 And I'm going to have a block from my house. Oh, is that okay? So, yes. Yeah. I think that might have been Liz, but I'm not sure. Cause she was in her car when, when, when her screen was on. So, all right. So, Ronnie, do you have the opening? Yeah, I do. I do. Okay. Only one to start. Okay. You're ready to start. You're recording now. Okay. It's 633 p.m. September 20th, 2023. Welcome everyone pursuant to chapter 20 of the access 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via zoom or by telephone. If you make a 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 pronoun and residential address. Residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes at the discretion of the chair based upon the number of people who wish to speak. No speaker can feed their time to another speaker. The HRC will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment. No in-person attendance of members of the public 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. So with that, welcome everyone. Let me start with roll call. So, Liz Heywood. Hey, good. Present. Hey, good. Sorry. Oh, my God. Everybody does that. Oh, man. Joy Isle. Is that correct? That's correct. Present. Leverne Kelly. Present. Liz Wanakan. Present. Debra Collodney. Present. Tyler Maxwell. Not here. Ronald Parker. Yes, I'm here. This is Ms. Absent. Okay. So the first order of business, I guess, is to ask if there are any, if there is any public, if there are any members of the public, and if anyone wishes to comment. I do not see any members of the public present today. So shall we just move on. So the first agenda item is the introduction of new members. As I mentioned before we were recording, I'm so thrilled, just so very so to see the screen full of people were almost full, we have only one vacancy. So I'm really pleased and what I would like to do is just go around and have people introduce themselves. So let's start with Leverne and then just call on the next person. Okay, there's for my voice. My name is Leverne Kelly. I've been on the board since I think it was December of last year. Yeah, I think it was December of last year and welcome new members. Deborah, I'll just go by the order that's on the screen on my screen. Sounds good. Hi, I'm Deborah Coladmi. I'm rather new to Amherst moved here two years ago. I just joined the commission a couple of months ago. I live in North Amherst and my pronouns are they them. Hi, I'm a system like I'm there. I'm the AmeriCorps member working with DEI and Crest and the Amherst offices. I'm happy to be here. Hi, I'm Pamela and young. I'm the director of the office of diversity, equity and inclusion. Hi, I'm Joy Eiffel. I've been a resident of Amherst since 2019 and have had children in the Amherst high school currently and in the past. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to be here. Hi, I'm Rishwana Khan and I'm an educator. I currently work in the school district and I am all for the youth and the diversity, especially the topic that is on the agenda. And I've been living here since last year and also I am she and her. Thank you. Jen, we're introducing ourselves. Oh, hi everyone. Good evening. I'm Jennifer Moisten. I'm the assistant director to the office of diversity, equity, inclusion. And I'm just waiting for my computer to finish zoom updating. So. Okay. And I'm running Parker. I also joined the human rights commission just a few months ago. And anyway, human rights are very important to me. Which is why I'm here. So, are there any other comments before we move to the next item? Yes, I did not get introduced. This is on. Oh my God. It's because you popped I was going along the line of my screen and then you must have popped in in the middle somewhere. That's all right. My name is Liz. Hey, good. I'm a resident of Amherst since 1980 officially. I raised two children in the Amherst schools. I currently have six grandchildren. That well, they don't all go to school because they're very small, but I have two in the high school and one at Fort River. I've been on the commission. This is the beginning of my fourth year. I act as co chair with Ronnie. And I don't know, there's a lot of things I could tell you about myself, but I'll just leave it at that. Oh, I retired from Amherst schools in 2021. However, I am there temporarily for the next two weeks trying to help out in the middle school with all the turmoil is going on. So this is really the one who's been here the longest and knows the most anyway. Most of us are new items to this. So our biggest resource. So the next agenda item is the citizens for juvenile justice. You'll remember they came and made a presentation to us. Last month and then for the new members, you would have seen their material in the package today. So, given our discussion, I would like to simply. I'd like to propose that we express our formal support for them by endorsing their group and their initiative. Before we do that, do the new members have questions? Do you know what we're talking about? Jennifer. So I was not anticipating on coming into the meeting late. So I had to leave from an emergency yesterday. So I did not get to send out the packet. So, if you do want to explain what the youth, what we're endorsing, that would be great. If not, then I can explain it. Okay. So as I can give a quick explanation, and then I lost everyone else who was here last week to add what they got from it and I'll start us off. Just so we know what it is that we're endorsing. So what we heard was that there are 18 to 20 year olds who are in the juvenile justice system who gets naturally moved into the adult system. Just by way of having turned 18. And that a lot of these, I think we know from our own children are just kids really. And so the effort that we're supporting, as I understand it, was to keep them on the juvenile justice system and prevent them from getting into the adult system. And we've heard a lot about how once you get into the adult system, it follows you through life. And we don't want that to happen to young, very young kids. So, they have asked for us to endorse their campaign. And that's what we're talking about and voting on today. Jennifer, you want to have your hand up. You want to say more others were there last week if you want to add more, please do so. Jennifer, did you want to speak because your hand is still up or is that because you didn't take it back down. That's because I can take it back down. I propose. I don't know if this, the question for me right now is considering that we have at least three new members for three new members that have did not hear the presentation. There is the campaign letter that they're asking us to endorse that was sent to, I think from Jennifer to me and you Ronnie. And I'm thinking about everyone last month. Right. But the new members have not seen it. So I think it's not fair. I don't know if that's a good way to say for them to ask them to