 So, I'll start us off Allegra is that okay. Sounds wonderful. Okay. Good afternoon everyone. We have quorum. And since this is my first time actually to in the meeting to go from, I forgot I had stuff to read. Don't I. All right. So pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via zoom or by telephone. And 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 and real time via technological means. So again, this meeting is called the order at 604. And are there any announcements to be made before we get to review in our agenda and approving our minutes from previous meetings. Oh, roll call. Thank you for the reminder, Miss Pat. So, um, this Pat. Yeah. Allegra co-chair. Here. Okay. Um, Phillip. Hello, you can hear me, Phillip. Phillip, we want to make sure everyone can be heard. So if you could say yes, present. Howdy duty. Something. Hello. I don't know what's next to his name as if there's not a microphone or a video icon. Okay. I don't know what that means because I'm not. Super zoom great, but. Okay. So if you could. He might have stepped away though too. Okay. But yeah, it doesn't look like his, um, he has a microphone or something. If you could let us know what's going on, Phillip. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. Phillip in the. Soon that would be helpful. And then, um, yes, right. Um, Present. By the way, can you see me? No. I see an icon. Okay. Yeah, it's, it's a weird icon. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm working on it. Okay. But we can hear you. So that's good. Um, Dr. Young. We hear you. Yes, I'm here. And I'll be your staff liaison for tonight. Thank you so much. Um, and it looks like Dorothy Pam and a counselor, Dorothy Pam. And, um, Wait, we had another counselor earlier. There we go. Pat. Thank you both for being here. Alrighty. I think you just forgot me though. I'm so sorry. This is my first time doing the meeting. Apologies beforehand. So Deborah, yes. Yeah, I'm here and I can hear you all. Thank you for being here. All right. So, um, let's see. We're all here. Count of four. Um, are there any announcements? I just have a quick announcement just in terms of my time, just to say that today I have a hard stop at eight o'clock. So I'll have to sign off at eight. Good to know. So we try to get through a business. Fairly quickly and efficiently. Anyone else. Okay. Um, so we have a course public comment at the top of the meeting. Um, I'm guessing when we say member reports, there's something to report out that won't is not listed. On the agenda. Uh, we have several action and discussion items, uh, particularly we're going to debrief about the town council meeting that occurred on the 15th. We have, um, uh, discussion about ARPA funds. And then projects, the CSS JC can recommend to CDBG. Um, I have a very short discussion on the post commission and I'll explain what that is. Um, and then CSWG seven gen leap report. Um, and then possible lays on roles to Crescent DEI, DEI update press update, uh, which is, uh, pro forma for this group. We will always get an update. I'm sure, uh, pertaining to that. And then if there's any upcoming agenda items, uh, or other topics that we did not anticipate. Uh, is that going to work for everyone. For the agenda tonight. Yes. Okay. And I just, I noticed that we see Phillip now. Can we hear Phillip now? Yes. Perfect. Great. Sorry. Technical difficulties on that, but I'm here. Okay. So we have two sets of minutes. That's good. Good to know. So we can all hear, uh, one another at least. Okay. So we have two sets of minutes that I hope. Uh, folks were able to go over. Um, we have one from June 19th. Are there any, um, additions, edits or suggestions in terms of corrections for the meeting? Um, Um, I guess for me, just, just one, um, question. And I guess maybe we can try to figure it out for next, next, uh, meeting is in terms of, I know on, on the July 19th, a meeting, meeting notes. I had a lot of questions like for Paul Bachman. Uh, but I see that he's not, you know, part of our meeting today. And then also we had had a discussion around Paula. Um, the, the person from like mental health. Um, so, um, we, um, we had a discussion about that. Yeah. With why I said, and, and I saw that that, you know, So I just want to make sure that we kind of add them for the next time. Um, so that we can. You know, bring up some of the issues that we have discussed previously. So those are, those are items that we have not put back on the agenda. So that is noted. We would like those placed on the next agenda. Um, We will do, um, If there is a question, that will not appear if you can help us remember to put that on the next agenda. Anything else. Say that again. I just said we'll do. Okay. Um, Any other. Edits. Comments or suggestions about the minutes from the 19th of June. Oh, just save us the 19th of July. Where am I? Is school starting already? Oh my god. It's two days. Yeah, I know. My brain is... I had to go and do something totally out of my comfort zone today pertaining to video. So my brain is elsewhere. I'm here though. So great. Thank you. The 19th of July. Any others? All right. So someone can make a motion pertaining to the 19th of July meeting minutes. I move that we approve the meeting minutes from July 19th. Okay. Allegra moves that we move toward approval. Is there a second? I second it. Okay. Deborah seconds. All in favor? All right. Please note by saying I. All right. I. All right. And the co-chair says I as well. So motion is approved for the minutes of July 19th. Thank you. Okay. Our next set of minutes is for... I'll take it back to it here. Is for the 28th of July. So again, hopefully folks had time to read that. And are there any changes, edits, suggestions for July 28th minutes? I think there is a typo in one of the paragraphs towards the bottom of the document. So let me see. There was... I'm not sure if I'm seeing it. Nope. That's adjourned there. Yeah. It was the word complete. And I think it was supposed to be completed. So if I can be permitted to find that typo and make the correction, I'll make sure that that typo is corrected. But I didn't see any other errors in the minutes. Okay. Any others for anyone else? So the motion would just have to reflect that we give Dr. Young permission to correct the typo. So anyone wants to make that motion? I make a motion to have Dr. Pamela Young make the correction on our minutes of the typo. July 28th minutes. And other than that, to approve the minutes. And approve the minutes. Thank you. And I second. Thank you. So Debra made the motion. Ms. Pat Onanabaku seconded. All in favor? Aye. And the co-chair also aye. Thank you so much. So we have now approved our previous minutes. Time now for public comment. And Dr. Young, you'll be able to see how many people. Yes. You have two attendees with their hands raised. So first is Julian Hines. And I will allow to talk. Can you all hear me? Yes. Yes. Yes. Awesome. I unfortunately couldn't make the town council meeting last Monday, but did access their report. And basically, I was just a little concerned to hear that we cleared these officers of wrongdoing. Whether it's an abuse of power, I personally do not agree. I believe it was an abuse of power. However, regardless, I think that at this point with what happened, there has been so much public press that accountability is the next step for both the police department and for these youth. And I think that this can't, as Scott Livingston suggested, this can't be taken over with inviting these kids out to pizza. It's more serious than that. This is a justice issue. And I think that at least as a youth in my school, I know all of the kids who are involved, either by walking by them in the halls every day, being in class with them or even being friends with some of them. I think at the end of the day, it is unacceptable that when they were already hurting from having a flat tire being pulled over on the side of the road, that all these cops did was harass them more. I think at the end of the day, we need to start thinking about how our youth are treated in this town and also how imagine if one of these kids' teachers said that or another town employee said that. This is not what we expect from any town staff. It's not a particular standard for the police. It's not anything different because these people are police officers. It's what we expect our youth to be treated with respect. We expect them to be treated as they do have rights and we expect them to be allowed to be in communication with their parents when they're in a dangerous situation such as this. I think that it's important we note these things and I have full respect for the work that Pamela Young has done with her report. I believe that I appreciate it and I believe it was a very thorough report. However, I just do not agree. I believe it was an abuse of power to say that we as a town tell youth they have no rights and aren't allowed to call their parents and have to sit on the curb for an hour. If someone told me that, I would feel like it's an abuse of power and these kids are probably going to feel a pretty similar way, especially given that many of them were youth of color. Thank you. Thank you, Julian. The second person with their hand up is Thomas Carzwell and I will go ahead and talk. Hi everyone. My name is Thomas Carzwell. I just recently moved to Amherst so I'm excited to start getting into the local politics and I'm excited by the work that you're all doing. Just seeing those minutes fly by was very promising for the work that's being done by this committee and this isn't something pertaining to something that's already happened. It's just something that I think this committee should be aware of if you're not already. It came to my attention that there was a policy that's being proposed about the street lights essentially and what colors they're going to be and where they're going to be and where they're going to be allowed to be and I just wanted to make sure that since that is something street lights are directly related to community safety that I just wanted to make sure that that policy was on the committee's radar because I believe it's being sent to the town services and outreach committee for review which is good because they're town services and outreach but I also think that it has a very strong impact on community safety especially when I want to walk home from a restaurant at night through the town and parts of my walk home are not lit and as a car drives by with their brights on I'm getting startled and I've seen a lot of people who don't understand where all of the sidewalks are walking in the middle of the road in areas that don't have street lamps and I find that frankly very concerning and I just wanted to make sure that everybody was aware of that because I don't want the there to be any discrimination in the areas that are better lit versus not lit or where we're allowed to put street lights and where we're not allowed to put street lights because I think it's a thing that everyone in the community needs especially if we're going to start moving towards bicycles and walking as a form of transportation through the town away from fossil fuels and things like that. