t the Frederick Douglass reading how you know that was last Philip's last official event and she commented on how the council with under his leadership was able to bring all of these events to fruition and for and how important she felt they were so that was a good segue because I was going to think about saying that too okay I know you just have to remember though that the problem with budget it's harder they probably have to have special legislation and go through a process in order because the low we cannot spend the taxpayers dollars on food which is why we have the HRC gift fund which I mean I wouldn't necessarily say that you guys should go out fundraising right I would say if you know particular organizations that would be interested in supporting them that might be different but I'm fine doing it as for now but the other part of it was either a friends group or a what was the other one Pamela so I looked into two legal options for providing funds to the group so either through some sort of a trust account or through the friends group and there are legal arguments for both there is and I'm going to forget the proper legal name but there is a mechanism in the state or municipalities to actively fundraise for specific purpose most of the time that's done for around affordable housing and before he left Sean Mangano shared a document that he had created for the school department for school employees for teachers and specifically to fund race for activities so there is a way of doing it but we you know we need to have it finalized and then have people engage in the process I hear you on they are not being able to fund food but that's not the only cost I would assume like there are people who come to perform but they can't fund they don't fund them either if there's nothing that can be funded by the town in this budget then again I'll just say I'm not going to participate in fundraising maybe that's the way I'll say it I didn't I I didn't join this commission to do that work there's so much else that I want to do and I'd like us I love what you said Liz about this isn't the only thing we're doing and I'd love a calendar of all the things that you know we are doing cultural events and other events and some of us will you know prioritize this and some of us will prioritize that I'll come to the events but um yeah I just don't see that yeah I can't I got I have another idea also by you know we can always include the churches and the centers religious institutions hospitals and put our handouts over there and with a little bit of a donation and this way there's two things happening this way first they're getting the awareness that there's somebody out there in the town of Amherst HRC who's looking after you and we we get into into these areas those points where the participants or community is going anyways so they see us and at the time of need they can call us and the and they can donate also when they see that we are effective and people will they're actually looking for HRC you know human rights everybody is looking for us it's not that we don't have a need in the community I'd like to move that we discuss money at the end and at the end you know I think we need to get our program priorities in order and let's deal with the money part at the end if that's okay because I'd like to get through the section where we talk about what our goals are for next year so stuff that's before that so I'm proposing I'm moving to wait for the money discussion till the end so on the calendar events as well I'm not sure if all our proclamations are listed there we do flag raising for pride month we do a flag raising for black history month we do a proclamation for Martin Luther King day so not all of these things are money making things we do a charge in December where we all gather at the town at the town common in the freezing cold and read our proclamation for the year it was proclamation of the bylaws declaration and all of us if we can be there should be there where you went to code because it's cold so there's other things that we do and if we bring other people to some of those things you know there's this event going on or the flag raising for black history month we did right on the town common it we had hot chocolate because it was cold my gospel choir sang at it we raised the flag and it wasn't a huge thing it cost a bunch of hot chocolate and that was about it and that and those are kind of things that if people if I'm coming and I bring three people with me and you bring three people with you and you you know then we have more than that was there last year so there's other things that we do and the town council's there they read the proclamation and we raise the flag and it's it's great a lot of people don't know about it a lot of people don't want to be outside in February but it's it's another thing that we do that's not on here that costs no money that makes people aware of who we are so one thing that I would I'm sorry to interrupt you but I was one thing that I think Philip did very well last year is prior to the start of each event he talked a little bit about the role of the HRC and so even well I won't say that the cultural our events are an opportunity to talk about what you might consider the more substantive work so they actually go hand in hand I would sort of make a note to myself that having a brochure it's really interesting so I think this is one of the areas where I'll just say for myself like for my generation having a brochure and having that public is would be something that I would think is really important for other generations having a brochure is not really the way that you communicate the information and we have some hopes of enhancing perhaps the website so that people have an opportunity I think it needs to be updated anyway and so that might be another way of having a QR code or something that like you know that brings in people from a variety of different so some paper products some QR codes so that you can share the the information I started to laugh because that's what I was going to say so having both options there I also would just say because we're not going to talk about money to later in addition to the other stuff that we are doing like I know that there was an event for Jewish History Month in March because my colleague Benjamin Rabbi Benjamin spoke at it but it's not on this list that's because the council the the counselors brought that forward all right so if we could have an omnibus list of everything that the town is doing because one thing that you know is troubling to me is to say well why isn't Jewish History Month is here when there was even an event you know so it's not like it's excluded right right but it's good for me to know like if I'm somebody's asking me you know what's happening in town Rabbi for the Jews then I want a handy dandy reference sheet right so to be able to call that to and that was also I think no money it was just a few speakers right so that so that kind of list I think is really helpful because of what we were talking about earlier which is that there are places that events that we don't have to organize but we could certainly ask to go and have a word about the Human Rights Commission or we can ask to set up a table and so we would get a lot of benefit without really being the organizers and we would establish those partnerships that would come in handy in other ways one last thing sorry it would have to be the friends group that's that did that um how so I just want to point out that when I go ahead I did ask when I started if there is a full list of the events and to my knowledge that that doesn't currently exist so that would need to be created and there are lots of people who are you know or organizations because some are being brought by the town council other are being brought by other we can make an attempt to perhaps review the events that occurred last year but um there is no guarantee that it will encompass everything and we didn't Jennifer and I had a discussion about the proclamations about whether they should be included but some are being um are being made by coming from the HRC and others are not so it will give us a little bit of time to create that sort of omnibus less basically the the list will be very fluid because it's every day you have new issue and it's evolving but we definitely are concerned with the local events that are happening example is again the indigenous I don't know whether that event was up on the list but that's good if we add to it and finalize it and work with that it'll be a good advertising for us also if we have a table in every event thanks I was just going to tell Deborah that we can have a couple it usually says