endorse something they haven't actually read or seen. So I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to hold off on that and so they get a chance to take a look at that and vote on it at the next meeting. And if not, at least at our retreat. I'm open to other suggestions. There's one I owe you a hand up. Yeah, I appreciate Liz, you know, going through that and the fact that she's giving us an option also. So I would like to look at that letter. I appreciate that you brought it up and we can at the retreat. Also, you can look at it. So I will go for that. Thank you. Do you have an opinion. I agree. I'd like to get a little bit more information. Well, then I moved to postpone this to the next meeting. Let's keep it on the agenda. The other one has looked at it. So I don't know if I have to move to do it in which case somebody else. No. Okay. All right, let's just move, move the agenda then and the next item is update on the affordable housing trust. I think that's right. That is actually mine. I was not able to attend the affordable trust meeting or the CSSJC meeting that happened last week because of my sister's death. I was away. So I do not have an update on either one of those initiatives right now. And I apologize for that, but I was busy with planning a funeral for my sister. Sorry. And yeah. We have our condolences Liz. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. So we move to the next item then update on the HRC bylaw. And again background for the new members to be done several months to be drafting or drafting. I don't really know what, but there was something there when I showed up. And we reworked it, and it was sent to the town manager to be processed for the appropriate approval. So Pamela has her hand up she can give us the update. I can also just inform you that the CSSJC is now at full capacity. So there, that was a concern about their lack of having the ability to have a quorum. But they have all of their new members and so they were able to hold a meeting last week and they did have a quorum present so they're welcoming new members as are you. They're moving ahead. The HRC bylaw so for new members. At last year's Human Rights Commission retreat. The members to discuss what would be the items that they wanted to work on during the, during the year. And the number one priority was to look at revising the bylaw that creates the commission. There were several different clauses in the bylaw where they felt like the language was not, you know, which just wasn't current and it didn't really reflect the wishes of the of the commission. And so throughout the last year members members worked on revising the bylaw, and that work really came to a completion, I think, in April, April or May I cannot remember the exact month. So, late spring or early summer, the pursuant to the, to the bylaws for the town. The HRC recommendations go to the town manager, who then has to consider them and will make a decision about whether to endorse them or not. He has not made a decision. He did. I, I gave him the bylaws that were completed by the HRC. He then asked me to create a chart that displayed the old bylaw and the suggested changes so he has had that information I would say for a month now. And still in is still making a decision and I'm not sure whether he has had a chance to forward an onto legal counsel. So, we haven't moved forward, but it is creeping along. So I'm a little concerned about this, only because we're going to our retreat, and it would be really nice to have our bylaws clear. And as the retreat, but, and, and because it's just taken so long and they have no idea like what the issues are, like, if we understand what the potential issues are, then we can work through and try to resolve them, but we haven't heard anything back. Do you have any suggestions you think it'll affect our retreat. So, I, I don't necessarily think it will reflect your retreat. I'm now with in the last iteration of the bylaw. There was continued discussion about maybe some further changes. I will reach out. You do have like three weeks. Are we three weeks away from the retreat. So, I will talk to the town manager to see if we can get some feedback, but I don't, I don't think it will drastically impact your retreat, because if you follow the format that we that was used last year. It's an opportunity for the members to get to know each other and to have an understanding of the work of the commission and with so many of you being new to the commission. I think spending the time on those issues will be well spent. And then the other big ask is to make a decision about what are your priorities for it for the year. And so that's sort of, you know, that's getting that finalized is certainly a priority, but you would also be using this time to identify other priorities that you want to pursue. So, for example, last year there was a little bit of discussion about. I proposed to the commission that they consider a legacy project, a large project that that that would carry on the work of the commission. You know, annually, and there were a couple of different options for the legacy project. One is for the town to, to adopt a principle of being a, I think it's compassionate city. That's actually a program that counselor. Shawnee ballman was interested in. And then the other proposal was for the commission to adopt a program that's called. I think it's a welcoming. There's something else I'm missing in the title, but basically, either of those programs would have the commission take on a new project that would be something that they would promote annually in the town. So in the welcoming program, I suggested would would align very well with the town's annual block party, because it generally is focused on welcoming new new members to the community, whether they're immigrants or other folks, and the program. I think it has a number of different events that could happen throughout the year, where people are informed of their rights or given, you know, information about support services for immigrant families. I can forward to you the information that was part of the packet from the last retreat or, you know, you can do what, you know, decide to do something completely different. It's really an opportunity for you to get to know each other, understand how the commission works, and what you want your priorities to be and they may be something completely different. It could be a focus on use the sub it's up to you, but I will say that it, I think it was very helpful for this commission to have one big project that they were working on towards the year because they accomplished something. Rather than having, you know, conversation conversation and discuss discussion of town. You know, events is very important, but to be working towards a goal and to have that achievement at the end of the year I think was very helpful and even though you're not quite there