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Thomas. You have one more hand raised from Jay Smith Crooks. Can you hear me? Yes, Dr. Smith Crooks. Hello. Hello. I'm here speaking tonight as one who has been in lived in and out of Amherst since 1978. I'm one who grew up in Macon, Georgia during the civil rights movement and beyond and I was quite disturbed myself. It was an insult to integrity for there to be a declaration that there was no abuse of power, not only integrity but sanity, ethics and reality for young people to have experienced what they experienced and to have been told. It's like they said in my community and growing up in Macon, Georgia, grips and groceries, eggs and whatever and going on and on. So to tell young people who are at a very vulnerable age that what they experienced wasn't what they experienced based on the laws that exist, the statutes at both the national, the state and local level was very insulting, very insulting and if we expect them to grow up to be leaders of statute, leaders of integrity, leaders of the capacity to think, then I think sometimes we have to acknowledge reality being what reality is and I think that at this time and place in the history of Amherst that is what's called for the adults in this community to set a standard, to set an example and to do justice to our young people as well as to those that we entrust to protect us. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Smith Crooks. I don't. There was a hand up and then there we go. We can't hear you. Hi, can you hear me now? Yes. Hi, my name is Vera Cage and I live in Amherst, Mass, 12 Long Meadow Drive, apartment 21. I want to thank the committee for keeping the issue of the I'm going to call the mostly young men and one woman that was involved in the July 5th police detention in our community. I just want to convey that like many people in this community who may know these young people or may have heard of what has happened to them, I just want to remind folks in the public too that we're concerned because we see all of these children as our children and we are so invested in their future each and every one of them like they were our own flesh and blood and I would hope that the town with the newly created departments would center the real experiences of the families that have been involved in this unfortunate incident, incident that has sometimes been repeated over and over again for some of these same youth. I hope there would be one day soon that the town can have the courage to actually walk the talk and to really put resources, time and attention to the struggles of the young people in our own community. This is their town, these are their departments and while I think we also need to consider that this incident is felt differently by different people depending on what uniform you're wearing, what gun you may have on you, what weapon you may have on you, what power you may have invested in you. We really have to go and reflect that these young people are 15, 16, 17 years old. All they want to do is have fun, hang out with their friends, socialize, go to school, get their education, and come home safely and I wish that the town would one day listen to the people who have been working so tirelessly over the past couple of years visibly in formal town structures and invisibly doing the work behind the scenes to really uplift community. I really want you to employ the strategies, the plan, the programs, the proposals that people have already come up with because a lot of us are watching, a lot of us intend to be engaged in a real way and I just hope the town is prepared for that because anything else is just a waste of time and a joke. Thank you. Oh, I was muted. Thank you, Ms. Cage. There's no more hands it looks like, so we'll move on to our next item. We have on our agenda, first off, unless there are member reports. Any member reports? We're the members. There's something to report that is not on the agenda for discussion. So the next item under 4A is a debrief about the town council meeting. I'd like for us to, since we have other things on the agenda, to try to, because there was a lot going on, of course, for us try to kind of collect our thoughts around it, particularly our first impressions. How did we feel about it? Did we get the answers as a committee that we were after? How do we think that we did in terms of presenting our ideas? And then lastly, and these are things in how I guess I evaluated myself and the meeting. So I can only speak for myself. But what was the end result? You know, what were we effective on some level? So just want to, if Allegra, if you could kind of lead that and I'll try to even take some notes so we can wrap up that discussion at the end, I'd appreciate it. Does anyone want to start by sharing kind of what their takeaways were? And I do, I like the way that Dee has framed things, but if anything else is coming up, either related to the presentation or the response, please feel free. Yes, Deb. Yeah, I can start it off. I just wanted to thank Ms. Pat for putting it out there. Again, the fact that we were left out of the conversation when it first happened, I saw it because it had happened to us as CSWG and we had gone into it the last time. It said that it was very disrespectful, but then yet again, it happened again. And for me, it was just exhausting, like for me to even, I was just like, okay, here we go again. But I was happy that Ms. Pat brought it up and kind of shared that. So right off the bat, it didn't feel right. It didn't feel good. I think we did well in terms of presenting the information and kind of reiterating the important parts that we wanted to have happen in regards to this. And I think several of us made points that obviously, Pamela, you did that report, but that report still needs to go back and needs to be kind of enhanced and needs to be really showcase a lot of the questions that we still have, because there's still a lot of gaps. It's not complete. And it needs to kind of address the human factor in regards to this and actually what happened. And that's why I said, if we don't address that, then it doesn't seem like the town cares about our young people and cares about what happens to them. Because even if by whatever definition of abuse of power, it wasn't met, all of the definitions were met, which was the powerless, the power structure encroaching on young people and telling them they're powerless, which they're not, but telling them and putting the foot on their neck to show them that. And so that report needs to really be enhanced and really address some of those aspects as opposed to just kind of legal parameters. It needs to go beyond legal parameters and really deal with violations that occurred that night, which just from those 54 seconds were many. And then obviously, Chief Livingston then sharing that it was said because the police officer was angry because he was questioned again. So goes into a lot of our recommendations, the training, the training for our community, the fact that of course, when they say they haven't heard from the young people or the families, they haven't heard from them because they don't feel safe. Why would they hear from them? So what is the structure that's going to be in place to really liaise with the families and with future folks, like when we're talking about a compensation, victim compensation group and everything. So I'll wrap up because I know that a lot of other people want to talk, but really when you said what was that end result, I think it was powerful in terms of everything that we shared. However, I didn't see anything come out of it. So I haven't really heard what's going to happen. Nothing has been addressed in terms of the demands that we made. A lot was taken under advisement. Again, the whole thing, apologies for keeping us out of the meeting, so on and so forth, but haven't seen anything come out of it. So that's very disappointing. Thank you, Deborah. Did you call me? Yes, Miss Patch. Sure. So I'll be very brief because I know we have a packed agenda. I think my first impression when I stood in and we had the town reps presenting, I felt that the whole presentation minimized the gravity of the incident. I felt that the kids' perspective were not represented. I felt that our town has been normalized. That it's okay for police to harass our youth, especially kids of color or people of color in general. And so after the first presentation by the town officials, there were so many thank yous, thank yous, thank yous from our great counselors, good people, but I was struck by our intelligent counselors. They did not ask strong questions after the presentation until CSSJC, when we did our presentation. So the atmosphere changed a little bit. So I didn't know what that was all about. Is it because these kids are not our children, that we couldn't ask tough questions at the beginning? I think I appreciated counselors who spoke true to power, and I don't want to mention names, so I don't forget anyone, and I appreciate all those who spoke up. I do want to bring up one thing, and that is counselor Shaloney, that to me, the way I understood and I took it was that she tried to undermine majority BIPOC committee, CSSJC, and she did the same thing with Seven Gen when they did report. Basically, her comment last week was not very helpful. I'm fine for folks to criticize what we do or criticize us, but in the criticism, you have to be more specific. I heard her say that she's heard from Black people and White people who don't agree with CSSJC. I'm okay with that, but how many people are we talking about? It would be very helpful to say I spoke to one person or to 20 people or to 30 people or to nine people. Just to make a blanket statement is undermining the work that we do. She made the same comment when Seven Gen did presentation. In fact, that is another group that refused to even take the contract because there was no time. It was during pandemic, we were shut down and we were lucky to have Seven Gen do the work. She did the same thing, tried to belittle majority BIPOC group. It is not helpful at all. It's what I wanted to say. If people want to criticize group, that's fine, but be more specific. You can't just make it's reckless statement that she made. I will stop there. Give other people a chance to speak. Thank you, Ms. Pat. I would like to hear from everyone. Freke and Philip? I'll go next. In regards to the structure of the meeting, I did feel like it was on the town's benefit to go first and possibly create the narrative that they were creating. And then to Ms. Pat and Debra's point, then have us come in to present and then other questions being raised by other individuals that heard a presentation first and then a second. Then I will say that as far as what came from it, what there is that I feel that the unresult was, I don't really feel like there was an unresult and it kind of just was left as message from the town president that we care and this conversation needs more attention. Yet, I'm not sure what attention has been given to this conversation outside of that meeting last week. Thank you. Freke or Legra? Thank you. I think that there were some things gained from the meeting and one of them was publicity and the fact that we got to have conversations that could have been buried. Buried in the sense that they could have been siloed and different groups would get to speak within themselves. But what we had was an opportunity for different views to be aired. But in the meeting and afterwards, I was able to speak with others after the meeting who had things to say. So I think just on the level of publicity, there was success. Now, publicity isn't easily defined and if we are looking for something that is measurable, then one might say we haven't achieved success. To that, I would say also that sometimes success takes time and success can be looked at from the perspective of buy-in. Now that we know the community is aware of this particular committee, are people buying into what the mission and the scope of the committee is? I do think that it would have been helpful to have the committee at the beginning. But I also think that we could approach the meeting with the council with less suspicion. So here's a