human rights commissions donations or something similar to that like a donation box at an event where people will donate money for events that's fantastic because I'm happy to donate when I'm at every one of these events but I just don't want to ask other people no and I don't I mean I don't you don't necessarily have to but so that money goes into the the human rights gift account right so that's where we pull funds because we've is that is that a tax deductible account it's a tax deductible account because it is associated with the town so um so what was the goal of this discussion were we supposed to just yeah I think that just I mean the whole purpose of the retreat is to acclimate um new and old members and go over the roles and responsibilities so just sometime I think we can maybe go on to the next agenda item which um our roles and responsibilities the relationship with town council open meeting laws conflict of interest and other laws and rules and um early this morning I don't know if you guys had an opportunity to to see it but I did say if you were able to bring your appointed committee handbook that will spend just some time going through some things that I want I won't spend time in detail but just to point out information there why don't you just go ahead and summarize for us what we need to know with regard to this sort of follow it if you want because I don't you know I think it's going to be hard to discuss all six items here in one shot and be confusing so if you want to just tell us what we need to know with regard to this we can ask questions and then after the questions we'll consider ourselves informed you're making the assumption that I know all of this information like the back of my hand which I cannot make any assumption that you have the documentation included in the um appointed committee handbook the first thing that I would draw to your attention which is the that's one two three on the fifth page is the conflict of interest laws so um as we discussed earlier um even though you are unpaid and are volunteers appointed to this board the uh state statute does consider you a special municipal employee and as a result um you need to be aware of conflict of interest so if I were to summarize that very quickly I would just say that for any um financial interactions that you are involved in or immediate family or business associates you need to be aware of whether that um interaction would create a conflict of interest so you would receive some game or a family member would receive some gain based on your position as a member of the board um so that's uh very very brief but the information is contained in more detail in your uh in your book you point it um how about our relationship with the town council are there are there limitations as I understand it we basically submit our report to them they ask us to be there's also a reference to us being an advisory body so I would imagine that if we have some policy advice or a human rights lens on policies that they're in the process of undertaking then I would imagine that we could submit a letter or make a presentation ask to get on the town council's agenda is there more no I think that's a good summary so the the human rights commission is an advisory but a body to the town manager and the town council so through my experience with the HRC last year the committee provided advice to the town council through the means that Ronny just mentioned by appearing in joint meetings with the town council to raise issues of concern by writing letters and having those letters become a part of the public record so those are the primary ways but that the HRC has interact with the town council uh open meeting laws I think you again had an opportunity in your in your original packets to be aware that whenever there is a quorum yep there are as there are open meeting laws that you need to be aware of the in the past the body would have met in person as Jennifer described the governor has allowed for the extension of the rule which allows you to meet via remote means so meeting on zoom having public comment all of those things are part of the requirement for the open meeting laws the documents that you that you draft and are included in the packet are all subject to open meeting laws which means that any member of the public can request them and they are would be viewed and you know and obviously this is redundant but open to the public for review could you also explain why we're often asked not to reply all and that part of the law so uh you're asked not to reply all if if Jennifer and I send out an email asking for additional information um you're asked not to reply all because your email communication um between and amongst yourself would be considered to be um meeting right to be deliberations and you're not allowed to deliberate outside of a posted open meeting are there any questions among the members regarding these topics of laws pertaining to our activity the only question I had and I think I might have asked for this um it's not about any of this stuff but when I mentioned the relationship with town council it was more like okay so we have to offer a report once a year is that the only relationship that we have you know do they I guess they could call upon us if there's something that's in our docket or in our portfolio and they want to learn more about it um but I I just feel like I have no relationship with the town council whatsoever I was appointed I got my documents I show up I love having relationships with all of you but it just feels like there's no vertical alignment or there's no vertical engagement so there is um a town council member who it serves as a liaison to and um who's invited to attend them the minutes or the meetings of the HRC so that person would um also be able to report back to the town council or will sometimes give advice to the commission about um uh actions that they could take so the the best examples that I can give you is that um the the liaison to the community safety and social justice committee often provided advice about approaches that that uh can um committee could take about their interactions with the town council the liaison to the disability access and advisory committee often hears information in that committee and takes information back most recently the disability access and advisory committee received a request to endorse a piece of legislation that was pending at the state house and the liaison um said that she would also take uh make a request to the full town council for them to also endorse that legislation so there is that formal relationship between in our case in all the time I've been here I've never seen any town council member participating and I don't know who our liaison is so if you could inform us that would be helpful so we can invite that person and get them more involved right so I believe that you're the the the liaison that's um that was listed for last year I believe was pat de angeles um I'm not certain if she still has this assignment for this year um because she's also the liaison to the disability access and advisory committee and she typically when she's able to attend those meetings the liaison receives the same zoom invite that you all receive for each of the of the meetings right but we don't know who the who our liaison is and we should so I would like to suggest that we send a note to Lynn greasmer asking that we be told who our liaison is yeah so as co-chairs you could you could do that I yeah I think we I'm ready to do it go for it the other piece that is difficult for me is um I'm not sure like I don't have the bandwidth to look at every commission and committee and the town council's agenda and see if it's something that I as a human rights commission member should show up for that's a level of research and diligence that I don't have bandwidth for so I don't even know if there are items on the agenda for the town council that I as a human rights commission member should attend that meeting because it's going to impact what we do or it's going to provide information that's important for what we do and so I just feel like there's a wall there's nothing so it's great that we have a liaison but I also want it to be that person to be telling us oh there's going to be a meeting on this date and we're discussing this topic they'd be great if you could show up because it's going to inform your deliberations so not just with town council there are other committees that we all need to be paying attention to I regularly go to cssjc meetings I've gone to one on tuesday I also go to the um fair housing trust meetings and if I can't get there I get a report from one of the fair housing trust committees