the next level? Because there's one month, this is once a month meeting, and then another month goes by. And the information has to go to everybody. That is true. And the fact, I just, I know I'm going here and there, but Takoma, I'll just go back. Deborah was talking about, and she was agreeing with us. But Takoma is not, it's not happening very frequently. It was a specific case that, because the information came out in the newspaper, it was very horrifying, the fact the African American who was walking, you know, it doesn't happen. It's not a common thing. So the fact it should be flagged, because he was not even doing anything. And he was just put in a bag and he was, he said, I cannot breathe. And he died. It was very clear thing that happened. He was not even a criminal or he wasn't even doing any, he had kids and so on. So that was very tragic. So this, this isn't not exceptional, but it is not that common. So okay, then I'll just come back to that. And the other thing is transparency. That is very important. Because a fan was saying about our town issues are very important because HRC, we have a big challenge over here because of the leadership deficiencies. We do not have specific leaders in the department like the schools and you know how, and that has really brought us down because that is the talk of the town or the state or whatever. I don't know what is going on. So the transparency should have been there. It's okay. The workers, if I go and meet Pam, and she'll say, I don't know what happened and so on. So that's okay. But our leader, whoever is a town manager, someone should have given us a statement as to what happened. Why did that happen? And they should be, because the interim middle school principal, she was a very solid candidate. She was a doctorate and very dignified and everybody was talking good of her. And why did she just go? Why didn't we protect her? Why didn't we give her the authority empowerment? So if we do not give the empowerment to our top people, the problem that happened was with LGBTQD was that because there was no leadership and the counselors were creating issue. And what had happened over there, we should have, actually, we should have been told as a statement from the town man or someone. So transparency is again an issue that is not happening. And in HRC and our committee, we will work on that. We can only work on that if we know what's going on in the town. Okay, Jen. So similar to Pamela, I think when Rizwana emailed us about Tacoma, but today was the meeting and you can't change the, well, you can, but I knew that nobody would have been prepared to do anything because nobody had that information at a time. So I suggest, and I think Pamela as well, that she'd speak on it during member reports. And so personally, I would say Rizwana now would be time to go find a couple of articles and then submit them to us and then we can send them out. But the reason why the, how to craft the statement and the process of that is really on the agenda is because things don't happen two days before I have to post the agenda, right? Like things happen the day after we meet and then it's another 30 days before. And honestly, there's some things that you could just, the statement can come out just sooner than a month, right? And so that's A, why it's on the agenda, but that's kind of the process part behind it is that it would be good now for all the different issues that you brought up to bring documentation and then we can forward it to the group and then people can do it. But having a process for the statement is really important, as you can see, because things just happen at random times. I think that's my point there. Dem? Yeah, I'm thinking that for, if we're not having a special meeting that requires that, because we need to make an immediate statement about a local event, it would be good to say that we need to have all the documentation in, let's say one week before the meeting. So that makes sure that everybody gets it, everybody gets to read it. And I love the idea of having both the background documentation and a proposed resolution at the same time. The other thing I want to say is I'm well aware of the trials and tribulations of trans and non-binary students, especially in the middle school, but in the schools in general, I was just responding to what Pamela was, the HRC's questions had nothing to do with the school system. They had to do with the town management. And that is what I was speaking to. So, as we say in Hebrew, God forbid, anybody thinks that I'm not aware of that. I actually did some training at the school district to support awareness and understanding of how to support trans and non-binary students. The third thing is, I think it's great, everybody, you know, if you see something, say something. And in my experience, when you have that kind of protocol, almost nothing comes forward. So, you know, but when you have a subcommittee whose entire reason for being is to scour what's happening and every meeting bring specific proposals, then that's more likely to happen. Even better if you have a staff person, but believe me, I know that the two people who are in the DEI department do not have any more time to breathe, let alone take on another task. Just saying, sometimes when you disseminate the responsibility for something, not very much happens. So, I wouldn't oppose it. I guess I'm just hoping maybe there's a way to have more rigorous attention. Like, right now, we're all invited to go and witness or observe other committee meetings. I'm not sure what comes out of that. So, if everybody who's observing another committee meeting instead focuses their attention so that every time we come to a meeting, we have three proposals to make a statement. That feels like it's really concrete and there's people who have a job and they're going to do it. And I'd vote yes for anything, but just to suggest. I feel pretty strongly that the proposals have to be, for me, have to be very well thought out and substantiated. And I don't feel that one is needed every meeting or more. But I have no objection to having five or six or ten if that's what we have. In many ways, I see our commission as the subcommittee that you're referring to. You