scenario that I think could have worked. Let us suppose that the reports had been presented and we had information that wasn't in the reports. We could have said that the report is incomplete and we have additional stuff that we would like to add and people that could help embellish or add on that report. That wasn't what I thought we did last week. I thought we were a bit more confrontational than we needed to be. What I expect from the committee, what I expect from the town is some kind of rapport in which, even for these tough questions, we can work together to arrive at some solutions. But to wrap it up, I think we were able to have people speak and different views come together and I think that in itself is some kind of success. Thank you. Thank you. Dee, do you want to go or I can say a few words? Either or. I suppose I'll go. I think the process was similar to some of the processes we've seen. I am thinking of specifically the CSWG meeting in which they were presenting to the finance committee or so they thought. That occurred last May. I think that if we had all been in the room from the start, the conversation, even if we weren't the first presenters, the conversation might have taken a different path or a more collaborative path. I think that at the end of the day, while I do think it's important that we raise awareness, my question again is what's the action that's going to come out. More community members are maybe aware of the incident and aware of our committee and who we are and what we do and that's important. I do see some new names that have shown up and spoken tonight and that's a wonderful thing they found out about our meeting and they've attended and they've raised some new issues as well. So that's a good thing. But I look at our list of demands that we've laid forth in the letter and I don't think any have a concrete answer or even a concrete timetable at which we will expect an answer and I believe in our initial letter we'd ask for a response the day after the meeting and certainly that was not what happened. And I think some of the some questions were easier to respond to perhaps than others and some would take more research and thought again especially in the idea of creating a victory and compensation fund. So I understand if that hasn't happened yet but nobody you know I at least I have not received any communication from a town councilor saying you know this is this is what we saw in your letter and this is our plan for attack or even just hey this is our next meeting we're going to put you on the agenda again or when would you like to come back again. So I think you know there were no concrete next steps as I saw defined from that meeting which I think is a little bit disappointing and also kind of expected. Thank you. Thank you. Just you know what's consistent and what everyone has said is that we're looking for follow-up. We're looking for concrete actions as Allegra pointed out we didn't even get a response to our email and letter to the council and so that has not occurred that's the bare minimum you know that we're working on these things these are things that maybe we can do further down the line nothing and so I hope that during this meeting we can maybe approve Allegra and I to just send an email as a follow-up you know what's up we asked for a response the day after and we didn't get it. From me personally I think we changed the narratives because there was a narrative obviously that was in place that the council and the town staff had in mind and presented and when we then did our presentation I believe it changed the narrative because it shifted some of those counselors to finally ask some more critical questions to see things beyond the status quo and so it didn't push it all the way I think it's a start it's still something in progress but we did change the narrative from these kids being you know out late at night it was their fault the police actually took care of them which was Livingstone's retort and we shifted that we and had we not been there I feel very strongly that this would not have been a point of discussion with the town council and it certainly would have just been the kind of status quo uh uh you know narrative that was fed to the town so I think we we did do our job in that way so the definitely the failure is not on our part we we did our job even with as what Freke said we opened up uh different voices uh and and heard some concerns from other people in the community whether we agreed or not whether they like us or not because it's not a popularity contest it's are we doing the work of the people so I certainly appreciated that um what was the other thing that we weren't at the table you know that there was um this creation of their narratives without even bringing us to the table and this is something of course that we brought up during the presentation that is a serious concern personally on this committee that is a serious concern because like all of you you we have multiple degrees we have multiple professional experiences and we're busy people and so we are doing this work because we take it seriously we care about our community and in this instance we care as one of our speakers uh in the public uh comment section said these are our children and so that personally really really upsets me the other one that miss pat brought up about you know this undermining we can't undermine ourselves when we are presenting it's okay for us not to always agree 100 but if we are presenting as a committee and we've agreed to something let's do it you know I'm not saying we have to be in lockstep but we have to have a united front in order to get something done in this community and I think CSWG has shown us as a model that that is the mode in which you must move in this community that is very stuck that doesn't mean they're bad people but they are very stuck in terms of their organizational sense systems and practices okay the other thing a town council member presenting in generalities about unknown black people unknown white people and that's not to say those dissenting voices aren't there but I have to agree in this instance with with miss pat that that is really unfair to us as a committee doing this work because it simply undermines our time and our efforts so I'm not saying we're not open to criticism but the way in which it was done as if they speak for the people of color in this community or for white people for that matter and it's just nebulous it's just in generalities I I think that's um that's problematic so those those are my comments I hope that our DEI director will follow up in terms of what they submitted because I felt that it was not fully filled out and I am still waiting for chief living stones report as I'm sure the rest of the committee are are also waiting so those are those are my thoughts so I have um I don't know if you saw my hand up oh no I'm sorry yes now I do thank you oh no problem and I wanted you all to because I know I had already spoken so I wanted everyone to go before before speaking and I guess for me I guess I just wanted to address what um freki a little bit about what freki talked about in terms of like when you were talking about the fact that you know it seemed like you know we we were just and I don't want to put words I don't know what words you use but almost kind of like you know we were a little bit hard on the um during the meeting and and things like that I mean I think one of the things that maybe we didn't do as well when we started this committee is just to kind of really say that this committee is a successor committee to cswg which means cswg which I was a member and this pat was a member we did a lot of hard hard heart wrenching work for over a year irrelevant to this town and town safety right for everyone but especially BIPOC communities and marginalized voiceless communities in amherst and this was tough work and so this committee is building on that this committee is taking what we started and continuing forward with it so this committee actually has history so this committee is not just a new committee coming out of nothing where we're just giving everyone a chance and it's la di da and kumbaya this committee is coming off of hard work and I think maybe what needs to be done is maybe the new members need to go back and read like you know and maybe sit through recordings because it's all recorded it's all there you know I'm saying so we already have history so if we sound passionate is because we're building on that passion and this committee is about continuing that work and continuing the recommendations and making sure the recommendations that cswg put it put into place also come to play and to build upon it right so we already have history with this and the fact that you know one of the things that really you know really undermined everything and why we had to you know at least for me I'll speak to myself why I had to really be very serious and and and be focused in regards to it is the fact that they disrespected us right off the bat and did the same thing they did with cswg beforehand so nothing was learned even before so again um freki and others who are new to this committee I hope you all understand that this committee is is is building off of cswg you know what I'm saying that all the word of the cswg did I know we're gonna build from it and we're gonna but there's already a lot of history on it and a lot of history in regards to it and so for me I'm not going to apologize for for for coming off the way I come off I'm going to come off it because I feel this is very serious this is something that that needs to be addressed and there's already history from before in terms of how we were treated previously and how we need to to keep moving forward to to get this work done thank miss pats next okay so when I first spoke I only focused on my impressions because I tend to talk a lot for a long time so I stopped I didn't you know address the other two portions so what I'm I would like to say in terms of how did we do I think what what jumped up to me was that we were able to expose the truth like the number of um BIPOC youth for example and so on and so forth so we're able to expose that um and I think to me it was very significant at least it made some counselors to you know request or propose like counselor Michelle Alicia and I'm forgetting other people and I apologize but who has suggested that the experiences of those youth that July 5th needed to be included in the final report that the town will produce so in that end I think we were a little bit effective because we exposed the truth and now you know some of the counselors changed their mind and said we want a comprehensive report and I would like to mention very quickly that a family reached out to me and said that um APD reached out to her yesterday and she did not want to talk um she didn't feel comfortable and I know some counselors have suggested that um for the APD to reach out to families um from what I've heard from at least three different families they don't think it's a good idea they'll rather talk to community members that they trust and feel comfortable with more to come to that um if we have enough time in this meeting because I have some new update from at least two families that you know have reached out to me that I would like to share with all of you if we have time tonight and if we don't that's okay thank you thank you miss pad I think Phillip is next now I just wanted to I guess kind of a little bit respond to Debra your comments I completely understand that we are from a group that has existed and there is history and definitely I have read and have followed the work not to the full extent of someone that has been on