so we all should as commissioners be looking at other the other entities and seeing which ones we want to go to just as informative sometimes they will call us in to speak and sometimes we are there just as an attendee their reports back to the human rights commission and again we we get information and requests from other human rights committees um along the state I've been to the one from barnstable on um the hearing impairments and there's another one coming up and I didn't really look at it yet but so we can be aware of that um I was not going to say okay I just went somewhere else in my brain I have a question then so should there be some kind of a matrix that lists all of the committees and what they focus on and then we should each take one there's going to be our responsibility to be the liaison for that committee I just feel like we're in a vacuum at least in my experience there's nothing formal yeah yeah I think there's no communication amongst us might be that is missing and that that's the reason we are feeling alienated and there's another reason or another issue or just small detail I was wondering if we get those business cards you know the cards that we can use are there any that you gave out as a rule you know so could I could I go back to the unfinished discussion about us participating sorry I do believe you sent a header hand up a little while ago yeah I guess I just wanted to um um the comment about you know what you were talking about how there are a number of different commissions that have like more specific um more specific purposes so kind of how human rights committee is a broader um umbrella of things and then so thinking about accessibility I know like on Amherst college campus we have a lot of um we lack a lot of accessibility access um for people with walking disabilities um etc um hearing disabilities um and so for that it's sort of like does the commission help to point people who have human right complaints towards those more specific commissions that can um you know deal with those issues and bring forth those issues with the necessary resources for those things I feel like because this commission is so has like a broader title um it allows people to kind of say okay I need to go here and then sort of be filtered through that um and I guess I would I would also say that I feel like people who have more experience on this commission probably have more answers as to you know how to go about the town council um and getting issues I know coming at the end of it seeing the human rights complaint about this uh student who was harassed by a police officer um I felt like I saw a lot of action being taken by the committee um to have even though it was years ago um to actually get some change or bring forth that issue so I do feel like at the moment it might feel I think coming off of summer um it can feel a little bit like nothing has happened but I do I do have faith that this commission has you know dealt with these issues um excuse me I yeah are you pointing out at Amherst college that they are not inclusive because of the access disability access and other services is Amherst college you're pointing out you said in the beginning Amherst college I mean that was an example but yes Amherst college has like a number of um to me what would be considered a human rights violation but I don't know if that is a human rights violation by the town um definition yeah there is a discrimination if disability is an you know you need to have an access coordinator for that um UMass has several of them and it is it's a really important part of inclusivity and and human rights also so no doubt so might be that as a human rights commission we approach Amherst college or something or raise awareness over there if you go to Amherst MA.gov and HRC there's a form there and that's a starting place and if you don't want to fill out a form there's a number to call and so on so I think really anyone who faces what they think may be a violation um I think that instruction is clear the problem is we haven't really made that clear beyond the website not everyone thinks to go there and I I actually looked at it and I think it is a very um well articulated process that in my view is just not well marketed yet um and then to go back to Deborah's question about all the places there's an issue with human rights as you said too that it's so broad where do we go I went to the um list of committees on the town government website and there are over a hundred of them literally so for anyone I think to sit down and even create a matrix by the time they're done the list will change I guarantee you so my recommendation I can tell you what I did I just went through the list and when saw the ones that had headings that I thought may be of interest to me and I think we should all do that so that we can then combine our interest with the representation of the HRC yeah so the CSS JC as um and the housing trust as Liz has mentioned you know we're closer to because there've been people here who've gone on a regular basis and so we should find the others and I can tell you I went to the energy group I attended their meetings I attended the shade committee meetings because I'm interested in trees and so on so go to a few of them and then eventually you'll run into one that you think you want to follow and where maybe you can report to the HRC on a regular basis yeah yeah that's a very excellent point actually and it opens up another uh Mindora's box because uh town of Amherst has all these institutions educational basically they are the ones who are generating a lot of revenue and so on so if we approach uh if we actually interact with them directly and that'll create awareness and it'll give them also the um you know the fact that it'll give them the opportunity to meet us as a HRC you know and that's a good thing if we can have a dialogue with them and and they can help us uh advertise our services also uh to the students and and we can give them ideas and strategies I think that's a great idea Ronnie and I I'm looking at it right now and I'm like oh the cultural council why are we throwing cultural events why isn't the cultural council doing that I'm just that's an honest question not a blame or anything like that Jennifer they give out grant money they're not they're not like a cultural they give out grant money so they support Juneteenth for us that's the committee that they give them so that's one of our sources of income yes okay all right if no one else is interested in schools I'm on it trust me I've been following them I'm not reporting on them but I've been following them as someone who just retired 40 years from the regional school district I think certainly the schools could use a fresh eye but yeah whatever but each of us could do that yeah I don't want to short circuit your great idea no that's fine I I'm just saying that the second part of that is that the idea then is that you would report back to the HRC at our meetings and that you're in your relationship there and the information you gather and that you're able to give back will also inform how we work and so we can be more effective but I think we have to do our own work individually as far as figuring out which one is the one or two that you want to go to because there's so many so are there any more questions concerning C roles and responsibilities okay so then moving on to I'm sorry can I just I want to make sure that this is clear and I'm sure everybody is aware but the human rights commission only really has power as the commission itself so as individuals you do not have the permission necessarily to speak on behalf of the HRC so your power is in within the vote so it means when you guys are all together that you're acting so what are the implications if for instance I'm at the CSS JC meeting and somebody says oh the co-chair of the human rights commission is here and asks my opinion on something do I have to say I'm speaking as an individual resident not as the chair yes yeah yes are you guys can I take this down this can easily be found on Amherstma.gov and it's also another way to get folks that you know involved so then do you want to do you want to facilitate the next one rules and procedure for public meetings oh it's public comment time is there any public no it's not public comment time we just need to make sure that we understand the rules and procedures for public comments and one of the things that you it's also in the open meeting law educational materials that you should have received once you got sworn in so you should be familiar with that one of the things that I learned as a first meeting commissioner is that when there is public comment that's what it is