know, we call on the public to come with complaints, to come to us with complaints and very few actually come. I think that as we put ourselves out more, people will know more about us and be more inclined to come and talk to us. And if, you know, if you want to, if anybody wants to form a subcommittee, that's fine. I certainly would not object to that. But I do believe it's a responsibility of all of us as members of the commission and we're only, we're not even ten people for the whole town of Amherst to be focused on human rights in Amherst and to see where there's something happening in the world and decide if that's something we as residents, as the commission in Amherst, should have a voice. So I think all of us should be bringing data and more than data a proposal. Like what, how do you, how, how do I interpret this data? And what do I, what does it mean to me? And what do I want to say? And what do I want the Human Rights Commission to stand up for? And I see Tyler is here and he's got his hand up. Welcome, Tyler. Happy new year. Yeah, thanks. I'm so sorry I missed the last two meanings in the slate to this one, but so you mentioned people bringing complaints to the HRC. And I've been talking to other students recently. And one thing that's really struck me is some of the most egregious, I guess, not necessarily rights violation, but violations in general. And I presume this would apply to rights violations as well, tend to be the sorts of things that a local government committee isn't going to be able to fully respond to primarily things that will involve legal consequences. I wonder whether part of our outreach strategy should include providing resources to community members who without necessarily needing to go to us can just go to our webpage and see a guide to if you believe you have been the victim of a rights violation, go to this resource for housing violation, contact this agency or hire a lawyer if it's of this nature for an educational rights violation, contact this agency. Potentially we could even try to link to some resource that can provide legal support or legal aid, although I don't know how that would end up working logistically. But I think that that might be one of the most valuable venues for outreach that we could have and one of the most impactful, since that's probably where we can start to maximize our impact in this educational role. And also that raises our profile so people will be more likely to come to us with things that are within the scope of that charge. Yeah, I would welcome, I think that's a great idea and I would welcome comments from other members of the commission on this very concrete suggestions for suggestion for action. This is something that we would have to do work on and I would do a work, I would work with somebody on it. Certainly, I think it's important. I'm wondering sometimes when you ask if how people feel, if instead of waiting for a go around, we could just do like a thumbs up or a thumbs medium or thumbs down so we could get a sense of the group. If people want to do a thumbs up down or medium, please do so. Jacinta, did you have your hand up or do you have them? I just want to say that I think on the webpage, if you, I'm on my phone so I can't see the full page, but I think on the left hand side of the webpage, there's a resource page that has links, all of those links, well, lots of links. So maybe you guys could start looking there first to see and maybe, you know, to make it more engaging, we move it from where it is instead of having all the other older statements again. So, but I think that that has already started on the page or at least at one point the page was set up with all of the resources to the left and it got really full and so we, I thought we put them into a one link on the resources page, but I can't see that part. So we're agreeing for the next meeting that we will all look at the webpage, see what's there and maybe Tyler can coordinate or if any of us have thoughts about how to improve that or to add to it that we communicate with Tyler as the point person for that. Is that agreeable? I do, I don't want to lose what we've tried to talk about so many times with just how does a statement get out? And I just want to clarify so we didn't lose it that what we said is that if somebody feels a statement needs to go out, that they will do the research and they can, I don't know if it's appropriate if the laws allow us to call up a colleague and say I'm concerned about this, Deb, you know a lot about this. Shall we pull together this data package and write up a proposal and then bring it submitted to Jen more than a week in advance so that it can be circulated and we can vote at the commission meeting. This is what I would really like to see and it sounds like there's a lot of support for something like that. Is that feasible? And if you're okay with it, let's get a thumbs up so we can move on that. Yeah, I think that's a question for Pamela and Jennifer is a committee member member allowed to call another commission member and say can you help me pull this together? I hope so. I don't think so. Does that violate the public leaving law? Most probably. So that was Roswanna who was commenting. I think if it's one or two of you but there really shouldn't be more than that and it really it is much better if you filter this process through Jennifer and I. So I think the process could should be really that you have an issue that you do your do the research, you present your draft proposal and you send it to Jennifer and myself and we will send it to the committee and it will go on to your next agenda. And if it's a local issue that needs immediate attention then you know there might be a suggestion to the two co-chairs that you have a special meeting but that gives you a process for addressing everything. So just to be clear if I have a concern let's say about the LGBTQ issues and I know Deb is right here and she's got this expertise. Surely I can talk to her and say here's this article I've been reading and here's what I've heard. I'd like to write up a proposal. Can you help me with that or can I not? So if it's one person like you you can't meet in small groups you cannot form a subcommittee. If