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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-01-28-LHRC-min Town of Lexington, Human Rights Committee Meeting Thursday, January 28, 2021 Virtual 9:OOa.m.-11:02a.m Present: Committee Members: Monami D. Roy (Chair), Tanya Gisolfi (Vice Chair), Fuang Ying Huang, Cleveland Coats, Stephanie Hayes Hsu, Melissa Interess (Town Manager's Office Member/Human Services Department), Scott Bokun (School Department Member) Meeting called to order at 9:01 AM, Quorum was present at 9:03 AM 1. Chair Welcome by MDR 2. Jan 14, 2021 Minutes —Motion to approve made by MI, SB seconded passed 8-0 3. Co-sponsorship of BALex and Cary Library International Mother Language Day program • Event Name: International Mother Language Day Program, Feb 27, 2021 at 3 pm, on Cary Library Zoom • This multimedia presentation will serve as both entertainment and education on International Mother Language Day ( pso!/ jj wrlk pe aoo p/wiCki/International Mother La $aaa pe Da ). • Lexington is a diverse town with residents who have many different mother tongues. This is an opportunity to celebrate our rich diversity and unity in supporting each other's unique identities. • Asking for promotion and calendar support • MDR notes that this is an opportunity to recognizes that everyone deserves the dignity to speak and be proud of their mother tongue. • Motioned to co-sponsor program made by CC, MI seconded passed 8-0 4. Report on progress and any next steps from Police Workgroup • JB (workgroup chair) notes that the group met without him on Tuesday, were going over documents and that workgroup member Tom Shiple would give the group update. • Tom Shiple noted that they have received several documents from Chief Corr and have been going through them. • Where they are at -- met Tuesday to review documents and some of the documents that contain data are photocopies of print outs and are looking for electronic data. The second point is that a lot of the data, like for the CAD system, the 911 calls citation data has no demographic information at all which would be helpful to get a sense of how different communities are interacting with the police department. Finally, what is the working group protocol for gathering information? • JB - Chief Corr is working to get this into an electronic form. • Clarification on scope of working group ability to gather information -- working groups may gather any publicly available information in their capacity as residents but can also ask for the LHRC to request information on their behalf to be sure that LHRC is taking responsibility for the work request and ensuring that LHRC is within the scope of the charge ( llpo�/records4lexnn tonmao $ovZ ebhjj�Ik/ ocview.._as�ax?dbid ::::k) id.:::$79 94c _:.) • MDR question asks about missing demographic info and JB notes that this information doesn't exist for CAD (CAD - Computer Aided Dispatch - Police keep a log of every call that comes into them, but the log doesn't have all of the demographics.) • MDR- clarification - where demographic data is possible, we need to one collect data, but LPD needs to protect our community members. We don't want to risk disclosing identifying information. • Chief Corr noted that early requests were overly broad and also with multiple initiatives happening in town, and no budget for answering the requests he endeavored to provide what he could provide -- summary documents that met the requirements. • Agreed that MDR or TG should sit in some of these meetings to help answer any clarifying questions. • CC - as we go through the data and analyze it, we will have questions or recommendations and also can clarify terms • MDR—thanks to workgroup and LPD is working towards moving toward and maintain a level of excellence. • TG -- Monthly written updates from each working group for the committee would be helpful so that we can support the work. • Tom Shiple - tech question for CMC - is the LPD live on the MACCS system - do we use it. • Chief Corr -- not MACCS - in line to participate on the live citations program - they are prepared to move forward with this, but the state is behind due to COVID. This system allows swiping an id and into an automated system to get information on site immediately. • MDR— Questions from workgroup were passed on to 2020 committee, but we don't have an update from the 2020 committee - Town Mgr is looking to do a Community Perspective on Policing Survey sooner. • Jill Hai - We don't have anything definitive, but are looking to implement something along with All Aces, etc. • MDR - Survey's should be done thoughtfully - we need to do it right and so that we are capturing what we really want to learn. • Clarification on process in examining data- who should we direct questions and findings. JB can answer data questions, but data requests need to go through LHRC. • Discussion on protecting identifying information from our reports - if data can be used to identify an individual, we need to figure out how prevent this from happening. Avoid names, addresses, etc. • TG - we do not want to shame or embarrass people • Karen Laufer is asking for clarification to define what it is we want from the demographics. • MDR - if there is information missing TG and MDR would have double check the ask. • CMC - If someone makes a public request for data, they have a right to charge for the time and hours it takes to generate these documents. One of the requests he did himself because we don't keep some of this information in a way that is easy to provide. • TG - Thank you to working groups for all your time, energy and effort. 5. Report on progress and any next steps from Housing Workgroup • SH—Updated on current charge and progress —workgroup focus is on identifying the barriers of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino families moving to Lexington looking at a) Affordability/attainability barriers; discriminatory barriers and b) Desirability barriers— attractiveness of Lexington to families of all income. • Workgroup member, Vicki Lawrence Blier has created a glossary of housing terms and definitions. A link is provided in the update summary. This is an ongoing and evolving glossary. • Workgroup has collected regional demographic data and are in the process of creating charts to show where Lexington is in terms of diversity to comparable towns. These charts will be provided at our next meeting. We've identified six towns that we consider comparable who we also believe our have some of the same issues we have, and that we have identified through a variety of means are working towards change. They