the committee I'm very well aware that you have a lot more knowledge on that than I do but I do have I don't know a concern but maybe a little bit lower than a concern with how we are going to be as a committee to get the actions done that we want done and history or not building relationships with town officials with departments with community members is also important and so I did not voice a concern out the town council meeting because I felt as if that wasn't an appropriate time to do so but I do feel that we did come off real strong and I don't know if that strongness is as effective as we would like it to be I guess time will tell on that and we will see thank you Phillip and I think building relationships are important particularly with our new DEI and the new director of crests and the new council members I can only speak for myself having had multiple roles within the town in different committee positions it's a negotiation right and I think we need to be prepared and I can only speak for myself and I'm hearing what you're saying because we might have different approaches but I think in this committee that we are here probably for the same reason and I and we need to respect one another's differences in terms of methods and approaches and we we have to figure that out we're new we have to figure that out what are what's the way in which we are going to not only respect what has happened in the past and the respect has to do with the experience that many of us have been working in this town to build momentum towards change and it hasn't been easy and so respect that but then also how do we proceed now into this new terrain and I think we're going to have to figure that out together and instead of looking at that as like something bad I actually that's exciting for me because I get to know about you Philip about Freke about Allegra you know and and how we are to do this work together and to me that's exciting so thank you um yes Freke um I thank you for um these wonderful comments I think the beauty of the group is the diversity that the group has and that diversity is a diversity of life experiences but in this particular case one that deals with the diversity of experiences that we've all had in this town um and I do recognize that this is a group that or a committee that has been or is an offshoot of another committee one that has done remarkable work and we're building on that my comment was simply to say that I believe we could have achieved a similar result without um by being a bit softer we all are looking for similar things they might not look that way but I think for the the community for the council and for this committee we are looking at opportunities to improve the diversity and equity in town um and um sometimes I think we it would be better if we are accommodating even if it seems like it makes uh we are giving more than we're getting I think accommodation sometimes can be good where that would be in particular cases is something that we all have to decide for ourselves um and so I'm not offering a roadmap on what that would be but um I'd still like to say I appreciate the diversity of this committee and the different approaches and experiences that we all have thank you thank you miss pat and I just want to do a time check because yeah it's 703 yeah I was going to say that just few seconds very quickly is that I'm glad that Philip you raised this um I think what I have observed is that when black women in particular advocate or speak up that is a a racialized language that is used like when you attack you people really don't listen to you you know but for white women it doesn't matter how they speak you know they're smart they're savvy yeah yeah but it's also a cultural thing in my culture when women speak up you know it's seen as being attacking aggressive because it is a um male dominated you know culture and here when black women speak you know to white people it's like you're attacking our our time management reference to that that you know it's good to criticize but it's not okay to attack I just want people to think about that to just take it in whose perspective who is telling another group that they're attacking is that the people already have power is it men is it white people that have power think about it thank you thank you miss pat um always so sharp I appreciate that that analysis um because I I know that we have experienced um some of that um anyone else to comment about debriefing you know whether it's the methodology um or what to do next I just wanted to thank everybody for sharing tonight and being vulnerable I mean I think this is tough work and I know a lot of you have brought the history of CSWG in seven gen and I think counselor Walker had said you know handing off crest felt like handing off my baby and and this committee I imagine might feel like that too um it's emotional work it's not you know again these were children these are our children that we're trying to take care of um so I appreciate that we've kind of addressed some of the dynamics in this group and and understand that we might not always have the same methods or be exactly on the same page but how can we work together to get our message across and to get changes started and and worked on in this town so I just I want to take a second to appreciate this is tough work and you know we might know that was have the same methods but I think it's important that we try and work through it together um so that was that was one thing I went to say and then I just I did want to go back to what Dee had suggested earlier about maybe the co-chairs just sending a nudge as an email and I I think that that would be a reasonable idea um so I don't know if I need to make a motion to to do that but if so sure I'll make a motion I move that the co-chairs send an email to follow up with the town council specifically related to next action steps as outlined in the letter and when we might be able to expect any sort of response from that we can't hear you miss pat oh okay I'd like to amend your motion that in your email to request for CS SJC to return in October uh you know to see what has happened since July 5th and it's you know it will be several months what action has the town taken to remedy the harm so to return to town council yes okay for the for the town council meeting yes so have a joint town council meeting okay so Allegra you prepare to amend your statement you want to restate it and then we can amend can I go back to when miss Pat said let's forget Rogers or Robert as person is I told you guys last month if we want to be productive just do regular meeting assess WGD do regular meeting okay so but I want to make sure since we do have differences of opinion in this group I just want to make sure that we are in agreement that and if someone is not in agreement that please speak up that Allegra and I will send an email to the town council president Lynn Lynn Greysmer about our original letter asking you know to we we really expected a response the day after and that we would like to return to the town council meeting for October as a follow-up yes are we all agreed I agree yes I agree just okay I can't see you Freke so are you in agreement yes I am I don't think I'll be able to fix the video except I go off and come back on but yes I agree okay great all right I hear your pain I went through that last month sorry yeah all right great thank you all so if there are no more comments we can go on to the next agenda item I have your hand up miss Pat yes yeah very quickly I have two families who approached me because they were aware about the suggestion to get input from from the youth and families and they're preparing to write up something is there something that we want to send to the I directly or do we want to include it in our next meeting but they do want their kids voices included in the final report for the police but they do not want to send it directly so can I ask miss Pat um for you to explain like what what's as much as you want to you you don't have to explain a lot of it yeah but um you're saying that families uh who two families that that have been impacted by this yeah um are they they are asking uh for you to kind of be the intermediary and to write a report and you're asking should it be sent to DEI or where yeah yeah yeah I'm not writing the report they're writing you know right you know what their case went through and what they would like to see and this is what they've shared with me and this is like kind of you know jumping the step but I asked them like what would you like to see ultimately and basically they said that some of these kids and they're calling themselves uh MS 9, MS 9 meaning the incident happened in MS we know that not all of them are resident you know resident of MS and they said that some of the kids since eighth grade I'm not kidding you our APD has been targeting some of this youth for no reason they want their kids to be left alone they're just kids out there socializing they're not doing anything bad you know they're not drinking they're not drugging or stealing nothing just because they're kids of color they live in apartment complex racial poor profiling they said please leave our kids alone they also said you know with the pandemic and like so many of us so many people were you know didn't socialize you know people are vulnerable to depression anxiety and you know with the police harassing their kids you know they want their kids emotional well-being like therapy and counseling and that's part of the reason why I raised the victim compensation fund you know for the for the time to seriously think about that we need to think what if it's our kids and this is what these families are you know are asking for emotional well we have to repair the harm and anxiety they're you know ready to get back to school and in my impact for some of them in my impact they're you know academics as well and they also said that the two police officers the two police officers involved need to apologize to the youth they want that you know to happen I will stop you know there because there are other stuff that they told me but I'll just wait for you guys to read it once they write it up I will forward it to I'm assuming to Dr. Pamela is that correct so I do not have the authority to provide to investigate the police department like the only place where police can be investigated and their actions reviewed currently in the town is the police department the one exception might be the human rights commission because they human rights commission can also take complaints but outside of those two entities the I as a DEI director don't have the authority within this department to conduct an investigation of the police you know it just does not exist you know at the way things are currently structured in town so you know my advice would be if the families do not feel like feel comfortable talking to the police directly they could send that information to the human rights commission or they could send it through you or someone else who is on this commission to the police department so my I am I can request and review information that comes into the police department but I don't have the ability to collect or to act upon information that would come independently through me so it really you know at the way things currently stand it really has to go either through the police department or through the human rights commission I don't know of any other structure in in town that would be able to accept a complaint so there isn't very quickly the reason why I ask the question I remember the town manager last week at the town council meeting mentioning that he has set up quote unquote good system where you have the