you form a subcommittee then that subcommittee has to abide by the open meeting law and so there has to be an agenda posted and public comment and all of that so. But I can talk to one person. Right yeah. Follow me Ronnie please. I think that's frozen. So am I still frozen? Can you guys I can hear you but yeah you're okay now. Okay yeah okay. Basically I think what we have come to agree is that there are two three kinds of criteria that we need to apply when we are making a statement. One is for the local one is for the global and so there are two basically. It doesn't matter which you would follow the same procedure you would do your research you would provide the data you would propose an action or statement sorry or action. Does that make sense? I'm sorry you clarify when I got frozen Pamela I think we're saying that it's okay to talk to one person. Okay not okay to form a committee so not two people talk to one person. Okay great so I feel like we sort of have agreement on that and just to make sure shall we get a thumbs up about the process for documentation or Deb to need to speak with the. I'm feeling a little funny about the whole thumbs up because in theory that's a vote right because half of the people went down and half the other people went up then that would be open for discussion so I think at this moment you could just call a motion to approve it. Yeah yeah shall I make a motion then that we will agree we are in agreement with the protocol that's just been discussed which is that each commissioner is allowed to approach one person or no persons do their research submit their documentation and proposal for a statement to the DEI office more than a week in advance for discussion approval at the subsequent commission meeting. Second. All in favor? Yes I'm in favor. Hi. Are you opposed? No. Okay Deb you have your hand up sorry I didn't see it before. Don't be sorry because it's about another topic related so I wanted that to be complete and it's about people filing complaints in our town which happens rarely doesn't come to us goes to the DEI office we don't know who files them we have no responsibility for managing them except our committee is supposedly responsible somehow for that so I'm just wondering like what does this committee commission want out of the local complaint process and can it be something which the community sees as a service and as a can we be seen as a place where people come so I had a thought not just a question and it's not so much about handling the complaints but I have a lot of experience in setting up community based data gathering where people can you know fill out surveys and we can become aware of the kinds of things that are happening around town not because they want us to handle them but because we are collecting data so if it's only about oh I'm going to send you an anonymous survey to tell you that this happened here and I just want you to be aware of it so this merchant did this and over the course of a year if we get a hundred complaints and there's ten complaints about this merchant it's not about us acting as a judicial or extra judicial body but we have information on hand of where there are where it's challenging in the community where folks are being where folks needs are being unmet but perhaps being discriminated against given that I don't see a way for us to get engaged with the actual complaint process based on the conversations we've had before I was curious about what the data collection for its own sake to paint a picture of what's going on in the town would be useful I think that that's a really interesting question and I don't know if Ronnie was going to talk about this earlier but the town manager it has he established a date and time for the co-chairs to meet with a town council about the bylaws and I think that that question should probably be a part of that conversation you know it's it's sort of far fetched but I think that someone could make the argument that the way that the bylaw is currently written that you know the town has a very broad purview to look at all sorts of allegations of discrimination if and if you're collecting data you know and again this is a bit far fetched but if you collecting data then you somebody might want to make the argument that you have a bylaw in place you're collecting data why aren't you taking action but I think it's an interesting question that could be a part of that conversation with with a town council I mean with general council about about you know what how could we how could the town use information that it gathered in that way given the fact that there's this bylaw in place about investigation and handling of complaints I'll just clarify the way the data was used in other municipalities where I participated in this was that it created a picture that helped the municipality assess is there training that's going to be helpful in this you know environment are there accountability mechanisms we could put in place to call people to their best behavior is there are there ways we can be preventative around these things so it's um you know it's kind of are there restorative justice things we could do so it's not about like finding fault and then punishing but you know there's a whole array of things that can happen beyond that paradigm so what do we need to do with this idea at this point Deb what would you like us to do with it do we want to think about this and put it back on the agenda next month or does somebody want to take some action with regard to it well I'm happy to write something up so it's more coaching I just know that in the past like we had this conversation about the actual complaints and how we couldn't really be involved and how that was frustrating and like so what do we do if it was right what do we do so I had this brainstorm for myself and I decided yes I'm happy to write it up and we can talk about it maybe at the next meeting and I think Pamela's idea is great for bringing it up um yeah to the town manager see where that could go so we just to let you know where we are in the agenda we haven't gotten around to all the updates and uh some of this will be discussed too so I feel like on the other hand we've come to closure on some stuff that's