with the bylaws. Certainly, I think, you know, you've moved that discussion along quite far so the retreat is whatever you decide it to be. Are there questions. This did you want to add you with it. No, I think Pamela summed it up very well and I think it's really important for us to be able to come together, get to know each other. I don't like to use the word intimately but I guess that's the best word for it. And, and being able to take a look at who we are as individuals and as a unit that's going to try to help whoever it is that we need to help in whatever capacity. So, Deb has a hand up. Thank you, Liz. Along those lines, what would help me is to have some kind of a chart. I don't know summary of the landscape of all of the town commissions and activities that we might interface with because I was recently at a presentation from the committee, for example, and there was an opportunity to ask questions and so I said, I'm a member of the human rights commission I'm wondering how we can support you and be your accomplice and your ally. And they actually had an idea, which knows has escaped me. So, but I would love to know, like what our natural allies might want from us, I guess, and I don't know that right now. So I can provide you with a list of the boards and committees in town. There are more than 40 of them. So, there are lots of possibilities for connections on lots of different issues. Jennifer can speak to this more in depth, but in the one year experience that I have, the HRC, the CSSJC and the African heritage reparations have worked collaboratively and have supported each other on a number of different issues. So I think those were natural alignments but there are many, you know, many other possibilities. You know, the affordable housing trust and the disability access and advisory committee. I mean, there are, you know, the results are, the possibilities are endless. And I think one way to sort of make a decision about which ones you'd like to promote would be to maybe take a look at recent agendas for those boards that you're sort of slightly interested in what's going on. But I also think it's a good idea to just bring a list of those committees and boards to the meeting just for to have a look, take a look at and, you know, some of us has more experience on others and we, if we could take a few minutes to talk about them, that would be, I think, a good idea. Yeah, I'm happy to bring the list to the retreat to the retreat. That would be your next meeting so. So, I don't actually have any idea how this retreat would might happen I could be going many, many ways. So it would help me to see like, do you all prepare an agenda or some sort of rough plan that some that I know that the commission isn't going to meet again so so how do we engage in how that day is structured. So, last year I worked with the co chairs to, to create an agenda for the retreat the retreat will be posted as an as a meeting. And so it could be, you know, the public could attend. And I've been told that generally no one from the public does attend but there is the possibility that a member of the public could come and, you know, sit and observe if they so choose. I think, again, can send you the packet from last year. I think what we ended up doing just and people please weigh in lives and Jennifer that we had an introductory sort of warm up where people did get a chance to, to, to learn about each other and their backgrounds. We did a very sort of simple exercise that I am poem, so people got a chance to talk about who they are and what values they have. And then there was some discussion. We did not do a full day which I think you are doing this year I felt like there was not enough time at last year. So after the sort of warm up getting to know each other piece. There was some discussion about what might be the priorities for the commission for the year there was time taken to review the bylaws then and that's one reason that sort of rose to the top because there were some new members. They had an opportunity to review all of the bylaws and felt that the language, you know, could be needed to be revised. I think we also spent some time talking about what the HR complaint process was like and at this time. So this was in October of last year. I had been on the job search for all of like three months so I was still learning very much with, with the commission as well. And, you know, we broke for lunch and, you know, they made it a list of priorities as I said the bylaws rose to the top and that was as was the focus for the, for the year. The commission also I think during that time spent quite a bit of time talking about the July fifth police interaction with the students as well. That was also a major topic and it was of course very fresh. And so there was discussion about that incident, the report writing the, you know, my role as a DEI director. So if I'm leaving, leaving something out Jennifer and Les, please weigh in. That was pretty much it. Unfortunately, Jennifer wasn't able to stay with us because she had some personal issues she needed to tend to so she was in and out but that was pretty much it and I thought it was a very productive time. Unfortunately, I'm the lone wolf from that whole crew. So whatever it is that, you know, we always have an other so if there's something else that needs to be brought up, or if you think about something we can always put it in the other category and we can discuss it. So, if you think of things beforehand, please reach out to Pamela or Jennifer or Ronnie or myself, so that we could consider having those topics. But we have a lot of work to do, but then we don't have a lot of work to do. And most of the work that we do is going to is going to come from other places. And how we respond to those things and how we see those things and planning things that are beneficial for the entire community to engage so that everybody is feeling welcome, which is why I like the welcome format of our town government. So, I'll leave it at that. Deb has her hand up again. And I'm going to mute myself so Deb can speak. You're muted. Deborah, you're muted. Sorry, I'm not on my usual computer. I'm on my wife's laptop. I, I, having just been interviewed about the police chief search, I'm just wondering if maybe when we meet in just a couple weeks we might have an update on where things are and what direction the town is planning to go and what role we might or might not continue to play. I have that as part of our, you know, how we get to the end. And there's another update. That's part of my other update. Are there any other questions or shall we move on and leave it to Pamela to deal with the rest of this. So no questions and it looked like I skipped a line on the agenda by mistake and that was the update to community events group. I don't know who makes that update. I think that's probably going to be Jennifer. When we just go