three heads of department yourself the press director and the police chief so he and all complaints so yeah so that's why I asked do you want those uh report from kids and family perspectives sent to you or not all right that's why I asked that question yeah so we we have been in communication but uh in in order to have the authority to act upon the complaint it doesn't currently exist in this department so the press director the chief police and and I have been in communication but the you know the question is where does the authority lie to act upon the information that's received and I don't have the authority in this role to act upon the the information so um I think that the two possibilities for where there might be action or the police department are the human rights commission the human rights commission has a bylaw it's able to receive complaints um and those complaints could could be uh against uh members of the towns you know staff and employee or private a member complaints against between private citizens the way the bylaw is written but the the de i department doesn't have the authority to act upon a complaint so I am really limited to reviewing information that is coming into those and through those two uh avenues so thank you for for that dr young so it sounds like human rights commission we certainly um as a committee because it's it's not just a complaint it sounds like it is yeah it's it's actually uh describing what they've experienced their trauma so um this relates to what was suggested by you miss pat in particular uh and agreed upon by this committee to put forth the request of a victim's compensation fund that speaks to the need for such a fund to be set up uh for you know whether it's therapy or or whatever assessing what these young people and their families um might benefit from uh because that's central to this discussion um and then acting upon that in some way if we are are able um so dr young if the resident oversight group were already set up that it sounds like would be the logical avenue as well for if it's submitted as an actual complaint because that again that was part of our request so for the previous the 15th meeting uh to talk about the need for the resident oversight uh board and a place to safely for for residents to safely lodge complaints against the police right so the resident oversight board as it's been envisioned by the two previous reports would be a place where um individuals could make complaints against the police and um i'm sure you'll probably touch on this when you get to the discussion about posts but the post is also on the state level a place where anyone could make it could register a complaint okay so that's another one um miss pat okay okay so it sounds like debora yes yeah can i jump in because i guess i'm just a little bit confused now um in terms of this right so uh pamela i i guess this is the thing from from your report it seemed like you were investigating or coming like i mean i guess then what was your report about you know because this what miss pat is saying is that this is what that's what i heard you know chief livenston talk about in terms of you know we need more information no one has come forward and talked to us and so on so forth and we said it very clearly we need a liaison because these folks don't feel comfortable going to the police so i thought right and so that's why i'm very confused and we need to answer this because it doesn't bode well because paul balkerman hinted towards this yes this kind of you and and url and and and chief livenston being this kind of like you know stop gap right until the oversight board is is in place and you were investigating and coming up with this report so now we have information from the families and now you're saying you're you're not the right place to take the information this is very confusing and it makes it look like you all don't want it because now you're sending folks to human rights commission or against the police that we've said that they don't want to go to so you know i mean what i want to what i want to say to you is that i think what you you should do is go back to paul talk to him figure out what what what can be done in the meantime as opposed to shuttling folks off someplace else when you gave the impression that you are investigating this and looking into this and they have information about the situation is this isn't sound right to me okay so i cannot recall the exact words that were stated at the meeting i mean we'd have to go back to look at the uh at the videotape but um i know that what has occurred is that uh the crest director myself and the chief of police have met to have conversations about uh this incident and about what the course of action should be i am limited in what i can legally do as far as conducting an an investigation outside of the collective bargaining agreement as side of the outside of the personnel policy you know rules and regulations for the police department what i did and what i tried to communicate last week was receive information in and then review that information and and uh with this with a report i you know i haven't i have not conducted an investigation in the in the i think the way that most people would think about that term or define that term but yeah but that's where um um you're losing me then because the way that it came off is like you did an investigation into the incidents and the issues and actually you were quoted you know and and in the paper and everything where the vi did not find that the police abused the power and so on so forth so that's what i'm saying maybe you didn't intend to do that but in actuality that's what happened and so that's why now we're very confused or at least i'm very confused because with what miss pat said which is i have information now right which is what we've been wanting which thankfully these my heart is really going out to these families to to have taken their time to like put this together which i know is heart wrenching having to write down your trauma on a piece of paper and now we we can't even tell them that we we can receive that information after you just did an investigation or investigatory report where you basically said the police did not abuse power so this is very this is not good that's all i'm saying this is not good okay the report itself states the amherst police department is conducting an investigation like in so then what was your so what your your report was what it was a review of the information that was provided from the by the police department and it's like i don't have the authority to conduct an investigation but your point is well taken if it was confusing but the the report clearly states the amherst police department is conducting an investigation that that was not very clear so so very quickly i'm i'm not asking the families are not asking to conduct investigation they just want their own voices included in the final report right who do i submit it to it's my question and you said to go to human right commission they're not asking for an investigation they don't want to talk to anybody they just want their voices included in the police final report okay so i i i'm asking for who should i in town in the forward the documents do okay so so you're saying you they want their voices included in the police final report that's correct right it has to go to the police department to be included in the police as final report i have to check with the families if that's what they want because it's not my understanding when i talk to them they want to channel through somebody else and incorporate it with the police report that i'll check with the family um i don't have the authority to put information into a police report that's the point i'm trying to make like i can get information i can review it i could i could review it and you know amend perhaps my report but i cannot get it into an official police report okay so to depra's point and to to miss pats you're saying that your report that was presented on the 15 came out of the information that was already available through the police department and you simply compiled it uh you know kind of listing out this is what occurred a timeline etc okay yeah i i do know i don't have any additional information other than the information that came from the from the from the police department and i don't have the authority to investigate or or to question or to receive it you know receive that information so i'm limited in in what i can report on and only i would not have the ability to insert information into a police department department report it would have to go into the police department in order for it to be incorporated in their report and in order to to revise your report is that correct okay so go ahead i'm sorry so as you as you suggested earlier if the resident oversight board was up and running you would have a different structure in place that it would allow for some of the things that you know is desired but it's not in place and really limited to what you know to the structures that are in place so the reason why i i'm not trying to direct people to another commission but i'm just saying that the two places in town that i'm aware of by the bylaws that can receive information about complaints and human rights commission could be about you know it could be a complaint against any town employee it could be a complaint as i said between private citizens but the bylaw gives the human rights commission the authority to receive those types of complaints or concerns and to act upon them okay so maybe philip can give us some more information on that since he's on the human rights commission yeah i first just want to thank miss pat for having this relationship in this connection with families and i think that brings this committee's importance in the community to have that relationship and then i also just want to agree with debora that then the report that you gave miss yang is very confusing and i think very misleading on public opinion public view the understanding of all like i can't speak for everybody but for me on this um committee to understand that this was not a separate investigation just echoing what debora has said because that was my understanding of that report as well as far as human rights commission goes uh being co-chair on the human rights commission it's my understanding that that complaint then would go through the human resource department is that not your purview miss yang so the the complaint process prior to the creation of the dei director was that a human rights commission complaint went to the human resources director currently donna rey kanealy um so with the creation of the dei director position that process has changed and now uh in theory the human rights commission complaint would come to the dei director would i would think given the circumstances of this particular case it would probably be advisable for it to go to another entity so i'm like not like you know trying to wear two hats and two separate roles um but the the change in the in the the creation of this position redirected those complaints into this department where previously they had gone to the human um resources department right i get that and then also too i just do want to put i don't know if other committee members are aware the human rights commission did file a complaint with a police department would that then could that be added information then if this family does choose to go through the human rights commission right right so i think that that is a place where additional information could could could go because the human rights commission did file a complaint so you could you know you could receive could receive additional