been sort of nagging us for quite a long time so now we know how to move forward on some of these things and we can see how we do with it we'll have something to assess for ourselves um so I'd like to continue down the agenda but I saw a hand oh it's gone is there a hand yeah no I mean sorry it's just why now okay yeah I'm gonna give some closing remarks before we move on and yeah I am continuing with uh what Deborah is saying about the service uh with the the consultant's leap they had they already have all that data and that's the reason they came up with the program for Cress and all that so there's CAD they use CAD program or they have a record RMS those are two programs in RMS they have all these questionnaires where whoever is in who goes and makes a complaint or something like that they record that in there so all the data is already there with the they might be in the police department or with Cress people so the data collection is already happening otherwise if it was not happening they wouldn't be creating trainings they won't be evaluating anything they won't be getting any adjustments because if you do not evaluate uh you know without a if you don't have a data you won't be able to evaluate anything and then you cannot modify anything so they by the consultants and all that I saw that data there and so I guess if BAM or if you go ahead and find out from them they have it but their problem will be it will be anonymous it it is privacy there's a privacy tag to it so we cannot they cannot share it with us most probably so that's my two different things there are complaints that are leap works in the law enforcement arena not in the general community arena first of all and what's true nationwide is that people don't make complaints to police departments about the police people don't make complaints to the police department also about a thousand other things because the people who are mostly impacted by this don't trust the police so what's been found is that if you have a community-based data collection system which is outside of the police and outside of the town like literally on a computer where the town can't track who's giving the information so there's absolute anonymity assured and you do organizing an outreach around that I mean my experience in Portland is that they were the FBI and the police were getting 10 reports or complaints a year about hate incidents and once the coalition I was part of put together this a community trusted instrument a data collection instrument we were getting 200 complaints a year and I know that because I was in relationship with all of the community organizations who were serving all the targeted communities that still wasn't anywhere near all of the data so I think we're talking about two different things I don't think the data endeavor you're right about that but in this consultants that seven gen movement the the the the ones that the town had hired and they have a very comprehensive program for crests actually they were the ones they I read all the interviews they had with all different I think 32 people so that was a kind of a survey and then they came to the conclusions and so on so it was not intimately aware I've read every word of every report and there were 41 interviews and it was all about the police it was not about the municipality we're talking about okay thank you yeah now it makes sense okay so I think we are talking about two different things and yeah this does bring us up this does bring us up to updates because tomorrow there is a discussion about the CSWG and seven gen reports and we'll be getting updates from the co-chairs of the CSSJC at the League of Women Voters Forum tomorrow and in fact that's one of the things I would encourage all of us to go to because we're looking for a new crest director and a new police chief and there's all this data that's been collected about how these came about and what they're about and I think we'll be a good refresher to hear from people who were associated with it a few years ago so if you're both okay with what Deborah proposed to do for next month and certainly I know I think we're all okay with that let's move on to the updates so let's go to DEI and Crescent let's start with DEI well both from Pamela okay so Jennifer if I missed something please chime in so we had a wonderful MLK Junior event earlier this week that Jennifer organized we were expecting about 50 folks and there were 75 people in attendance for the community read of Dr. Martin Luther King's lecture that he made upon winning the Nobel Peace Prize so that was wonderful that was supposed to be followed on Tuesday by the National Day of Racial Healing which is sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation but due to whether we canceled that event on Tuesday and we are looking to reschedule a community conversation and we're thinking that it might come at the end of February as part of the Black History Month events so that's sort of what we're thinking my goal today that I didn't reach was to email all of the folks some of whom are in this meeting who volunteered to be as facilitators to see if the date that we have in mind will work for you because we can't do the event without the facilitators the staff event for the National Day of Racial Healing will take place on Friday of this week so the staff-only event other news you guys know for the last first part of this year we had an AmeriCorps volunteer ASA who had been joining our meetings ASA's tenure with the office has ended so we are without ASA's help we have plans to and this relation said this in relation to the National Day of Racial Healing so we look at the National Day of Racial Healing as a kick-off for our beloved community conversations around racial healing and reconciliation the plan last year and the plan again this year is to have bi-monthly events on various teams around community building and racial reconciliation and healing so our targets are February if we're able to get you know the facilitators to for date and then April June August October and December and Jennifer and I were talking today about what some of the various themes might be for those conversations if you have suggestions for a topic that you'd like to