back. Yeah. No, I'm here, but you were, you had been moving with me. So why it was on the agenda. All right, I'm sorry. I am my brain is in like five places and I will explain a little bit or you guys may may know that are already. So there has not been any movement on farming a formal community events group. What we had discussed was reaching out to community members to have a group. A broader group other than the, this board and the CSS JC to work on identifying cultural events that would be supported throughout support it by a larger group. So I have a knot. I have not moved forward on that. I've just had my hands really full so I apologize but I have not reached out to people. To invite them to that group and I did share this concept with the CSS JC when they met last week. I would say had some mixed feelings about it because I think there was some sentiment that I should rely more internally on the members of that group. And that wasn't, I won't say it wasn't necessary, but maybe it didn't have the weight of needing to go beyond go beyond the current boards. Great. We'll move along then not night heritage month. Yep, that's me. That's the Sunday from one to four. You always could use help setting up although it seems like it might be raining so the event will be a cracker farm. I'm hoping that it's a wonderful we have a DJ will have some food, and then we have some salsa dancing so I'm very excited and we'll have some history on different Latin X communities and countries as well as, you know, I'm really. For API heritage month we had a map. And they people put the pins where they were from in the different countries so we're going to have something very similar to that for Latin X heritage month so we're very excited. And I just wanted to go back to the retreat because I guess my question was, I don't know if Jacinta and Tyler or mobile if we're having to. But Tyler is not feeling well and Jacinta wasn't able to be sworn in so she didn't, I don't, is she here today. Yeah, so I just think we should think about that for the location because or they need to somebody needs to reach out and offer rights because there's no transportation to the months and library. I just wanted to mention that we have a special guest in our audience named Philip Alvola. Hey man what's going on. And I know he can't speak because he's an attendee not a panelist but he's here. He can speak at public comment. Yeah, and I was coming up it's coming up. Make sure we go back to public comment before we leave. Yes, and Deb, I just wanted to let you know that we were really connected with the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee because Philip Alvola who was the co chair of the HRC was also a member of the CSS JC so we had a lot of overlap there. So, you know, I just wanted to let you know that that was there and that's something new that we don't have that connection right now. It's certainly something I think we should have. And we can certainly attend, if not be a member of the CSS JC, because there is so much that's overlapping with that group that I think definitely we can talk about having us. I wouldn't, I have actually wanted to go to their meetings but personally I have not thought it was such a long reason, but I think we can all, we can all any of us go to that. And it might be good. I don't know if there's one before the retreat, but it's another thing to talk about as Deb had raised, I'm also interested in forming some close alliances where there is overlap of interest and trying to advance issues together. Ronnie, I just wanted to say that the meetings are all recorded to so people can go back and watch the meetings they're on YouTube town of Amherst YouTube channel, and the meetings are updated weekly on Fridays. Right. So now we're at the other upcoming events, which, yeah. So Liz, do you want to discuss your other events. Oh, other, other updates. It says event. Oh, no. There are other updates. I don't see updates. No, it's for Diwali. Yeah. And that's for Diwali. Right. Right. And then I was going to also add Jennifer, if you could talk about the liberatory visioning. So we have the honor of having Dr. Barbara Love, which was a recommendation of the community safety working group who will be showing folks how to facilitate a conversation with the community in regards to liberatory visioning. Or as some might want to say as an, what would it be like to live in a just community. So that training happens on Monday and Tuesday of next week from 5 to 930. And again, it will be facilitated by Dr. Love. So I would say, even if you already have facilitation skills, Dr. Barbara Love is incredible. And it's always a pleasure to be in her presence. So if members are able to attend that, I think that that would be great. For multiple reasons, but mostly just because it will also give you, you know, you're going to be reaching out into the communities and having conversations with community members, which is something that I believe is, you know, really important for the Human Rights Commission. So that's what that is. Did I get it? Or did you want to add anything, Pamela? Just that we, the train and trainer session is designed to be both for town staff and community members. The hope is that we would get some staff also completing it. We are going to provide a dinner and we have offered to provide childcare so that folks can attend. And we realize it's a big time commitment. So hopefully if you're able to devote the time, we think it would be worthwhile. And if you can attend, if you can please help spread the word in the meantime, because I'm sure there's a lot of community members who while we advertise in so many places still don't necessarily know that this is happening. From where will it be held? It's going to be in the bank center in the large activity room at the bank center. Jen, I don't know if, if you know what the current registration is, but we have plenty of space so we could, we would welcome more people. I think when I last checked in with you, there was 14. And we were hoping to get 30 folks. So. And where do we go to register? Is there a link or somewhere? Yep, if you go to the town website, it's right on the news and announcements. And it's also on the calendar for Monday, the 20, is that the 26th. And I will also send the link tomorrow morning. Monday's the 25th. Oh, sorry, 25th. So the Diwali celebrations, if you want to talk about that. So we are the, we are planning the first town of Amherst sponsored Diwali or human rights commission sponsored Diwali celebration. And is it the festival of lights? Correct. Yeah. And so this was something that town counselor Shalini ball mill was had orchestrated last year in the year before and the turnouts were excellent and it was excellent programming. So we're really excited to kind of have this event for, for Diwali. In celebration and I think we're still planning. I don't think the date