information um and your complaint um well your complaint so you could you've already filed a complaint i'm just thinking through this so bear with me your complaint has already been been submitted to the police department um i don't know what avenue they took to respond or you know how they what they did with that information but i think additional information coming into the human rights commission um paired with the complaint that you already filed with the police department would probably be another avenue for information for the families to come in and directly um and be submitted to the police department that seems like that would be a logical place for for information to go so that might be a more desirable um path for the for the families that sound right for you philip miss pat um at this moment i something actually came came up to me that's another third family um if you were to write her complaint in spanish does the town have the capability of translating that otherwise um i have someone who might help me get um i think one you know speaker who can translate very well in english but do we have the capability of translating so so now i'm talking about three families now right so i think that um that the town has been working on translation services and in this case with make um uh i don't know what make the necessary decisions to have a document translated through some external services i i don't think that we currently have a system in place that where i could say yes send this document to this department for translation but i think given the circumstances that they would the town would find the resource to have the document translated there are a number of different services around that would be able to provide a number of different um companies or departments around that would be able to provide provide the service thank you so that's something that i want to put um on our next agenda translation all throughout all throughout town government this is this is just inexcusable that you know even at the town council meetings um we do not have translation available i would hate that these parents or these guardians these families that uh speak you know another language more fluent than english um are unable to participate uh even you know in terms of just listening and trying to follow an already complicated process through town council so i definitely we need this on on the agenda uh next just inexcusable so does that help miss pat you're going to check in it sounds like with these families to see yeah i'm getting very emotional right now so i'll comport myself miss miss pat i do just want to go and say that uh we do have a meeting tomorrow night the human rights commission and also as far as translation myself and i know another member on the human rights commission can do spanish translation awesome i didn't want to impose on you thank you that's just want to go on record with that because it's extra it's excellent i'll take five minutes right okay i'm yes so it's 7 33 and it looks like we're not going to get through everything on our agenda um so i'd like for us to look at it uh quickly and um um try and prioritize uh some of this so my post commission uh conversation can i can put it to the next time it is as um miss young as dr young um uh signal it is another way in which to lodge complaints on the state level so um i can even maybe have a presentation on next time uh to try to compress and synthesize some of this information um arpa funds that's something that miss pat i believe was going to speak on i don't know she's um ready to do so right now also projects the css jc can recommend to cdbg um that i'm thinking uh would be something in terms of the bypass youth empowerment that we also are challenging and pressing them to to build um multicultural center and then cswg seven gen leap report um to go back through that i don't know if that's something that needs to be prioritized right now um it's always kind of at the forefront possibly right here where it says possible liaison roles to crescent de i so i'd like to hear from the group in these last few minutes that we have uh dev available for this meeting yeah um i mean i'll chime in i think for me i'd i'd want to um get more the like f gh i guess like more the the the ones on the bottom like the possible liaison roles to crescent de i and then de i update and the crescent date because i want to hear more about the uh oversight board and the timeline i know that that was included so i think that that's a a pressing matter especially given our just our our conversation this last conversation we just had that seems very pressing right so yeah so that would that's a good idea what how do you think about that freke or philip or allegra i agree i think prioritizing those i agree with them all right so um dr yang are you prepared to talk to us a bit about um how you uh envision this uh lays our role as crescent de i because it sounds like we have some thoughts about it as a committee so i um had not prepared anything in response to that i thought that that was an agenda item coming for um the committee about a desire to have the committee service liaison with those two um departments so i i have not prepared for a minute i did um send to the committee and included in your packets was a draft timeline for the resident oversight board so i can speak to that i can also just report on other activities on the de i department has been engaging in and um you have received a written copy of uh the crest directors report and he and i spoke and i can highlight some of those things as well so i um i'm well no i appreciate that and i appreciate you preparing this um so it will it looks like it will need some explanation i did look over it and it's kind of it's a lot going on um it but one of the things it sounds like to me is that we want a role uh on crests on de i resident oversight after all that's why we were appointed and we're assembled to help guide these entities and as we voiced very strongly during the town council meeting um we feel you know uh apart from that and it looks like things are being decided without our input so i i would take uh issue with things are being decided with without your input as setting aside the the most recent uh interaction with the police department and stuff i i've been on the job for six weeks maybe seven and during that time there have been lots of work done to further the goals that you i you know you meaning the subgroup of you that were part of the prior working group but this group as a whole have identified um as things that are important to the work of the de i department in the town of amherst and july when when you met earlier we talked about the resident oversight board i said that i was working on a draft i didn't feel comfortable sharing that draft uh in july and asked to present it at this meeting it's presented as a draft so no decisions have been made but i think there has to be some allowance given for me to you know get up to speed uh to have conversations with you to synthesize the work that you spent over a year on and i'm i'm not making excuses i'm just stating the reality so um you know that you have a draft no decision has been made no action has been taken place uh taken place uh on that um in terms of other activities that the department has been engaged in i've uh been working with uh with gen to create a strategic plan for the department um you know we have been diligent about doing that sort of taking our time to think through all of the responsibilities that we have for the town as a whole so what what are the priorities of this department how will we interact with all of the other departments and boards and commissions on on town how will we uh respond to community members what does community engagement look like what is the timeline for rolling all of those things out and um we have set internally a goal for having a completed document um for ourselves for next Tuesday but again it's a draft like you know I think it would be very presumptuous of me to be six seven weeks on the job and say you know I have completed a strategic plan and this is how it's going to work in the town of Amherst I'm that's not um that's not what I'm trying to do but I am trying to be thoughtful about the process and think about things and share them with this group um as you know as they come to a little bit more um I don't want to say completion but you know in the first draft stage so I don't um I I think that I have been mindful and um and I'm trying to be intentional about uh about the work that I'm doing and so um certainly I don't think I have uh that I've presented anything as uh a faith on complete thank you yeah so I mean I think like the way I'm thinking about a Pamela is like more so about how can we be like a kind of consultant or consultory you know uh place for you right for you to kind of sound off um you know ideas and things like that because I mean I get it obviously you're going through the process but maybe even you're going through the process right might be an opportunity to come to us and and ask us questions or bounce thing off off of us or maybe you'd rather it be just two people because I know it might you know all of us might not be and I don't even know if we can do that because obviously open meeting law I don't know but but we'd have to figure that out right like how can we be a sounding board um to you um you know and I get it that you're doing it in draft form but even as you're putting to get to your drafts it might be a good idea or I mean I think the thing for me like in terms of you know when you got involved with doing that report for the police or whatever for the town council I think that those types of things maybe those are the things you want to come and talk to us about before doing that report or whatever because those might be some of the things that we might you know because like you said you've only been here six weeks we've been you know in in Amherst years and stuff like that and involved in in in in Amherst you know activism and in different aspects for years you know so um so those are types that like those hot button issues you might want to use us you know you have folks you know it's Ms. Pat she has a wealth of information you know uh years and years and years of information and that will help you kind of navigate some of the landmines and stuff that are around because you know like our previous discussion um you know and I'll just be a little bit honest now it's just like it seemed like almost like you were utilized as a shield you know um for the police because now I really don't understand what your role was you know why did you do that report you know maybe you should have just let them finish up that the report and not do it at all you know and let them do their report and then maybe you could have commented afterwards as opposed to you doing the report and now there's they're still doing a report you know I'm saying it just it just didn't come off um right um so anyway so so those are the things and that's why we're posing that right for you for DEI as well as Crest and it's and in the town council I know we have liaison to the town council you know how you know we need to think about that be very intentional about how to utilize us and the fact that we have a lot of experience we have credentials we have all of those things years and years of experience right personal and professional that could be of use to you all so how can you all intentionally utilize us that's so I my expectation was that that would be the function of these these meetings right that there would be an opportunity to share with you my thoughts about the whatever I'm working on and then