propose please send it to us because I'm hoping that you know we'll hold this February event and at that event we'll be able to announce the schedule for the rest of the event so that we can start to build some momentum around those issues we have I think a really exciting plan for a Black History Month we are going to be highlighting four locations in town where our folks can visit and find out more about what I am calling the African-American experience in Amherst the four locations are going to be the Bangs Community Center where the Civil War tablets are held Amherst College where there is the ongoing ancestral bridges exhibit town hall where we the DEI office with the help of Cress and IT and Jones Library are are creating a series of panels 20 panels that would highlight local history features some folks some residents we know I mean just say publicly here we know that it is not going to be 100 complete right we're not going to be able to tell every story of everyone that that should be told but we're we're striving for accuracy and we are going to create a process where people will be able to add additional names additional things that we can can grow you know this collection of information about the local history and although Jennifer is reluctant to take credit you know credit really has to be given to her for the the concept of gathering all this information and she worked with an archivist at the Jones Library to really pull this all together and I I think it's going to be fantastic so and if you've gone into town hall then you know typically there are different artists who have their work on display and so instead of having a local artist have their work on display the panels will be displayed in town hall for the entire month of February and so we really invite everybody to come and see them there'll be a flag raising on the first at 6 p.m or yeah 6 p.m and and then following that you know the our gallery exhibit our panels will be be on display so we talked a little bit already about the bylaw the fact that the town manager is arranging to have a conversation with the co-chairs about the bylaw and I do think that's a great place to raise the question about around the community research or community data collection in addition to what's happening at the League of Women Voters we also want to promote our very own Rabbi Deb is going to be holding the resident oversight board forum tomorrow in town hall from 6 p.m to 7 p.m and so if you haven't had an opportunity to come and speak and learn about the process of the resident oversight board we invite invite you to do so and it's done it will be hybrid so in person in town hall and also available online by Zoom and then the second forum the last in the series of four on Sunday from one to two p.m so that's a brief overview I think of DI and if I've missed anything Jennifer please weigh in I just add something about those forums since there's the League of Women Voters forum tomorrow night come on Sunday and tell everyone about it the information is on the website the goal was to gather as much additional data as possible we already have 45 responses in so that's great and I know that there are more stories to be told and the most important point is to have specific stories of encounters with police um so that we can gather as much data as possible about our community's experience with thanks and Crust and so Crust so Crust welcomed three new responders on Tuesday so they've just started we're at the four month mark for the leadership team on Friday of this week the we're at the one Friday will also be the one month mark for the Crust department going on to dispatch the Crust department has received an additional $25,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health an expanded grant to support two new projects or well one new project and so one of the projects is looking into acquiring and training a comfort dog for the Crust department and the the other project is we've sought some financial support to send the new director and teams that should include hopefully someone from dispatch if we're able and a responder to three different municipalities in the country that have responder programs that are akin to the program here in Amherst so programs that are not housed necessarily in public health but are set up as a separate public safety department so they'll have an opportunity to meet with you know colleagues who are doing the same work who who've been on dispatch and who are sort of dealing with very similar problems and questions about this work so we receive the grant this is where so must have been late December but we are we're really holding on to those funds until the new director is in place because I if you know the leadership team just felt very strongly that it should be the new director who who is able to go on those trips and and have an opportunity to you know build a relationship with responders have a relationship to build a relationship with their national colleagues with dispatch so I think once it's in place it'll be you know that will will work out well and really provide a great professional development opportunity for the new director the I think there are four finalists for the crest director position and the town manager is will be meeting with the four finalists next weeks the new responders and the leadership team will also have an opportunity to meet with those those finalists as well so I'm wondering since the crests will have completed one month of dispatch will there be any information available to the public about what they did how effective it was what will there be some kind of report back to us so we're planning on I've been holding the data very close to the chest and for a couple of reasons one is because you know it's one month so there's not a lot of course to report but also because and I should have included this we would like to have an opportunity to take a look like you know for the department the crests leadership team to meet with dispatch to have discussions about it and and we're scheduled to do that next week so we will start to to take a look at to see if there are any patterns and see if we can expand the the types of call types that are that because we