has been. Solicified yet, but it is in November. I think they're looking at November 18 on November 19, which technically passed Diwali, but it's still okay because it's celebrated over many days. And just one other thing about Diwali because I grew up with it. Diwali is the celebration of light, but it's also the celebration of good winning over evil. So in many parts of the world where they celebrate it, there are all these different stories. So even within India, in the south where I grew up, there's a different kind of story from a non Hindu community. I mean, it's supposed to be a new celebration, but it's not really for that light Christmas. But the stories of how good overcame evil are always fantastic. Definitely, good definitely wins. So it's a fun celebration and I've been in other countries when they've celebrated it, not India in other words, and everyone has their own take. But the thing that you do celebrate is always have lights and food and fun. So I think it'll be good for us to host that or be affiliated with that. Absolutely. So I have, I actually have an issue to bring up, but I guess that's been membered reports that when that happens. So you on your agenda you have your second public comment listed. Right. And other topics. Okay, let's go to public comments then since we have public. Welcome Phillip. To a panelist. Hey everybody. Hey, hold on. Oh my God. Yes, I just wanted to jump on really quick and just say good work and so glad to hear the new co chairs I wasn't able to attend last month and I'm excited for you both. Um, and yeah, just keep up the good work. I've had so many people reach out to me about Latinx heritage month coming up. And so I've been just sending them over to when it's happening this weekend. And yes, I just want to stop by check in how things are going. That's it. Don't forget to keep coming. Will do. I'm still in denial that you're actually there. So I'm just saying he was one of the best co chairs I've ever worked with in my life. Thank you. Appreciate that. I'll second that. So, I also know that usually we have updates. But when we did the updates, you specifically asked me about the. Affordable housing. So, but I have other updates. Other than affordable housing. So there, let's do that then. Okay. So, first. I have to follow up for those of you who are new. Phillip and I actually worked with the affordable housing members of the affordable housing trust and also the board of health. And we tackle tackling the issue of affordable housing and Amherst. We had a seminar if that's a good word for it. And then we met and brought together all of our notes. And we're looking for a time to present our findings to the town council. The question we have is, do we present it to the slate of town councils we have now await until the new slate begins in January. So that was just a hesitation that we have. And we're going to be going back and trying to figure all of that out. Second, I was able to go to the hearing loss webinar, which was, I think Monday night. I got some really good information, but I also think that I got to find his name is Jonathan Odell, who did the presentation on how to work with people in the hearing loss and deaf community. And I don't even know what population we have that has some form of hearing loss and Amherst, but it would be good if we could Pamela and I got to reach out to you. We could reach out to him and see if he can come and do a little something something with either human rights commission or a combination of some other members of our town. It was put on by the Bonstaboo County Human Rights Commission. So that's why they invited all the other human rights commissioners to be there. It was very informative. I have a page full of notes that I could go over, but it would be really nice if we could reach out to him and see if he could come and talk to us specifically about the town of Amherst and get from maybe the Board of Health or somebody information on our deaf or hearing loss community in Amherst because they come in different ways. And the other update that I have is I did and I'm hoping and praying that some of you also was able to connect with the folks that were getting information on the police chief updates. I know that I was only able to do it yesterday. Again, last week I was gone. So I met with the gentleman yesterday and it's going to be a long process. And what he said to me is that they have to get all their information, tabulate their information, share it with our downtown counselor, set up a day. Then we have to post the position and have people apply. And then there's the whole interview process. And, you know, so it's going to be a minute before we get a new police chief. We do have an acting police chief as right now. So we just got to make sure we keep our fingers on that pulse and don't let them slip with any of the issues that we are considering and care about as we are going forward with that position. And I think the only other thing is we did get a complaint last year. And we forwarded that complaint to the master's counsel against discrimination from that there was a title nine investigation done on the issues that happened in the middle school. Allegedly, I have to say allegedly because I don't know that anything happened, but we'll leave it at that the word allegedly. And I'm assuming that there was some kind of report that was supposed to be done by the end of August. And if there is a report or a finding. It's not our position to know what's in the findings. I would just like to know that there was a finding. So, if somebody wants to follow up on that, I'm not sure if Pamela, if you can, or if that's pretty much none of our business, because we passed it on to somebody else. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Pamela, give your hand up already. Yeah, so on, I think I have information on all three points. So I think the disability access advisory committee would welcome the opportunity to. To, you know, to meet with you and pair with you to bring in an individual on the hearing loss currently on the on the committee. There are committee of seven. There are individuals with physical mobility issues or individuals with a vision or no vision. And then some other different types of disability. I don't know if there's anybody on the commission itself with hearing loss, but I'm sure that they would be happy to co-sponsor or be a part of that. They've been very active with the Miss with the Massachusetts office on disability and he has spoken several times to that group. So I'm happy to sort of make the connection there. Myra Ross is their, is their chair. Yep. And. Oh, Liz has a question, I think. No, I was just saying, thank you for that. Okay. All right. I'm for way of background on the police chief that town has entered into a contract with consultants. And they are, I believe government HR is the name of the consulting group. There