we do not respond to public comment as much as I wanted to Jennifer said no I did ask can I respond to that so that's one of the most important things but from public comments if there was something that we need to put on the agenda for in a different meeting we can do that but it's just for us to hear what people have to say and sometimes it relates to what we're working on and sometimes it does not okay I'd like to in a different meeting go over the public comment because it can become an issue also how do you address the public comments no we don't address public comments what I mean is that if there was something that's relevant that comes out of public comment we can put that on the agenda for a subsequent meeting but not comment on it while it's happening in live feed so the rationale behind that is that if you receive a public comment about something that that's listed on the agenda that you're currently deliberating on you will as part of your meeting would take action on it so there would be no need for you to have conversation back and forth because it's already an agenda item that you are presumably going to take action on if someone raises an issue that's not listed on your agenda then you're deliberating on something that's not hasn't been posted in the public you know in your public notice of meeting so that's another rationale for while you would be listening not responding and then placing it on the agenda for the future meeting so that if it's placed on the agenda for a future meeting the public has noticed that you intend to deliberate on that topic so that helps to explain just a little bit why so it looks like the next thing that you asked to be placed on the agenda and this is a discussion that I assume the chairs and co-chairs will lead is supporting other organizations so I asked actually for this to be put on the agenda we received an email a request from someone to support something and the question is should we or shouldn't we and my question was we need to take a look at how we are supporting other organizations and which ones we are supporting we can't think just oh this one wants us to support them how do we support them we'll be talking about in person are we talking about helping them fundraise are we talking about going to the event and being a willing participant as an organization how will we supporting them so the question is not specific to that organization but taking a look at how we support other organizations especially when requests come in and I would add to the organizations just other national events that happen so the co-chairs prior to this group used to write statements they had the permission from the HRC members to write statements of support for different events that were happening nationally that affected us locally so you know for instance still born Ukraine or the murder of George Floyd like so the co-chairs wrote these statements small statements and I would put them on if you look on the HRC webpage you'll see there's all these links to different statements and then they also go up on the Facebook page I would really like some order to that because when I saw it I thought well why are we talking about Ukraine but we're not talking about another place so it would just help me a lot to I think these statements I don't know I mean they have to be okayed by the commission and that you know we have to have some reason or some sort of deliberation I guess deliberation if needed but I'm not really comfortable having the commission tell the co-chairs you can write them when you think it's appropriate because I I mean is there no way under open meeting law for us to have a group open email exchange why we say oh this just happened in Israel so or this just forget Israel this just happened in Zimbabwe so we are go we would like to write a statement and have the statement reviewed and approved by the commissions online so I think that the the two co-chairs usually the topic would go to the meeting the problems they don't meet for another month so they would give the co-chairs the permission to write the statement that they were just like oh I woke up this morning and I'm gonna no I read this in the news and I feel a statement has to go out that's not it so it is pre-approved yeah the issue by okay thank you that's clearer to me but I I think you raise something that's important which is I'm not a fan of statements personally I don't think they do anything so I mean except they do help the public the community know where we're coming from but since we are a body that serves Amherst for us to make statement on Ukraine or anywhere else I question how important that is in terms of the use of our time but what that leads me to is what are our criteria for doing anything that's not part of our like regular template of activities whether that's supporting another organization or writing a statement and so when I say what are our criteria things that arise for me are like they're clearly connected to our mission and you know we could show that it's connected to our mission number one number two our constituents are gonna get some benefit out of our doing it otherwise like why are we spending the time out of it on doing it three I'm a fan of partnering with organizations on campaigns so like not signing off on statements and I don't mean political you know electoral campaigns I mean um all right what's a campaign oh we're all gonna get together and say we have to you know relieve student debt and there's 2,000 national organizations and 20,000 local organizations doing XYZ to make sure that we cancel student debt that's a random example I'm not saying that's something right so like it what's the impact like there's a discernible impact and there's enough resources going towards it not just our resources that there's a hope of something changing so those are criteria that are attractive to me there might be 17 other criteria that are attracted to other people and maybe nobody likes this idea at all but that's like a real break we are creating so we have a consensus based on that I think also oh sorry go ahead Jacinta oh I was just gonna say like um all human rights violations are important equally important bringing attention to one versus others does create like sort of a what like what about the other one so I can kind of see how you can make a statement or include in that criteria that for any anything that kind of is grabbing attention in the media um if you're thinking from a sense oh okay now the HRC sends out an email talking about like the most recent thing that's happened and then pointing to other things that are happening at the same time it's an opportunity to like use that sensationalism to bring awareness to other things happening um and just also you know letting the constituents know that the HRC at a local level are are thinking about numbers of different communities that are going through those experiences yeah there's also the fact that we have refugees from many places that are far from here and so there are issues that are pertinent to them that you know they live here but they're there those violations aren't happening here uh per se so I don't know I mean I think the criteria discussion does need to be had I'm not sure where it would lead us perhaps not because I think the majority of our issues or our concerns or statements should be focused on the constituents in the town and how are they affected directly or indirectly basically I feel that otherwise the issues are too many unless as you and Deborah said it's a student loan type of a big issue and so on but I think we shouldn't get too political but the fact is like racial justice is very current over here I stand out also for racial justice so that is very close to our hearts as citizens over here so if we just isolate those issues and work on them personally I think I have one that's on the docket now and that is the youth um the voting whether or not to support the changing the age of increasing the age of yeah yes 22 21 22 yeah they're asking for 21 but you know there's evidence that it takes until age 23 for your brain to settle down so it depends on it was 25 for oh well and also where I was looking at it is that you can be in high school until year 22 so maybe 22 should be the number because it's already something that's governed by our laws of the state so do we can we address that issue right now can we talk about it or what we can but I also want to just also address the reason why we got this while while I put this on for the agenda for today all of you all should have gotten this email um I'm a coordinator with the western mass asylum support network we have been active as a group of volunteers providing