there would be opportunity for for feedback which is why of course things are presented in a draft form I think your point is well taken that perhaps you know there we could look for ways to have additional conversations but it's it was at least my thinking that that's the purpose of these meetings right that there is this symbiotic relationship between me having the role of being the director and being a staff liaison to this uh to this um to this group so and it sounds like and so I appreciate what Deb uh has has shared once again but within the structure there's not a a part of the structure where then DEI and crests you know writes a report we get to see it we get to have input and there's a give and take and so somewhere within that that structure and organization uh I can speak for me can't speak for everyone else it sounds like um we or I would like to see where there is a some some point at which CSSJC gets to have input before it's then presented to the town because in some ways it can be read as we're complicit with what your report said and obviously we had the opportunity to uh to if we had challenges to to what was said and which we did but in in some ways it might seem as if well if DEI is working with CSSJC it's like then they co-sign that so there I think there needs to be within the structure where there is some input after you do your part and in writing up a report if that's what's being asked and then we get to see that and then have some input to shape that narrative because I'm just trying to look down the line this is one incident what happens later on if we're working together then there has to be some some part in which we can we're supposed to be helping guide and shape press and DEI well where does that happen in in terms of of your reports and you know your narratives so so I don't know the answer to that outside of the structure that currently exists which would be you know meeting with you on a monthly basis having conversation providing you with the draft documents but that will be a question that I will raise with the town manager thank you and I I did read your your draft and I don't see post in it particularly on step three but I can offer that to you you know at a at another time but I do have some comments I don't know who was first Miss Pat or Allegra Miss Pat was I'll be very quick Deborah thank you so much for raising that you know to add to what Deborah said with CSWG we were very clear what the role of CSSJC will be and one of them is to be support for the department for for DEI department particularly the the director and the assistant and also for Cress department as well we were more like sounding bored for you um we're here to support you we're not working in opposition and I'm so sorry that you're working to your job and you have this big controversial incident that you know went on your lap but this is not at least I can speak for myself it's not what I envision you know for you to start your job but please use us as your resource one suggestion I may I give um I think it will not be violating open meeting law could be wrong if you work with coaches sometimes I may be wrong I don't even know what I'm talking about but if you can bounce some ideas with them because the coaches ultimately you know um he and those agenda they you know that's my experience with when we had our coaches with CSWG they work with Jennifer or you know the town manager you work with them you know come up with agenda bounce ideas with them and then when we come to our monthly meeting maybe you know then we can discuss stuff but please use us as your support that's what we are about we want to support you your department and Cress department we're not your opponent regardless of what maybe you've heard about some of us here but we're here to support you thank you oh you're muted so I um I do not see uh this group as um as an opponent um I know that uh you're going to have very tough and demanding standards um I know from your you know the prior experience I I too like Philip have read through the prior reports the elite report the gen seven the working group both reports so I know that you've put a lot of time and effort and beyond the time and effort you know the passion that you speak comes from your experience and and history with the town so I expect you to to um to keep my feet to the fire to sort of just to to coin that that phrase um you know it is a new department I am new in this role and we will as you have uh talked about your prior relationships even as a group you know we'll figure out the working relationship and how that will proceed thank you camera um so I guess I just wanted to kind of circle back to the idea and I think what Dee had said at the beginning kind of thinking well you know how are we going to be in the room how are we going to be helping shape these things and I guess my thinking back to CSWG they were meeting weekly and I am not recommending that we meet weekly but I am I am looking at our ambitious agendas and thinking about how we get through about three items you know or we are meeting two hours after our ending time because we are passionate about what we're doing and there is a lot of work to be done so I guess my my kind of thought around having a liaison from the committee to the department rather than from the department to the committee was that perhaps in between the monthly meetings that we have if there is something that comes up or if there is like a big decision being talked about that that it's not you know okay well I have to wait until the 27th of September to talk to them about this it's like okay I know that this is my one designated person that I can kind of go to or give an update to and I'm not violating open meeting law because we're not deliberating via email with the whole group for you know so I have this one person that I'm designated to reach out to I don't know if that does violate open meeting law but that was kind of my thought about about what having a liaison to the department rather than the department liaison us would be did that make sense I feel like I said a lot of words and it was kind of yeah so I yeah it certainly made sense and I do understand understand the point that you're making I think and I'm not necessarily opposed to that I think the thing that I that from my perspective in this role that I have to sort of figure out is that there are a lot of priorities a lot of things placed on the plate not only you know am you know our Jen and I the the staff support for this but we're a committee but we're also the staff support for the Human Rights Commission and the African Heritage Reparations Assembly and that is in addition to all of the other things that we have so prioritizing our work is going to be very important because we are being pulled in every direction you know because and I mean that is a good thing to sort of have that level of attention I think around town both in the town hall and the various departments and you know we've met with the Chamber of Commerce we met with the business improvement district we've you know had other conversations with civic organizations so I'm we've I've had conversations with the League of Women Voters their racial equity task force I'm scheduled in the fall to have a conversation with the Amherst Women's Club so there's a lot of desire and activity to push forward the work of DEI and Amherst but we are Department of Two and we have to really prioritize our work so I think the most important thing that I see that we are doing that you have a strong interest in is the Resident Oversight Board like to you know the I mean obviously we don't have a lot of time to go into deep conversation about that but I took very seriously the work that had previously been done and tried to think strategically like what is a realistic timeline for getting this achieved and how can we can we achieve it in a way that complements post you know works to sort of to get to the ultimate you know goal that you want it so as I and I was reading through things earlier again today in preparation for this meeting so you know the work that was done by those prior reports was excellent I think it was very comprehensive you know as I was reading again you might have heard last week that the the Civilian Oversight Board I'm not sure with the title they use in Pittsfield found out that they did not have the authority to review the incident that that occurred last year in Pittsfield and as I was reading through your reports I noticed like ah here's the language that would allow this board the ability to review an incident like that if those same facts were to occur here so I you know I know that you've put in a lot of work and I'm trying my best to honor that at a pace that will you know be both moving the work forward and that will allow me to do you know with Jen's assistance all of the other stuff that we have on our on our table thank you thank you for because that was a really tragic incident and for those of you who don't know about it someone mental illness was killed by the police in Pittsfield so um and right the having a strong a citizen's review or resident review board um with language that would enable the investigation subpoena power all of that is is really important does not sound like if we're going to try to break it eight that we're going to get through everything um I would like to however kind of set the agenda so that we'll know what's coming up for September if that's okay already I have the follow-up in terms of town council and Allegra and I'll draft an email on behalf of the committee the resident oversight board so you'll hopefully you all will be able to look at that in more depth and you'll be able to present on that um just going back in terms of our previous the agenda um Ms. Pat the ARPA funds discussion and the CDBG discussion we'll keep that on the agenda there will be three minutes okay um just give me one moment because I want to get through this first okay the CSWG seven-gen leap report stuff what was that going to be a discussion about what is being left out or what was going to be that discussion and should we keep that on the agenda for September I mean I feel like that was originally on there to kind of ground us in the work together and I kind of feel like we leapt into this July 5th incident which is also leaping into the work of it but I don't know if other people want to come back to the report and kind of lay that foundation from the reports or if nobody has if people still have not read the reports I guess would be the question I would recommend that we push it to November that particular agenda okay hold up Deborah yeah I guess the only thing that I would say about that it's not necessarily to kind of rehashing the reports but really kind of just taking out the recommendations right I think that that's really what we need to focus on and really have a timeline for the ones that have that are not on like that don't have a time you know like yeah something set in terms of how they're moving it for like the youth empowerment the bi-cultural center we need to kind of have an idea of how we're going to push those further along so I think we need to focus in is on the recommendations so let's put that at the top of the agenda and and maybe that can kind of frame the rest of that discussion and then the the post commission I'll actually if that's okay I'll do a presentation short presentation just to kind of put that information together so that we're aware of it um and what I would request uh and I I want to check in with the committee about this it would be helpful um Dr Young if you and Earl could even if it's just an outline that each month that we meet that we actually have