will be, and I think you probably Ronnie or and Liz maybe as co-chairs who might have received an email from the town manager stating that when they're at the stage for the composition of the committee that will engage with all of the candidates. There will be a member from this commission invited to be a part of that group. In addition, I know that he has expanded the number and of opportunities for members of the community to engage in conversation with the consultants. And about the police search. So as Liz says, it's going to be a lengthy process. But I think if you did not receive an email from him sort of detailing all of the different stages, let me know. Ronnie and Liz and I'll make sure that that email gets to you. I did not understand the stages and in fact when I in the interview I expected the person to give me a short overview of like what was he doing and what was the process I interviewed with the woman. And it took her a long time to explain that and I had to prod and she didn't part because she didn't know I think because she kept saying they don't have a full contract. I forget the exact word. But it sounds like they do something and then the town does something and then maybe they do the next thing. And then maybe they do the thing after or something. I really honestly, I had did not get a good like when you do the an interview you tell people like what you're going to do with that. What you're going to do with their information. So I didn't get. I have to say I didn't get a good sense of how they were going to analyze this data. I mean it's one thing to talk to all these people but I don't want to go into the details of our discussion but I was left with a lot of concern about it and the feeling that it was very open ended then I didn't really know where things are going or when things happened. One thing they did say was that they were going to have a report on the findings from what they had and so I was trying to find out. Well, how then you interview all these people then what do you do with the interview data and how do you sort through it. And I didn't you know, I may not have asked my question very carefully because I think I said, what's the methodology or something I may not have been very. Very articulate in how I asked it but I didn't get an answer about how all this is going to be sorted. And there's a lot of input they're getting because they're talking to a lot of people. And she didn't say she was taking notes, but then I don't know what happens to the notes are the notes sorted in any fashion. So, I don't know I got less for them. I also wanted to bring it up because I wasn't really sure what's going on. So I think at this stage, they are gathering information that will be used to formulate the position description and the posting for the job that that's what these preliminary conversations are. You know, what do you want in a police chief what are should the, you know, the duties be the, you know, I'm being very general. But they're not doing that. I actually asked that. What in the know that they're doing is a report in which they're going to provide the findings from what they heard. And that the town of Amherst was going to do the description. I called it the job description and she said the job and they would come with the job announcements which he said is different. I didn't really want to get into that because I don't really care. Yeah, I can try to see if I can get some information that would clarify the process. But, you know, I'm not the only one who commented on the process not being here like this happens then this information goes here this happens and then this happens. And then that happened. And at the end we have a police chief. That was not here. Okay, and then on the last point. So there have been initially we received. We meaning the HRC received one complaint related to the incidents at the school. Following that, because we were not, we didn't really have the capacity to adjudicate or that issue. The advice was to refer the complainant to the mass commission against discrimination where a complaint was filed. I know that since that initial complaint, there have been at least, I want to say at least three other related complaints filed at MCAD. I know this because some of them name the town of Amherst and they've come into the, you know, into the town manager's office. And it is my understanding that are it is likely that they are going to be consolidated into, you know, one major case but they're making their way through the most recent filing that I saw. I had a projection of an investigatory hearing in 2024. So I don't, I don't believe that they've reached a conclusion. I can try to inquire because we were named, but MCAD and most state agencies move a little, you know, fairly slowly, especially when there are multiple complainants around similar set of facts. So I can, I can inquire, but I don't think that they've reached a decision. I'd be shocked to hear that they have reached a decision. Thank you for your follow up and all my inquiries and also my reports and other subcommittees that I've been being a part of. So you're almost through your agenda and this is before you talk about the next meeting date. This is not specifically an agenda item for the HRC, but I do want to share some information about the, the, the DEI office in Cress. As you, you, as you may have heard or may not have heard, I have been asked to be a part of a leadership team that is, you know, trying to shore up and support Cress during this interim period. The team consists of four individuals, myself, Chief Tim Nelson from the fire department, Sergeant Janet Griffin from the police department, and Kat Newman, who had been serving as the title is program assistant in the department. And it is interim, I've said many times interim to interim, interim, like I am, this is not going to be a permanent assignment for me. I'm just trying to help the, the department, you know, just really be on steady ground and to support the responders and we met the leadership team met with the responders yesterday, trying to get some of their needs met as well as to provide explanations about, about things. So I, I wanted to inform you of that one because I know that you would have an interest and two because I have been, you know, they said to someone today like I'm wearing two hats but I only have one head. So it's, it's a little bit difficult and Jennifer has had to really pick up the slack because I've dropped a lot of balls and in trying to, to navigate it, it is convenient that our offices are right next door and we've actually now been able to share some space so that some of the responders have a little bit more private space of their own by coming into the little suite where we are but that work is ongoing. And Ronnie did you have you said you had something to add as a part of it. I think just going back to this is