mutual aid about 2018 we have supported dozens of asylum seekers make the transition into the area and getting settled working with them to secure housing legal support and work permits among other things I'm writing to find out if the commission has any small grants to support social justice groups like this um I'll be great for any information that this leads now as we was just talking about some of the other entities that we may want to support either as a group or an individual this could be one of them do we have small grants no is there some other way that we may be able to support them maybe and that's part of what we needed to talk about directly but also these are going to continue to come in and how do we address them or and or prioritize them when they do not directly affect the members of the Amherst community or there might be members of the Amherst community that this affects we don't know yet um but I just wanted to have us start thinking about how we um support other entities when they're asking for us our support we don't have small grants to give them but are there other ways to support this group of people um I guess like I don't have answers now I'm happy like to have that conversation I'm excited to see what people have to bring forth for that I guess what I also wanted to say about the statements conversation is like also celebrating like human rights you know like things happening maybe like just the idea that like there's violations but there's also ways that we are advancing in some areas too so I feel like bringing attention to both things also is important I don't know the right word I'm looking for but you know the idea that like there's joy and there's also like serious issues at the same time okay basically our accomplishments you're saying we should also celebrate those accomplishments um I don't think we would go about doing either but I feel like if we do choose to bring attention to certain things we should also bring attention to the positive ones as well yes so clearly one thing that's happening now throughout the country and I'm not sure to what extent Amherst is taking in but there's a huge inflow of refugees from so many different places in the world and you're seeing American cities take them in to me that's really a very positive thing that would not have happened at a at another time so but it's not the only thing that's happening in that area of course but it's the brighter side it's not like everybody's being killed at the border there are people who are getting through and these you know like a hundred thousand Venezuelans I think just got legally authorized to work in New York in Massachusetts just gave drivers license to everybody so there are things like that that are happening that I think are allowing people to live whole lives which is they're right I know Massachusetts also like made it free to get your your undergraduate bachelor degree once if you're 25 um and can't afford it so it's great yeah at the community college so I um I just want to draw your attention back to the beginning of this conversation because I'm not sure that I had heard a resolution to the question about whether the co-chairs would be authorized to act on behalf of the commission in drafting letters and I I think it's important for you to have some clarity about that so and Jennifer can correct me um if I'm wrong but when the co-chairs acted in the past they would send in the document to Jennifer and I who would then send it to all of the members who could respond back to us so if someone had a strong objection to something that was in a draft document they would have an opportunity to um to bring that to the attention but would it would still be done in a way that did not circumvent the open meeting wall but you I think you need to decide yay or nay whether you're going whether co-chairs are going to have that authority or not have that authority so there's just clarity okay before we go into I just have this point that as per say reply all is just the email thing when we have an email from you so we will be sending our approval as a reply all no you cannot do that so you'd have to send in your comments to to Jennifer and I is this like a reply all it's as if you were having a meeting and we can't have a meeting so that's why you can't use the reply all like a google form no because you're not allowed to deliberate um outside of a posted meeting so a google form would allow you to deliberate because every people would have the ability to add comments make comments and that would be deliberation it's like a hub of a wheel so somebody draft something sends it to Jennifer and Pamela and then they can send it out to everyone else and everyone else can send an email back to what whoever sent it to us so it's uh inefficient but it's the way we need to function I know there's one step to that which is that a letter doesn't get first it gets discussed here and there's a decision that a letter will go out then the co-chairs will draft something right and I wanted to say that I have this is something I have had experience with I volunteered to draft something and so I want to and the co-chair said go for it so I want to say that I don't want it to be limited to the co-chairs and I'm not sure why it is I think I'm happy saying the co-chairs um or whoever they delegate it to but you know if the co-chairs have to do everything if the co-chairs have to write the letters and the co-chairs have to represent us here or there and the co-chairs that whatever have to be involved in the mediation that's like that's too big a job there's you know we can have up to nine people so why can't they delegate I would agree to adding the delegation part so the co-chairs don't necessarily have to be the one's writing the letter that's just what the other group did so you guys have the ability to pick whomever you would like to do that or no one and just say any member and then that way that's inclusive of the co-chairs or not you know to everybody in the group the important piece from that perspective from from me and Pam was pleased that you guys are not replying all so just sense it to kind of finish up your question the google doc itself because you can send me a google a google doc and then I can change make edits to it that is deliberating in a meeting a google a google form is just a survey form yeah but anything that's going to require the group to make any kind of decision or any kind of like oh we could all meet on this one day we can't have you do that on a google form because that's deliberating does that make sense I mean I'm not like it it's it doesn't hit this google form or not yeah no I agree I I hear what you're saying it's just the way that it operates because it's an issue of transparency for the rest of the community right so that the groups aren't having like secret meetings and and having other discussions that aren't that the public aren't aware of and then there was something about the problem with the statements and things happening and the HRC and one of the reasons why the I think the co-chairs were designated as that individual because things don't happen two days before our meetings right things happen two days after our meeting and then we don't meet for another 28 plus days so that was another reason but anybody you know if we know that there's something national and Liz sends an email to us that says hey I think that somebody should take a look at this reply to Jennifer and Pamela if you're interested then maybe that would work but it's just that we you know things don't fit in these neat little boxes right like the way that we would want them to their they happen sporadically yeah I personally feel it's fine for the co-chairs to delegate because that makes it less confusing for you yeah I agree and and there's another thing that I think totally I want to share also that we should always have one statement per month like when we have a meeting we should do that as a you know rule so that you know we are out there and we are basically publicly advertising ourselves also as you know HRC from Dono Amherst so often in the past when there have been big you know so Amherst is a welcoming community right and that was something that's on the HRC webpage and that statement came from the superintendent of schools the town manager and the police of chief chief police I'm trying to go to the webpage because there's another one where the chair often in uh the chair of the commission alongside the chief of police and the town manager have signed off on statements before and so that's another thing is that sometimes it's not that the HRC takes it on but the town takes it on and wants the chair or the co-chairs of the