2021-01-28-LHRC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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• TG— That was tester training—FYH, TG, and our past chair took this training. There was a housing discrimination concern and because Lexington doesn't have a designated housing committee to address housing discrimination, the State said it fell under the Human Rights Committee, so the Human Rights Committee picked it up and trained some people so we could run testing. The Chief of police paid for the training and included LHRC members as well as officers. • SH— One of future asks is to have more training through MCAD. • TG— Our biggest problem here is we don't have a budget. Trying to find a free workshop would be fantastic, and opening that up to include as many community committees and groups in Lexington as we can. I would support that. • TG— We would need a much more specific request and I think it would have to be very clear exactly what we wanted and how much that was going to cost, before we could go forward. The Select Board will need to clarify whether the Human Rights Committee is still going to be the place for housing discrimination concerns and issues. I know that they're looking at the variety of committees they have in town and into changing/reducing/looking at their charges. The broader question would have to be answered before we could move forward. • MDR— Jill would you like to speak to any of this. • Jill Hai—First, Tanya, I appreciate that perspective. The Select Board does have a lot of balls in the air, not the least of which is that we have asked and there will be money for some sort of, whether it's a Chief Diversity Officer or a Diversity Officer, I don't know exactly the title yet, effective with the next budget which will be voted at Spring town meeting in March and will become effective July 1. So once that person is in place, there may be a whole reorganization. And there may be different, housing, so to speak, for issues, whether they're related to housing or, or are or other pieces of this work so I can't give you a definitive on that, but I think this is incredible work that has been done by this group. I think it's really valuable I would not slow the train while you wait for any sort of reorganization. I think it is worth pursuing. • Jill Hai - One question I have for Cheryl is how this workshop is structured the free workshop that we could bring into town? Is it a limited enrollment or is it something where they, you know, would use our 200 persons zoom? That would help determine how broadly we open it, and certainly, this committee needs, and the related working groups need to participate. It would be great if we could encourage other committees, other volunteers, other organizations who are either officially or just by passion related to work that is going on in this area in town and I'd like to be able to do that.