an announcement that you're making right to us in four months about your role in Christ. Yeah, so I wanted to bring up an issue that we don't have to decide today but I wanted to raise it in the commission and then we can think about it during the retreat or in future meetings and this is that I've learned that people are immigrants and who's writing in Amherst with a green card, which essentially means that you're practically a citizen. I lived in the US with a green card for 11 years before I became an American citizen. You pay taxes you do everything else, just like an American citizen except you don't vote. You don't work in national elections, but in many places you can vote locally. In Amherst you cannot vote in local elections if you're an immigrant with a green card. And that's not because the town of Amherst opposes it, apparently the town supports it, but it has not been brought to the state level for voting. So basically, it needs to be approved. I guess Mindy dome and Joe come up for it and whoever else is working at the state level needs to need to bring it to a book. And since we've just had the whole discussion about driver's licenses. They had to push really hard for this would be a new issue but it's something that I feel is quite important because if you, I mean your right to vote is quite an important part of living somewhere. Anyway, I wanted to bring this up I was sort of shocked here that people who are immigrants, which means they legally fully here cannot vote in the town of Amherst. I wanted to just introduce this, it's sort of the end of the day and I don't know what should be, you know, figure out if there's some way we can be more involved in addressing this issue. In where I lived before you could vote in local elections if you were over 16. And as long as you live there you just had to be a resident you didn't even have to be yet to be a documented residents that you didn't have to even be legal, you could vote for the local only. So, it's sort of shocking to me that an immigrant with a green card cannot vote. So I'm stopped there I'm not really sure what it's been any role we have but I thought I should bring it up. I saw Jen's hand and Liz's hand. I think Jen was first. You can go ahead and let's go first though. Okay Liz. This was actually waiting for you to go first. But as we have thought about Amherst being a welcoming town as part of something we discussed at last year's retreat. I think this would be something great to bring up at the retreat, bring it then forward to the next meeting so that it is open to the public. I think they would like to weigh in and maybe create a document to pass forward in writing to Mindy and or Joe and or any of our other representatives to bring forward to the house, because if this is a state thing, we have to go through them if this is an Amherst thing. That's something that we could probably talk to the town council about. However, I think we should also talk to the town council. But I think that this was something we can work on at the retreat, but also make sure we bring it up in our meeting next month or the month after so that other members or other people from the community can weigh in as well. Thanks. I was just going to hand. I know. Well, I just was going to add that so first it does need to get approved by council first, and then it you can, and then it can be moved to the state and. Yeah, that's my understanding is that it was already approved by town meeting. Right, but town, but and then it wasn't approved. So I don't know I would either bring those documents. No, it was approved by town in town meeting by the select or the Amherst has approved that on three occasions, I think, and then they have gotten turned down at the state level. So what I was saying is redrafting something. Because they still can't vote like you can take what was already previously done and revise it to some degree, but you know, to bring something new to the town council. And I would, I agree with Liz that it's something you guys can discuss at the retreat. And kind of have like maybe I don't want to call it a subcommittee because we know how that goes but a couple of folks from the commission to, to work on a draft letter. And so I can pull up the documents from the vote that approved it from town meeting. Right. Thank you. Unmute yourself. Yes, sorry. I was asking that is, since I don't have the impression that the town council was what or what Amherst calls the town council is what I'm used to being called a select board and other towns. So is there like a separate select board or is this all autonomous. We had a select board that is now moved to town council at when somebody, I think, wanted us to be a city and become a mayor mayor mayor rule ship. Is that the good word. And the town voted on having a town council so we used to be a select board, but now we're a town council the select board had like 40 members the town council is 13. We did not have so 40 select board members that would be hard. So hard. No, so we had a select board and there were five members on the select board. There was a whole bunch of people on the select board and there was 245 town meeting members who. Oh, there is. And so our charter changed and we took a vote. Well, we took a vote to change the charter in 2018. There was actually a full commission called the Charter Commission who redesigned what local government would look like in Amherst. And so in 2019 we voted in our first town councilors. So it's kind of pretty new. Just changed the name and some maybe some of the responsibilities. So it went from five select board members. So before it would have been so that town meeting shows that. The town voted on the select board members and the select board members oversaw the town manager and the town manager oversaw the employees. Now it's the town members. So the city of Amherst approved the town councilors and the town councilors oversee the town manager. So this is new and we are now called the city known as the town of Amherst is like our whole name. And so it was actually a really interesting process to. To go through. There's a document called the Charter and when I moved here that's one of the early documents that I looked at it tells you everything about how the town is structured and where decision making live. The wonderful document you can skim it pretty quickly. Yes, I'll go do that. I just, you know, I got a lot of new England's town governments. Very, very simple setup. Any other comments on that. Okay, let's move it to. Can I just make another announcement because here I am I can remember stuff. So Ronnie and I attended the town council meeting on. And I'm blanking on the date and we then presented them the state of the human rights. Of Amherst for them to vote on the work that we've done in the past year. So. We did that presentation. I was in person. Ronnie was in zoom. And we shared the