include but are not limited to Belmont, Needham, Newton, Wellesley, Weston and Winchester. • Our current focus for today is Housing Discrimination Testing. Cheryl Forsythe has been in contact with Suffolk University Housing Discrimination Testing Program. We are looking for permission to move forward with these discussions and what the process to do so should be. Cheryl will further outline the program and where we are currently. • Cheryl Forsythe — spoke with Jamie Langowski, Assistant Director of Suffolk Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP) and she is willing to work with us to develop a study for our town. Ms. Langowski asked that we provide her with the Purpose, Questions, and Variables to start with. The following is a draft of what our group came up with: Purpose: To determine if there are barriers to Black/Hispanic individuals or families seeking to purchase homes in Lexington. • We chose not to include rentals because there are so few in Lexington that the data wouldn't be useful. • With the LHRC permission we would like to forward this information to Ms. Langowski so that she could come up with an estimate for this type of testing. We would like to ask her to meet with us to answer our questions about the study, design, and cost. We would then bring that information to LHRC and hopefully have Ms. Langowski join us to answer any of your questions directly. • Suffolk University also does enforcement testing which we don't need at this time but could be considered at a later date if necessary. • Suffolk University also does free Fair Housing Law workshop and we would like to ask Ms. Langowski about bringing this workshop to Lexington. • MDR— Did we train several years ago? • FYH— That was through Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) Fair Housing Tester Training. • JB — The LPD funded this training 3 years ago and it was very well received. LPD hopes to do more in the future. If the committee would like to look into further training from MCAD Chief Corr and see if LPD can help with that. • MDR—For Fair Housing Month (April) would it be possible to bring the Suffolk workshop to Lexington and if are their other housing committees or citizens interested see if we can invite them. • TG— Clarification -- the Fair Housing Workshop is free, and this would be separate from the testing, correct? • Cheryl Forsythe - Correct • MDR— Didn't we test in the past? • 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. • Cheryl Forsythe —I don't have the answer to that question at this time, but it is something we can look into. It is part of their task and they get money from HUD to do these workshops. • SH—I think Ms. Langowski was very excited to be able to come into Lexington to have these conversations. I think she's more than happy to come talk to us about what the cost of testing will be, what we should be looking at, and how we should structure the study. Any questions for testing and helping us come up with costs, as well as doing any kind of educational pieces that we can that they can provide. We can absolutely follow up with her and we will put the free workshop on our priority list. • Cheryl Forsythe —Voiced her concerns about housing discrimination and affordable housing in Lexington. • MDR- I appreciate your perspective and I wanted to sort of support that absolutely we should absolutely get an estimate. I think the tricky part is what are we getting an estimate for so those parameters would have to be worked out. I do want to caution, I want to again remind as I said at the last in the December meeting for sure. That is, no matter what our personal views about affordable housing, affordable housing the scope of our committee is not really about affordable housing. That's not to say that we can't consider that might be impactful, but I just really want to be very sure that our focus when we talk about housing testing that it is really about discrimination. Affordable housing is something that's outside of the scope of this committee, and I know that's an unpleasant thing to hear because in real life a lot of us want to make sure that we're supporting upward mobility. And I think that we just have to recognize, and Jill please, please contradict me if I'm wrong on this but it's my understanding that this committee does not work on affordable housing. Other committees certainly do but this that's not within the scope of this committee and it's certainly something worth considering if maybe there's a reach out to a committee who's working on affordable housing and seeing if they want to do kind of a joint work group, because maybe it's silly to have something on discrimination and something on affordable housing if we can't think together, that's something to consider. But this committee is it's just, it's just not about. So I think we can certainly move towards getting some sort of an estimate on housing testing for discrimination. • MDR—Next steps are to reach out to Suffolk University for more information on testing and the free workshop; JB will go back to Chief Corr to ask about further MCAD tester training. I want to thank, Stephanie and the housing work group for their really incredible intense work I mean the glossary Vicki thank you so much I know it's still a work in progress. • Melinda Walker reminded everyone that GBH, The Boston Globe and the NAACP are hosting a program on housing: The State of Race— The Housing Gap. 6. Member Reports and Updates • SH—Attended COD meeting where resolution and joint workgroup (Di • CC— Chamber of Commerce interested in equity lens and Active Bystander Training, attended Criminal Justice Reform Bill meeting, Rotary Club meeting, Public Safety, MLK Day, attended Human Services presentation on Consequences of Racism on African Americans • MI— Human Services presentation on Consequences of Racism on African Americans; Next discussion on Impact in Asian Community, Life on the Autism Spectrum coming up in April • SB -- Longer discussion at a future SC meeting on the civil rights/discipline disparity update from Jan. LHRC meeting • MDR— Thanks to the SC for all its hard work during this once in a century pandemic; MLK Day Community Conversation on Race • JB —No incidents to report—Feb 11-12 — attending presentation on restorative justice with SRO Officer Hankins 7. Chair Report—Please note the LHRC cosponsored Cary Library's new social justice film series 8. Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Anticipated in Advance 9. Public Comments, Items Not on the Agenda-- None 10.Confirm Next Meeting Date and Time — February 11, 2021 at 9 am