an outline of your activities just you you went through briefly uh the different people that you all have met with and are planning to meet with and are scheduled to meet with it would be helpful I think for us to have that picture of uh what's going on in the two departments um and it written out uh would help me um and maybe again in our role as guidance you know I'm listening to who you're meeting with and maybe this has already taken place but we have two historically black churches they're not you know they're they're very multiracial now but we have two historical black churches that um still convene and I don't know if they have sent out an invitation but if not it'd be great if there's some outreach to those two groups um on you all's part so that's just a suggestion in terms of guidance there's also other churches that are Spanish language churches and in Kamai you know uh Cambodian groups so you know in in terms of DEI work um not to give you more to do but I think it's important to meet communities where they are right so um those are my suggestions but I would like to see even if it's a brief report outlined form you know perhaps just so we can get a sense of of what you all um have been doing and and plan to do so um folks I gotta go um so I just want to say before I leave um the other two things that we had talked about was just around you know um you know Paul Bachman the town manager in terms of like you know finances funds and I think that goes along with the recommendations so I don't know if we need to have the recommendations conversation first and then invite them on and then also Paula Starnes I guess from YSAT that we have talked about and then lastly um Tuesdays I was able to meet this Tuesday but Tuesdays are not going to be good for me moving forward just in case if you all do kind of put a standing meeting Tuesdays will be the the day that will not be good for me but but I gotta sign out okay we need to let us wait can you wait for five minutes you you need to hear this you have to go sorry yeah that's how I said I had a hard stop yeah is that okay with the chair co-chair yes say that again so I um item number B and C it will take really quick okay so with the upper fund that was given to the town 11 million points something nine million has been distributed okay two million are going to be distributed this September and I'm urging our group to let the town manager know to you know put a break on that because I have some concerns for example bid business improvement district was given more than half a million dollar and the small shop owners businesses some of them didn't even hear about it only 25k and 40k was allotted to businesses so there's a lot to unpack about equity in the way that funds were distributed so some of the recommendations that CSW did the upper fund might be one of the ways to get some funding for it so I will stop because we're running out of time very quickly number C the CDBG is going to be having public hearing and some of the projects that are eligible with that funding include social services and I look um with what our group is all about I can I can see how we can recommend some projects that you know will promote equity we just don't have enough time but this hearing is coming up next month it makes me think about what Allegra has said we meet every month I was wondering if we can negotiate time maybe mid twice in September and October it seems like we have very packed agenda and I'm feeling that time is of the essence soon we will get into budget season and just yeah time is flying something for us to consider tonight only for September October if you can meet you know twice a month to get things done thank you okay so five minutes that's great uh so then then what you're saying is for us to consider tonight can we schedule besides our regular meeting which would be I guess on the follow the Tuesday at the end of the month like this on the 23rd but to meet at the start of the month as well miss Pat is that it's okay with people's schedule I know school is starting for folks um so we can get some work done I'm begging you guys please it sounds like Deborah Tuesdays are not good for her anytime it's good for me on weekdays so so Wednesdays um as long as it's not a Thursday at the beginning of the month I'm fine in terms of evenings where where are we with finding a date what about our counselors how we shall schedule busy busy yes it's busy busy I think I'd have to look at my calendar I think Wednesday nights work for me personally okay I don't know about Dorothy Thursday nights do not work um and and Monday nights of course so I think so Tuesday which doesn't work for Deb but Wednesday would work for me Dr. Freck Freckie are you there yes I am here how is Wednesday night for you Wednesday nights is good awesome yeah oh that was Dr. Young Dr. Young does that work for you so um Wednesday night it depends on the date because you have the HRC meeting on on Wednesday nights as well um so that might pose a conflict is what what time is that that's uh 6 30 is that every week or is that like the first week every third every third Wednesday but that's helpful okay so if we were to propose that for September and October we tried the second and fourth Wednesdays would that work that should work and would everybody be on board with an additional two meetings over the next two months yeah so that would what be the seventh and then the fourth so the Wednesdays in September are the 7th 14th and the 21st and the 28th so Phillip you're saying that the 21st is the Human Rights Commission meeting great okay so the the 7th the 14th and the 28th then would are available yes okay can we do sevens okay so tentatively sure seventh yeah okay can we do seven from six to eight thirty instead of eight is that pushing it too much for people oh yes seven it's i mean six six to eight thirty oh that's what you're saying okay is that pushing it too long so tentatively sure we have to check with depth yeah okay can i just perhaps can we have one of the meetings be dedicated more to the kind of Crest DEI updates and then one be more dedicated towards kind of the funding sources just so that we're kind of deliberately thinking about what's being talked about when and when that's a great idea if if i may suggest if we can do the funding thing on the 7th because you know time is very sensitive and if we can have the our finance director has some questions for us that would be also awesome i requested for him but he wasn't available today okay yeah all right so the the Wednesday meeting on the 7th it will concern Crest and DEI and no no upper fund and CDBG oh i'm sorry i had a neighbor stop it okay yeah if we can have the time manager and the finance director um come to that meeting um i have a lot of concerns okay a lot okay and it's good all right so that's the first meeting on the 7th and then we're talking the 14th or we talk in the 28th i mean it'd be great if we would then have one at the end of the the month we wouldn't do that yeah 28 28 yeah and that will be kind of more of our regular scheduled business yeah with Crest and DEI yes yeah updates got it thank you guys then October okay can i propose one more agenda item yeah um i do think that what one of the public comments that was raised earlier about the street lights is actually an important thing for us to take up because i from a liaison from another of the town's committees it does appear that many of the recommended cuts to street lighting are happening along east Hadley Road where many of the apartment complexes are um which could be an equity issue and could be a safety issue for those residents especially if their um street lights along walks to the bus route or um or that area which was my understanding based on the analysis that had been done by this resident right thank you for not dropping the palm on that because i'd certainly not that i'm forgetting it but yeah so should that go on the 7th or the 28 on the 28th okay and then for the 7th i would like the 15th compensation fund discussed because we might have some potential funding from the upper fund all right so we'll send out something as well just to make sure we've captured everything here in terms of the agenda items but i think um this is a good start anything else pertaining to uh september meeting schedule okay let's go back to our agenda here so um dr young do you think that that's something you and uh url would be able to accommodate not only in terms of september meetings but also having an uh outline maybe it could uh since we're meeting twice it could be submitted at the end of the month uh so obviously i can't speak for url um he is um going to go live with the crest responders on september 6 i believe yes so i imagine that his he's going to be very busy i'm sure he would be able to submit a written report similar to the one that he did um for tonight but i would not want to commit him to more than that but i'm happy to ask him about that great okay appreciate it um so i think we've made it through as much as we can unless we want to continue discussion on either the the rest of these items on the agenda or um other topics that we did not reasonably anticipate nope so miss pat i do want to say thank you for um being there for people in the community as you are always and uh and particularly this uh the situation that they feel comfortable enough to uh and safe to come to you and um that you are working with them to try to collect you know their their thoughts and ideas pertaining to this matter i i so appreciate that um and i hope that you know we will get to see uh that their their report because i think it's an it's important that we understand what uh our families uh and particularly this situation but what families are experiencing uh in the community uh regarding this matter thank you i also want to thank everybody i know this work is very hard um with cswg i always tell people to please take care of yourselves and you know when you put yourself out there doing public service you will get criticism but um just find a way to relax and um take care of yourself i also want to thank the town councilors that joined us and i'm i didn't know if you guys have any you know comments to make i don't even know how this works you know um during our meeting deliberations or if you want to speak maybe raise your hand or something but i appreciate both of your coming i know um councilor dorothy already left but um we appreciate your time thank you so much thank you yeah and of course to dr young yeah i'm getting to know you um regardless of what you've heard about me i'm far from like that well thank you dr young as well and we do know that this uh this work as as um pat uh said is is difficult um and you know you were just getting into the job and um we do have high expectations of course because we've been doing this work for quite a while so thank you for working with us of course so i i would just um again sort of um ask that you guys not refer to me as dr young because it feels very uncomfortable like i you know it's a jd rather than a phd and and i okay yeah i um you know so i i appreciate the additional a degree but it you know i don't i don't i haven't earned it so okay yeah okay so thank you for the correction so thank you thank you pam all right all right so um i think uh if we could have a motion to adjourn unless there are other items to discuss we could um get out of here i moved to i um did you want to say something does anybody want me i moved to adjourn second okay uh thank you both everyone we're all in agreement good job okay you survived that was cool see you all thank everyone take care of yourselves all right i love you good night everyone good night