started with a small a limited number of call types I think we started with maybe seven we've already added one and so we'll have that conversation so I think that will come the other and reason why I've held very close to the data is because in all honesty the data collection and the department was you know it just was not it wasn't professional it wasn't up to standard and now almost a year ago the department received a report from the Donahue Institute at UMass with recommendations for how the data should be collected and reported and one of the main things in that Donahue report was that the the department should use a software system called Qualtracks so we have pursued the purchase of Qualtracks we just learned from IT today that it's that we have a contract that will have to be reviewed by the finance department next week but we're expect that to go through without any problem and then once we have Qualtracks in place we can actually have an accurate system for collecting data so you know the the department has been collecting data by using Excel they also had a Microsoft forms process that they were using but in all honesty it's you know it's just inaccurate it's not it's it's just inaccurate that's the you know the only thing I can say about it so we will certainly share some things that we've learned about about being on dispatch but it's I don't think you're gonna I don't think that the community will have really accurate data to review and examine until we've purchased the Qualtracks and it's been in place and the responders are all using it for some time okay um so I'm gonna continue down here the director search for the chief of the search for the chief of police and crest director um I'll go first I've been part of the crest I represented us on the crest director search my role has been somewhat limited because I wasn't there in the beginning to in fact nobody was available to review the whole set of applications that came in I thought the process was really good it was somewhat flexible which I think was needed because we were looking not there wasn't a cookie cutter we were looking for we were really looking for a complicated a person who had quite a bit of range and depth at the same time so I participated in the I think the first 12 interviews I missed one of those but the people who came in to interview with the larger group there were additional interviews with some BIPOC candidates that human resource and DEI did um but in the end the candidates the four that were picked I have to say while everyone had their favorite candidate everyone agreed of our group of eight or whatever number we were quite a substantial group um everyone agreed that those were our top candidates there was no doubt nobody said I don't want that candidate so I think that the town is very lucky to have such great candidates with ideas and really it's sort of up to us town manager whoever to figure out who we want like um and in the course of these interviews it occurred to me that we're asking them to do something in a town that's really very very diverse with all the diversity being in pockets and in small minority groups and so it's quite it's going to be quite a challenge to respond to um the reasons why Cress was created according to the reports there was one other set cited so I'll move pass on to Jen to report on the chief of police search okay so we um Everett Henry who is the CS who is on the CSSJC is the chair of the police chief committee so that's very nice and we are we there were very few applicants I think there were like four or five applicants at the very beginning and so we expanded to include several um other police organizations or I don't know exactly how to describe it but like ways that police will find out about job opportunities that will bring us more diverse um candidates and which it has and so now I think we went from like four to five and now we've like 16 so that's much better um and so we're now just reviewing those and we will be meeting I believe the first week of February again to start the interview process um but that is a very diverse group of folks on that hiring committee it's very large so there's the HR director myself the chief of the fire chief Tim Nelson then Tyrone the police of chief in for UMass PD um Liz Heygood and Tony Butterfield the principal from Crocker Farm so there's just there's several people involved in that process but it's good and I would Ben Ezra too from the survival center I would say similarly very diverse group for the press director like the head of Craig's Doors as part of it the director of the bank center it was part of it chief Nelson um the I forgot his name but the guy from the after school who oversees the after-school program for the middle school I mean I thought that was great um and somebody like yeah Dwight somebody like me um I don't know there were a couple more people and of course the human human uh whatever human resources director um so yeah I said I was I'm actually pretty impressed by the scope of the search I know that in the end though you know it's going to be the town manager who decides but he's not deciding in a vacuum there's a lot of information that he has been open to receiving but he's looking at it all I have no idea but he's receiving it and the town the town's commitment to participating and contributing to the process also is really impressive to me because it was a lot of time certainly for my time and I only participated in about half the process so yeah so then uh there's a next item is the budget request um I don't know if anyone has any information about that I'm totally out of the loop on it Liz I know has been following it um I will take that to mean no information for now we'll come back to it next time yeah the affordable go ahead I'm sorry I was going to say the only thing that I know is that you know Liz did attend that meeting and make their request the other town departments are in the midst of starting the um presenting our budgets uh to the finance committee so both DEI and Cress the first part of the process to submit a written narrative and so those were due it might have been due on January 5th but so those that first part has been submitted with some requests