HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-11-21-HSC-min.pdf Minutes
if Human Services Committee
11/21/00
Present: Barbara Ciampa and Helen Gravis, Co-Chairs; Robert Dentler Roz Gittleman;
Steve Kelly- Cathy Abbott, Selectmen Liaison; Steve Baran, Human Services
Coordinator(recorder)
Absent: Macy DeLong; Khalil Khatri; Christine Yedica
Minutes of 10/25:Christine Yedica was absent; Khalil Khatri was present. Barbara Ciampa
attended an affordable housing conference planning meeting representing the Mass. League of
Women Voters, not the Human Services Committee.
Liaison to youth services:Steve Kelly will be in touch with Helen Cravis to get caught up on youth
services, particularly services to youth in the schools.
Liaison to preschool and Communities United: Barbara Ciampa noted upcoming Communities
United meetings. Steve Baran was requested to obtain some basic facts about Communities
United including its services to Lexington families, e.g. amount of DSS funding, cachment area,
number of children served, needs assessments.
Liaison to Domestic Violence Response Team(DVRT): Helen Gravis reported that the DVRT
team had recently met. Stephanie Havener of the Health Department reported on her trip to a
( national domestic violence conference she had attended in San Francisco. DVRT with the
assistance of a planning consultant prepared a work plan including community support and
advocacy and revision of their brochure.A brochure was last inserted into the tax bill for every
Lexington family and an effort will be made to ascertain its impact. The focus continues to be
educating the community and early intervention with young people such as through dramatic
presentations. This year the emphasis is in the middle school. There was some discussion
around whether there had been an increase or decrease in domestic violence. Cathy Abbott
mentioned that the police would be very amenable to training and had a strong belief in
community policing.
Liaison to the No Place for Hate campaign: Helen Cravis reported on the No Place for Hate
steering committee which held a breakfast on November 3. There was evidence of a lot of activity
in the community and the meeting served the purpose of puffing activists in touch with each
other Bob Dentler and Cathy Abbott agreed that there seemed to be more of a need for the
committee to better define its purpose.
Bob Dentler went on to ask why the Board of Selectmen simply endured intimidation with Cathy
Abbott noting that in the last meeting the Chair had been more assertive in requesting order Bob
thought there should be a focus on "what is in our midst: rabid incivility abuse of our leadership,
and misplaced paranoia. Should there not be rules of decorum?Was it not defamatory under the
law to declare that Cathy Abbott was a plotting politician?
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Significance of the Human Services Committee: Barbara Ciampa suggested that the Human
Services Committee was not being properly recognized:
• The Selectmen had asked no questions when the Human Services Committee report was
presented.
• In a previous Selectmen's meeting, one of the Selectmen had confused the Human Services
Committee with the Fair Housing and Human Relations Committee.
• The new Social Services Director had indicated she would not attend meetings of the
committee.
• The committee was not represented when candidates were interviewed for the position of
Director of the Social Services Department.
Bob Dentler asked if a different approach on the part of the committee might have helped to
assert its significance:
• In submitting the report, highlight a single issue.
• The committee's liaison to the Selectmen might indicate to that body that the committee is
very well informed on a particular issue.
Helen Cravis noted that the Selectmen had looked to the committee in the past when there was
community concern (about awarding the youth services contract). Following the contribution
made in this respect by the committee, Steve Baran and Nancy Freed moved forward to create a
well-controlled oversight of Replace.When it was her turn to give the report, one of the
Selectmen had asked a number of questions about the Wayside issue.
Cathy Abbott agreed that it was a serious mistake not to have the committee's input into the
appointment of the Social Services Director Bob Dentler thought there were more pressing
matters for the committee to pursue such as affordable housing or mental health. Steve Baran
suggested that a real opportunity presented itself for the Fair Housing and Human Services
committees to form a coalition around the need for affordable housing quoting Barbara Ciampa's
earlier comment that there was 'strength in unity Barbara said that she would approach one of
the Fair Housing Committee co-chairs about their having a joint meeting with the Human Services
Committee.
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