HRC to sign off on it. So going back to the original question was about supporting other organizations I would suggest that if there's a request that comes in from an organ other organization asking for our support if we have not had a meeting and we have the time to put it on our agenda we should do that for the committee to discuss and if we've already had our meeting then the entity needs to know that our next meeting it's not going to happen for 28 days and we can't do anything until we discuss it as an organization. How about that? I second. I agree. All in favor? Yeah. Any opposed? Oh six to zero. And then do we ask the question about the delegating for like more um uh for things happening sooner um or that need like to be called to attention like sooner? Is that something we have to agree on? We discussed that a little bit in uh meeting in August or August or someone. I'm going to screen share this one because I think it's a great example of. Well Jennifer's um uh pulling that up I I thought that the answer to your question was that the um there you guys had reached consistent consensus that the co-chairs would designate someone to write a letter if one was needed um you know prior to a meeting or there would need to be a rapid or quick response that they're so the co-chairs would either write it or delegate it okay. My apologies for leaving the room briefly but do we still need to discuss those two requests? If the request was monetary the request is monetary or other so the monetary request we cannot do we don't have the money to do it so that's easy. I would suggest that if in fact there were members of the community I would like to know from them what the other things are they talking about giving people rides are we supporting them as an organization are we supporting them as individuals um and how that kind of thing will come about um it's not our town government of governance is that the right word so it doesn't mean that we have to um but as an individual you can if you would like but not as a representative of the human rights commission if we have not all decided that we are going to do it as a unit. Well I'm just trying to ask are we trying to call the question are we going to do something collectively is that on the table I know we can't give money the other piece was can we do something else and my question is are we talking about that now or I personally I'm not talking about that but if you'd like to you can I'd like to put it I don't want this to just I think we did put it to bed which is that we said we would discuss it at the meeting. Is it this meeting? No we're going to discuss it next week. Are we discussing these particular things right my question that I don't see why not I think it can be really quick I don't think we should do anything for the asylum seeker group there's hundreds of congregations and community associations that are doing this kind of refugee. We act on the things that we take the initiative on right I think I don't I don't know we're talking about like we're going to go attending meetings from other groups and we're going to we have right now we have 11 cultural events and we're going to be mediating disputes like I don't have the bandwidth as a group to say yes as a group we're going to figure out how we're going to support this western massachusetts asylum seeking network so I would say we would say sorry we don't have money to grant and we don't you know we our docket is filled in terms of activity I feel like for the the agenda for today supporting other organizations I don't have like the full context as to what groups specifically came forth for any so it came up because this group asked us for our support and so my assumption when I got the request was that this is not going to be the first time so we should have a discussion at our meeting or our retreat as to how we proceed when other people asked for the support so that's part of it and then I for one and Deborah as well have said we I can't as a unit don't suggest we move forward with supporting them we don't have the resources or the time given what's going on in our own town but what were they like I don't know who you heard Liz just read their request that was 100 percent of the information that we have do you want to hear I think she's I think she's no I think she's asking there was the specific and then the general I think she's asking how we proceed with the general no um there were two organizations so I guess like maybe I had like a brain freeze or something but um just I wanted to know like you mentioned an asylum seeking organization and then one other one right and we're taking this one at a time so the asylum seeking organization Liz just read the one email that we got from them that's it and then once we decide if we're going to do something there and I think maybe Liz should read that again then we'll go back to the other organization so the other one was that we keep getting requests from Barnstable Human Rights Commission but they're more asking us hey we're doing this Zoom webinar can you you want to join us and listen in and I personally wanted to listen in and report back and say hey you know they're doing work around the hearing impaired and they had some very good ideas and suggestions and definitions and maybe we can bring that person here so that we could better understand how we support as a council the the hearing impaired in our own community right so that's one thing the other thing is a specific request for support monetarily and or I'm assuming physically and right now with that organization I'm saying personally I given what's already on our docket because I'm assuming that we're going to start getting some more stuff when we have some changes coming in on our legislation for the town we have elections coming up for the school committee in town council we don't have a superintendent for our schools well we have an acting superintendent for our schools right now we don't have an assistant superintendent we don't have a department of equity and inclusion in our schools we started the school year without a seventh grade guidance counselor we need to be aware of some of these things and how do we respond or listen and be ready to support what's going on in our town so when someone else it's like this group is asking us to support them she's saying and she didn't even know all of that stuff was going on when I just mentioned that that we have a lot of other things in our town to deal with and we can't don't have the um I don't know what's the word you use bandwidth bandwidth and or resources and or um capacity right now to take on someone else's town or someone else's agenda because we're going to have we're going to be full in our agenda in January we're going to have a new town council right now we have an interim school committee in January we're going to have a new school committee and we need to look at all of that and be aware of all of that as we move forward with everything that we do so before you move on to the last of the agenda items I would um wait sorry that was adult right and I don't think we've ever made a decision on that and they came to our meeting like two months ago right so I thought we did decide and we did sign off on it did we do you know what happened so you wanted to support it but didn't know exactly what you were going to support and how you were supported this is what happens when committees meet once a month this is why things get uh tables for so long so I thought I had forward everybody the template that was sent to us right and then I didn't hear anything back so I sent the template and I needed someone to like sign off on the template and then we can forward that template because they give you an already statement already drafted that you guys can sign off on and send on it's and send it back and send it to the legislative legislative state legislators have we passed the time the deadline I seem to remember there was a deadline I have I don't I don't remember that piece okay I think we should send it because I think that our agreement was that we would send it and all they need is our signature a statement of support they don't need anything more from us and I think we all supported it right so can we now agree that we will send it so Jennifer do you need one of the co-chairs to sign off or something or can what needs to happen if we all agree well I think so here's something that you guys need to figure out do you want your co-chairs just to sign it do you want it to say on behalf of the human rights commission do you want your co-chairs to sign it and say on behalf of the human rights commission that is up to you guys how that's done I don't care about the