for additional finances or increases to the budget for both DEI and Cress and then um the way in which the process worked last year was that um the finance department went you know department by department in small meetings with people so at some point I'll get uh I'll get an appointment to me to have a discussion around DEI I think probably there will be a new director in um by the time that the Cress department um has their meeting in last year Sean held the DEI and Cress department meetings together because um the former Cress director and I were both new to the process and it will probably be my suggestion that they pair us again just because um there's a little bit of I can provide a little bit of assistance to the new Cress director having you know been a part of the leadership team for this for the last four months and then so that is moving along internally yeah so if we're fairly early in the budget process I'm thinking of DEB's suggestion about data collection and if there's a budget associated with that maybe we should squeeze that in because the process hasn't in in fullness begun yet if we still have time um I don't know what all is involved Deb but you know we'll have to it would be good if we could get your help DEI's help in um getting that inserted into the human rights budget or your budget or somebody's budget so it's there um I'll try to create a proposal for next week by next week so that to be timely for that not just be timely for our next meeting meeting about the proposal about what data collection would look like and so that would be great then the affordable housing trust who's reporting on that I think that's typically been Liz so there's no report for now and then the HRC bylaw um the town manager did set up an appointment for Liz and me and I'm since Tyler's back I'm going to ask to have Tyler included in that discussion as well with the lawyer directly so that any questions the lawyer has can be answered and discussed and the thing can be finalized and finally be done uh Tyler you have your hand up yeah I'd be happy to um join in with that meeting um although I would need to know when it is ahead of time and then hopefully I can get it to work with my schedule but I'm more flexible in January than during the school year so hopefully that can work out my phone battery is about to die though so I don't think that I'll be in the meeting for very much longer um okay I'm going to email you the time and date um and then if you can join then I'm happy to propose to the town manager that you join us because you were so critical to writing the thing yeah great thank you okay good so that's where that is and then I think after that is when it goes to the town council um and I have I have had this well it doesn't matter I think we just need to get the thing done um so then the next item I think we're near the end is upcoming events I think Pamela reported someone that I don't know if you all want to add something so the next event that is coming up will if we're um will be Black History Month on the February 1st um and then Lunar New Year on February 17th and if we're able to get facilitators then um the racial reconciliation racial healing conversation on probably February 28th if we're able to to find facilitators for that the conversation have I missed anything Jennifer no I would maybe just go a little bit out because I'm going to have to start organizing like three other pretty really big events so there's a AAPI Heritage Month so I think that that is um can is pretty big and the Youth Hero Awards basketball tournament slash Race Amity Day that is a really really fantastic event again you have a lot of cross sectional of all kinds of class race education um and so it's just a really nice event and then there's Juneteenth so um those are three really big events so I'm just going to throw it out there now looking for some help to help kind of with those events I have to say that the roles I had in Juneteenth two years ago and last year in the Heroes Day which I had no idea what it was but everybody goes to that and it's really an amazing look at the community that is Amherst so I would really suggest that everyone come to that Jacinta. I'm just going to offer that although I can't be there in person I'd be happy to do any sort of communication or emailing or like copy editing or just drafting that could help with that those events and then I wanted to add that there's at Amherst College there's a number of events during Black History Month at Amherst but the one that I'm usually involved in I won't be there physically this year and I'm not on the committee that runs it but I just contribute art with other people there's the Black Art Matters show that Amherst has and it should be in conjunction with the new Caribbean art show that they're having I forget the name of it but it's by a Puerto Rican artist and curator and then also boundless that's sort of a smaller show now and I'm not sure if Elizabeth James Perry's Seeping End is still there but I would be happy to share the communication for that that's happening with the Human Rights Committee and we can put it on whatever forum we have but those are some events that if people wanted to find out about them through the Human Rights Committee the the town in general. If those items are open to the public which it seems like they are then you can suggest to the organizers that they place it on the community calendar on the town website and so people are already signed up to receive those notifications so lots of folks will get an email blast about it or text. Okay so could you repeat that? I can email you the info tomorrow if you would like because it's kind of a little bit of a step process but I can help email that to you tomorrow. Yeah I'd be happy to get that to the museum. Okay so we're at the end of our agenda it is eight o'clock got a lot done today is there anything else that needs to be discussed today? In that case I will say thank you all so much I really do feel like we got a good bit done and happy new year again and see you next month. Can you just call it time? Yes the meeting is officially closed it is eight o'clock one p.m. Perfect thank you. Bye everyone. Bye. Happy new year. Bye.