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Home My WebLink About2021-03-11-LHRC-min Town of Lexington, Human Rights Committee Meeting Thursday, March 11, 2021 Virtual 9:04a.m.-10:33a.m Present: Committee Members: Monami D. Roy [MDR] (Chair), Tanya Gisolfi [GF] (Vice Chair), Fuang Ying Huang [FH], Cleveland Coates [CC], Stephanie Hayes Hsu [SH], Scott Bokun [SB] (School Department Member), James E. Barry Jr. [JB] (Police Department), Melissa Interess [MI] (Town Manager's Office Member/Human Services Department) Meeting called to order at 9:04 AM, Quorum was present at 9:04 AM 1. Welcome 2. SB moved to accept the February 11, 2021 minutes with addendum to attach Chair Report— SB; SH Seconded; Passed 3. Highlight of anti-bias training for LPD. Chief Corr or Jim Barry will be presenting in April or May at the LHRC meeting about anti-bias training for LPD. 4. Member Reports and Updates • SB attended BALex International Mother Language Day, METCO Presentation on Segregation in the Suburbs, working on getting schools open and teachers vaccinated. MDR noted LEXSEPTA efforts in getting teachers vaccination slots. • SH added that parent groups have gotten 100+teachers vaccination appointments so far. She also attended League of Women Voters program on "Being an MBTA Community and What it means for Lexington." Deadline for applying for a seat on Town Committees is March 15, 2021. The LHRC needs candidates as well. • MI notes tonight's 1) The Impact of Racism on Asian & South Asian American Communities: Coping, Caring, & Wellness -March 11; 2)Living on the Autism Spectrum - April 12; 3)Working on a program on Civil Discourse with LHRC - date TBD. • TG reported that LHRC, with the support of Human Services and the Town Manager, will be offering two TAB trainings in April and June. • MDR-will School Committee Members be attending one of these trainings? • SB —Yes one or more will be attending. • JB there are no incidences to report. Saturday, March 13, is the LexPride sponsored Stories of Racial/Social Justice: Envisioning Public Safety. • CC attended BoD meeting for Chamber of Commerce along with TG/MDR attended. Working on a TAB training for CoC. Also attended district rotary anti- bias training and seminar, a talk about the book Breaking Barriers, the National Rotary presentation on the Black Experience, and Select Board meeting. 5. Advisory Council—Putting together an advisory council is part of our charge and we will be sending around to all of our cultural groups to join this council. We will be asking you to help make sure we don't miss any groups. 6. Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Proclamation— • In 2010 it was 1/125 children identified with Autism, 2020 1/54 are identified with Autism. The reason for bringing this forward at this point that we are changing the language from Awareness to Acceptance. • MI -Moved to adopt the Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month Proclamation; TG Seconded—7 yea, 0 nay, JB abstain • SB will take to School Committee. • MDR Will send to Select Board. 7. Racial Disparities in Lexington Work group presented by Work group Members Matthew Cohen and Manasi Singhal • The information in this presentation was gathered from Town wide surveys and a 2019-2020 Employee Diversity Survey and is publicly available. • The goal of this presentation is to look at where we are and how we can move forward toward more diversity. • Key Suggestions for Areas of Growth • Employ the "Rooney Rule" in interviewing/hiring process. Making sure for every available position we are interviewing one or more POC. • Work on increasing Lexington's attractiveness to people of color. • Foster cross-cultural connections and events. • Increase diversity in Town leadership. • Provide regular data collection and analysis so that we make sure we are making continued progress. • Remember"Nothing about us without us" —that we need listen to minority voices when making decisions. • Committee member questions/comments • CC—Would like to see a breakdown of the municipal employee demographics. • SB —LPS is making great strides with the hiring of Johnny Cole as Director of Diversity and Equity. • FY—Disappointing that we haven't made more progress in hiring diverse staff in the schools. Why don't we get a larger pool of candidates? We need to have more diversity in our town staff. Disclosed personal story of how, as a CPA, she applied for a town position and never even got an acknowledgement back, and that her daughter has also applied for a position and never got a call back. Also shared how excited her daughter was when she came home from school one day because her teacher looked like her. How important it is for our teachers to reflect the race and culture of our children. • SH—How do we encourage or advertise to our minority community the importance of engaging in town committees and boards. We should reach out to our METCO parents to get more involved and that we want them involved. • TG mentioned the Asian Communities report titled Civic Participation by Asian Residents of Lexington: Experiences, Findings and Recommendations provides great suggestions. • MDR there is very slow progress in town, continued concerns about the culture in this town. • Public Comments • Bob Pressman commented that the work of the LHRC is a lot of progress, and that Attorney Carmen Ortiz is reviewing equity in our town. There are a lot of good programs, and the Select Board has suggested a new role, Diversity and Equity Officer. 8. Housing Workgroup —April is Fair Housing Month, and the work group is recommending the following ideas: • Suffolk University Fair Housing Training • Suggesting either having a book club to discuss either: • Neighborhood Defenders • The Color of Law • Resource flyer to promote several recent programs that are worth watching: • League of Women Voters—"What does it mean that Lexington is called an `META Community'?" • Federal Reserve Bank—Racism in the Economy —The State of Housing • Jill Hai —March 11, bpm —Mass Historical Society— Confronting Racial Injustice: Redlining: From Slavery to $8 in 400 Years. This is a first in a series of program. • Questions around work groups • Jill Hai —Two people from a public meeting can talk to each other, but they can't talk to another committee member about the same topic. If you have more than two committee members on a work group, it needs to be public. The outtake is that a member can go investigate something and it is okay for citizens to be a part of this investigation, but the member must be the one to report back. Only one committee member is the "responsible" member of the subcommittee and can assign to non- committee members. • MDR asked for more clarification for workgroups and upcoming event committees. Are we allowed to put out notices for volunteers for these event committees? 9. Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Anticipated in Advance • Letter of Support to Legislative Delegation • Police Chief, Mark Corr brought House Docket, NO. 1263, an Act to amend the definition of a hate crime, Section 2. Section 39(a) of Chapter 265 of the General Laws to our attention. • LHRC wrote a letter of support endorsing the amendment to the definition of hate. • JH has mentioned to the Select Board that LHRC would be bringing this letter up for discussion and will be voting to sign. Do we want the Select Board to co-sign, sign their own letter, put this on the Select Board letterhead? • TG moved to send the Letter of Support to Legislative Delegation with adjustment to some wording to the Select Board; MI— Seconded; Passed. • MDR brought up a recent harmful post on social media that impacted our town, staff members and residents. Right to privacy, personal emails leaked, attack on private resident unfounded statement made, wanted to let you know it happened, and follow-up is in process. 10. Upcoming Events • Race Amity Day—We will check in with Jill Hai about how work groups meet for our upcoming events but for now SH will coordinate with LexPride on an intersectionality event. CC will work with the Chamber to think of cobranding; MDR will reach out the library, and FY/MDR will reach out to the cultural groups for more trivia. • Cary Library— Social Justice Book club — 1st Wednesday of every month. • Lex See Her has ongoing events. • Parent Academy is March 13, and LHRC is a cosponsor. 11. Public Comments Motion to Adjourn: SB Seconded: JB Meeting Adjourned: 10:33AM Next Meeting Date and Time April 8 at 9:00 AM LIST OF DOCUMENTS 1. Chair Report 2. Autism Proclamation 3. Racial Disparities in Lexington 4. Civic Participation by Asian Residents of Lexington: Experiences, Findings and Recommendations 5. Letter of Support to Legislative Delegation Recently the Town of Lexington