signature but I think we do need the stamp that has the human rights commission because that's the strength of you would like a stamp that says human rights commission in a meantime I also have a sign it that's an additional thing that depends on yeah are you all okay with having us sign it plus the stamp I'm so okay with having you sign it I want this move forward yeah I like that yes that done we'll work we'll work with Jen on her and yes to the youth and note we're not saying no to the refugees we're saying no to the specific request from this organization all right so we're moving on to just going to suggest point of order take official action on that so you need to have a motion have it second take a vote that the commission is taking action to send a letter of support for the legislation revising youth offenders right and similarly you also would need to have some sort of motion second that you have decided as a body to inform right which could be through the co-chairs drafting a letter the asylum seeker refugee that you are unable to respond to that you know to their request I move that we sign a letter of support for the youth legislation changing the age of majority I second that we've had lots of discussions already so we've heard the motion we've heard the second we've already had discussion is there any further discussion all in favor aye any opposed any abstentions vote passes six zero we're looking for a motion to I move that we inform the folks from the western Massachusetts asylum organization that we can't be we cannot say yes to their request at this time I second that so you heard the motion you heard the second are there any further discussions Jennifer I'm just going to say that they weren't really asking for anything except for the grants and I already told them that they don't we don't have grants but that I would follow forward the email to you all to see if there were other ways that you would like to support so I'm not sure that anything else really needs needs to happen there because I already I mean I'll on my behalf send it and say like we don't I mean that was that's all I did I just said we don't do grants okay so question then um so are they trying to raise awareness specifically or were they just at they're just asking for grants they're not looking to raise awareness they were looking for small grants so that they can do their charge so they can fulfill their mission okay so what is that something like that we could talk about as part of it like it sounds like we have a lot of other things to take care of um but I guess my question is sort of like if they were looking to raise awareness would that would some part of that be us having a conversation about in the agenda of like the state of refugees um in Amherst, Massachusetts I mean it could be as simple as that too right like we just we just promoted not promoted but we just brought attention to their organization by having it in this conversation that will be recorded that someone will view one day I think it would be helpful actually if you for instance could take on or a couple of people on the commission could take on the job at looking at the numbers of refugees and the population of Amherst and bringing that to us to discuss as and putting it on the agenda so we can look at the state of refugees in the town of Amherst because I know the refugees where they all from and I understand the Cambodian refugees have been here I think the longest and we should look at that we should we should even look at that history of our acceptance of refugees and are we giving them a fair shake um yeah and I don't know lots of Zair war refugees that I know are isolated because they don't they don't come here speaking English they're more recently they're the Afghan refugees same thing yeah so I guess like for that like I I guess I just what I find important is the acknowledgement that they approached us I'm sure they approached a bunch of other organizations as well um but just kind of acknowledging that like they were looking to have like to spread awareness at a local level as well and then I guess part of that is yeah so some committee like committee members can take that on privately but I guess in like a group setting or on a like agenda as a piece of the agenda kind of imagining what that could look like for supporting organizations of having a conversation about it um I had another idea but I can't remember what it is right now but anyway it doesn't sound like we have to like yeah basically I don't know their mission also what they are looking at are they fulfilling their own awareness or what is the mission so we don't know and plus we as in the beginning said we more I think personally I think for myself I'm more concerned about the what's going on in town of Amherst if we have what kind of demographics we have and refugee buys so I guess my point was more just like is it helpful if we do talk about it and it is like recorded um for them to have that sort of like advertising on like a as part of the conversations by the HRC for their potential to apply for grants so like we can't help them monetarily but in spreading that um cause we could possibly I mean I think to some degree does have to go on the agenda whether you support it or not because I can't tell the individual that you guys aren't going to support them which is what I could say with we don't have any funds for grants but I will forward your email to see if the commissioners have other ways that they can support you which is what I did and then you guys feel like you they didn't but it will we will follow that type of pattern I would assume regardless right so when the the youth lift the age for the the youth came about she sent me a big thing I forwarded to you guys we put it on the agenda she came to the meeting and we talked about it right like it'll always move in that way because myself I don't have the authority to tell someone that you guys will there will not support there's another thing also that came to my mind is that refugees versus the alien you know who are coming without the visas they're two different entities and they are also having problems and issues the refugees get a lot of somewhat a lot of funding from the federal aid also you know so they're living everything is done for them so what basically what is going on is this cultural differences that are being mitigated so otherwise refugees are from where they're coming it it was difficult you know war environment and all that but they are funded by the federal budget okay so I guess for that in terms actual what we're talking about and not in just specifically that example um we could email them back and say hey if you would like to come to a meeting and have a representative talk about it then we can respond to that as to whether or not this makes sense with our own mission specifically um so that they can be heard other than just on the email as a way to support other organizations yeah but again the contention is whether they're interested also obviously in in raising awareness the mission might not be that awareness for them maybe they just want the grants and might not be interested and it might be it's a waste of time for them if we say again you know we don't have funds so if Jennifer's already responded saying we don't have the grants I was merely putting this on the agenda because we're going to keep getting requests not necessarily to discuss this one however um once Jennifer says we don't have the funds if they said are there other ways that we can support then we would put them on the agenda for whatever the meeting if we have space for the next whatever the next meeting is and then they could come the request should come from them not from us I think uh maybe I don't know I I just want to raise a concern that our meetings are filled with these kinds of requests and then we if we say yes to one we say have to say yes to everyone and um I've only been on for a few months and you know we've already had the youth group come on which was fantastic and this request and so I have no I like and then if once organizations get wind that if they ask we'll have them and there's public meetings I just have a concern about opening up the floodgates like if if you say yes to one then you say yes to all and that might be a totally irrational concern it might be so I share your interest and I also have this concern we've had more than that because we also had the one from the jones library um um gender thing that we said we would support and then the other factions didn't support so it didn't go anywhere you know so we we we have our cinema yes don't tell me you didn't go anywhere I thought we all support so we have we