responsibilities to talk about our past year with the town council. That is right. And I was actually impressed that they read the report. They seem receptive to us. Yeah, and I got some notes afterwards saying thank you. And also, I understand and I'm not sure everybody knows this, that we have a role to advise the town council, as well as part of our mandate. But you know, of course, we don't have anything to say it. So of course, everybody's saying, please advise us were open. But it is, it is a window of opportunity for us. If we have issues we want to raise or policies we want to comment on, we can do that. If this is the moment for announcements, I just want to say, I try to take really good notes. I have the entire day of October 9 blocked off, but I don't know the actual time of our meeting of our retreat. And I also don't know the location. So I'm very sorry if I missed that but I'm wondering if someone could fill us in. Is it the 9th, it's the 8th. Yeah, it's the, it's the Sunday, whatever that Sunday is over 8th. I'm getting. Okay, yes. That's okay. It's blocked off, but I don't know the time and I don't know the place. Right. So Jennifer correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that we stated that we would get devote a full day. So I think starting at 9. And the location was a bit of a debate. So last year we met at the Munson library that Jennifer raised tonight the that that might be difficult for Jacinta and for Tyler. And the other suggestion would be to use the town hall room in town, which of course that would be walking distance from for them. So, you have a preference regarding location. I prefer the town hall. But I also think that if we decide to go somewhere else, I'm happy to drive distance and Tyler, since I live right near Amherst College and one walk away from them. I wouldn't mind picking them up and dropping them off. I would say I'm happy anywhere but I just I'm sorry to be a stickler. All day does that mean nine to four does that mean nine to five does that mean nine to six I really I wanted, I want to obligate my time appropriately. I, by all day, I think we mean nine to four not nine to nine to six. So a full day. Yeah. And, and we provided, you know, continental breakfast will have coffee and some tea and stuff there and we did. I think we had a working lunch, because we really didn't have a lot of time last year we ended at 230. So, I mean, we, if we were, if we have a full day we can actually have a break for lunch or do an activity or something that would give people a little mental break rather than last year we we work through through lunch. Any other questions announcement. So, I'm just confirming so we, so your, well Jennifer and I will confirm the town hall then for a location. Okay. That's good. And I'm hoping that we'll see. Most of you, if not all of you tomorrow night at our block party. Are all the blocks signed up for the block party. Okay. And I'm going to be there the whole night. So whatever blanks there is, I'll be in, I'll just, I'll be there the whole time. Where do we do? Where do we go? Like, is there somewhere specific we should show up at? Walk along the street and find our table. Right, right. So the I believe that most of the town of Amherst department tabers are going to be near the fire department. And this year we have a actual table class that says office of diversity, equity, inclusion. So you'll be able to see that and know where we are. We also, I'm almost tempted not to tell you, but I'm so happy that that I saw. So the library created pens. So you will have a button that says human rights commission that you can wear. And, and then Aisa today created a little flyer that talks about all four of the, of the boards that we. So we're going to look really fancy. But we are, you know, just, we tried really hard to step up our games. We have our tablecloth and we have the buttons. And in addition to the buttons that you can wear that will identify your board. The library also was generous enough to I just gave them some terms so there are buttons that say diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and reparations. So that just the word so that we have a little takeaway for folks. I'm sorry, is there a button that says human rights. So the human rights commission button says human has the commission on it, but the other ones just have the title for the, yeah. So, yeah, that's wonderful. I had that on my mind that we should have something that says human rights commission so people know who we are. And we can tell about what we do. Right. Which we'll hopefully know by tomorrow in some different way. But okay. That's a joke. Is there anything else I think we're at the end of the agenda. But I'm happy to see our new commissioners and a sub being working with Jennifer and Pamela and their office and pushing us along it's always nice to see younger folks because you guys know all kinds of like stuff with computers and how to fix this and move that and create this. I'm computer illiterate. I know how to do send an email and I know how to read and I know how to read one. That's about as much as I'm going to do for you okay. Not to say that Rizana was Rizwana Rizwana, but I've met Joy and other occasions she was very instrumental when we had a tragedy at the high school, and she came in and helped us out and was an extra body and to help with the students that were affected by the tragedy. So to see her here in our commission. I'm excited and I just saw your daughter at the soccer game to just I'm not trying to out her anything, but that's where she was okay. Well thank you confirm that that's where she was when she told me that's where she was going so thank you. Liz I just want to before we close I just want to add my condolences on the loss of your sister. Thank you. So here's what I'm going to say about that and I guess this could be off the record so you can turn off the recording if we're but she lived a full life she was 22 years older than me. She's six and seven months and nine days old. I'm sad. She suffered for the last few years. She had dementia, and I'm sad, but I, and I hate to use the word relieved, but I'm at peace. I'll leave it at that I'm at peace. I was trying to pause you because we need to adjourn before I can turn the recording. That's on the record by the way folks. Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to join the meeting for that. Then we can certainly stay on and have conversation as we would if we were in person. So, oh, I don't know that you. Yeah, I don't think we can't do that really we shouldn't when there's a quorum of you guys can't meet off. Yeah, I forgot about that. Okay. Any other thoughts before we close. I'm happy to say it's 750 were 10 minutes earlier than schedule we are so efficient. Everyone have a good evening it is 750 p.m. 751 and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody have a good night.