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Fair Housing Committee Minutes , 3/ 10/93
Present Gerri Weathers , Chairman; Mary Haskell ;
Uscar Liu Bub Pressman; Steve Baran, Fair
Housing Director ( recorder )
Absent Florence Baturin ; Jim Brannon ; Peter Brown ; Nicole T
Herrmann; Leona Martin
Minutes of 2/ 10/93
The Minutes of 2/ 10/93 were corrected as follows
1 The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission had received
a planning grant of $36, 000 (not $3, 800)
2 The Minutes of 12/9/92 contains the following wording
"Florence announced that the Social Action
Committee of Temple Israel makes allocations
in January and would be receptive to
supporting a Human Relations Committee "
"Temple Israel " was corrected to read "Temple Isaiah"
in the Minutes of 2/ 10/93 whereas the correction should
have been to "Temple Emunah"
( Oscar Liu
Mr Oscar Liu was introduced as a prospective member of the Fair
Housing Committee His candidacy will be proposed to the Board
of Selectmen
Met State Property
Steve Baran reported that he had called Leo McSweeney to ask that
the Fair Housing Committee be put on the agenda for the 3/ 12
meeting of the Lexington Met State subcommittee Steve found him
to be supportive Mr McSweeney did suggest, however , that the
Fair Housing Committee should learn about the affordable housing
interests of Belmont and Waltham in order to strengthen its case
fur affordable housing uses of the Met State property
Suggestions were made for a statement on affordable housing goals
to be presented by Mary Haskell at the Met State subcommittee
meeting These included
1 In preference to the word "affordable", substitute more
specific wording such as " low and moderate, rental or
purchase"
2 Attribute negligible increase in the numbers of
( African-American and Hispanic residents to paucity in
low and moderate income housing, a situation
exacerbated by difficulties in the economy
( Fair Housing Minutes , 3/ 10/93 Page 2
3 Stress desirability of making rental housing available
Rental housing permits ongoing adjustment as opposed to
owner-occupied housing
4 Clarify with Planning Department progress made toward
Town Meeting low and moderate income housing goals In
addition to these goals, the Fair Housing Committee
should make a determination as to what it considers
desirable goals
5 Indicate desirability of two- and three-bedroom family
units
At the Met State meeting on 3/ 12, Mary will attempt to get an
idea of the time frame contemplated for making planning
decisions
It was suggested that the revised draft be used as a point of
departure for another joint meeting with housing groups from
Waltham and Belmont
Human Relations Committee
Gerri reminded the Committee that Mary had asked that further
action on advocating for a Human Relations Committee be tabled
° pending initiatives of the Fair Housing Committee on the Met
State property and the Coalition for Racial Equality on human
rights
Gerri will discuss the most recent draft statement on a Human
Relations Committee with Rick White
Police Chief Recruitment
Gerri announced that the recruitment process for a new Chief of
Police would begin in the spring of 1994 The process would be
undertaken by an Ad Hoc Advisory Committee ( see attached) which
would begin its preparatory work, assisted by consultants , in the
spring of 1993 Gerri agreed to become a member of the Ad Hoc
Committee and will provide input from the Fair Housing Committee
Linkage
Gerri is planning to participate in a meeting on linkages of the
Council on Aging on 3/25
L
( Fair Housing Minutes, 3/ 10/93 Page 3
Priorities
The Committee listed its priorities for the coming months These
are
Met State
Human Relations
Gathering periodic statistics
Updating five-year plan
Completing a fair housing brochure
Patriot' s Day Parade
The Committee will march in the Patriot' s Day parade as will the
Coalition for Racial Equality
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