have evidence however I do believe that Pamela sent us an email if I'm not mistaken stating that we would support it but it was contingent upon the other folks supporting as well and the other folks balked so therefore that did not happen we said yes other folks did not so we have to remember all of the I would like to know what happened with that great memory like the final word on what happened with that because I thought we supported it so this body did vote to support $125 towards a $500 full donation to Amherst cinema but you did not get support from two of the other four two of the other three bodies and so there was not enough funds to do it so we didn't have enough to fill that gap no we don't know your your coffers are pretty much at zero so I find it very frustrating that we have no money at all and we're given a mandate like ensure that human rights are protected and no power shall go unchecked I mean come on I think we really need some resources if we're going you know we don't have any clout to resolve problems but we should be we should have the resources to increase awareness I personally think we are more like a pressure group and that's good also you know pressure group on policies and so on so because because we are all volunteers and once a month we are doing this so my suggestion given that fallback and given that we just took a look at a great budget for a great number of activities that we could be doing that we have no money for and given all of that we should as a group make an appointment with the town council and part of this conversation with them would be just that now if that was to happen we'd have to do it request to be on their docket and then we would have to show up not just one or two of us but maybe all of us right so Pamela has some suggestions about that because I can see your mind I read and write through her yeah so I do think that the annual report that Philip presented to the town council is a good starting point for that conversation about financial resources and the town is just beginning to start the budgetary process for planning so the timing is right the unfortunately like the report that was submitted at the end of last fiscal year came after the decisions about finances for appropriation so you're now at a position where you have last year's report you have a better understanding about what you want the scope of your work to look like and to be able to do and so I think you're at a position where you can make an argument as they go forward with appropriations to think about appropriations to the human rights commission as I'm reminded all of the time you know the budget is tight and limited but that doesn't present prevent a very strong ask and you know I would say garnering some support from some of the town councils to support whatever that ask is thank you I'm just going to say that you know one of the things that I've been thinking about with the different boards and committees just because like the folks from CSS JC came in or the community safety working group and so much of their charge with regarding the budget same with the ahra but had no idea about how the budget process worked is that in for the next meeting I will put in the presentation for the budget and how that process rolls out so that you guys can see and I would still say yes to the the state of the human rights but it never hurts to go to public comment and speak so here's what I'm going to say about that if we don't ask we won't receive if we do ask the least they can do is listen I mean the most they can do is give us the money the least they can do and listen and say we don't have it so and we're not going to get it if we don't ask but I think we should be well prepared before we go in front of them do we need a motion for this if I could just make one more comment there is always discretionary money in all the budgets so I certainly would not rule out the monies they have now we're talking about not being able to support at a time when all the stuff that's going on with gender in this town not being able to support this movie series because of a few hundred dollars surely that's available in discretionary funds so I think we should go for it and say set aside some for us now but that wasn't the ask about the ask for next year that wasn't the ask the ask was for 125 dollars from each of the four people and we fulfilled ours so but if the other folks didn't fulfill them that wasn't the ask we responded to the ask right I know we responded to the ask but we had the choice I mean within the system if it's important to us and it's not important to anybody else that doesn't mean I'm not happy or content saying okay it's not important to them so it's done I would have gone back and said where's where can we find the other 300 dollars or whatever it was and it had to have existed in the system none of us asked for it because we had it all chopped up to make it more accessible I understand but if we have an issue that's important I think we need to go after that well I think that's good advice for the future but I think the moment has passed for this particular ask so my question was do we need a motion to say we're going to approach the town council with the budgetary request or can that just be something that we do and my second question is the last time I got an invitation to join the representatives of this commission at the town council I got that invitation 48 hours before the meeting and I don't usually function with that kind of availability you know 48 hours notice so yeah if we get on their agenda do we can we get more than 48 hours notice so go ahead so I was going to make a suggestion that the co-chairs write to the town council president seeking an opportunity to be on their agenda and I mean the town council president generally sets the agenda and would select a date that would be made known to us and there are sometimes some flexibility so if I give for example last year the community safety social justice committee went back and forth on a date like it's sometimes difficult to to select a date because you have their schedule which is pretty much set in stone but then coordinating that with the others but I would start the conversation that that way this is where it would be really helpful to have our liaison because that person is talking to the town with the town council they're deliberating on all kinds of things and they could say oh wait we could use this 15-minute block for the HRC I'll send that note out also to or we will send that note out to Lynn Grasmer as I'll draft it and Deb the 48 hours is because meetings don't have to be post they have to be minimally posted 48 hours in advance and so I don't I'm not a hundred percent sure where the meeting notice came from but that's the way that they it just has to be done 48 hours in advance so if Ronnie makes it has conversation with Lynn about a future time then Ronnie can respond and say this is will be when the meeting will be but you might not get that zoom link or information until 48 hours in advance yeah so I'm just asking that the commission members be notified before the public notice is made so that we I want to be there I want to come I want to comply with your expectation that we have a hundred percent attendance I really do and I generally need more than 48 hours notice to be able to do that normally we would know when we're invited more than 48 hours and that means that we would get that information to you the zoom link if people can't come doesn't have to come till 48 hours prior I think that's what I was trying to say you're at priorities and goals is your mic on no sorry in terms of dealing with priorities and goals our last agenda item do people have priorities and goals they want to lay out and then we'll discuss each or how would you like to do it that's the only thing that I can say off the top of my head and I can start with some okay so I have four possible priorities listed here one is this whole question of education about human rights what are human rights so people understand that it applies to everyone and then the whole education piece about it and all the stuff that needs to be done so I would imagine some kind of goal setting about human rights the second thing is that you know we it's about CSS JC and Cress I think I'm not sure how we want to get involved but one goal might be there because there's a lot of distress and certainly I keep getting emails on a personal level about going to those meetings and speaking up and I know there's a lot of concern and we've HRC has long had a close relationship with CSS JC the third thing oh the increasing the age of adults we've already addressed that and the fourth thing was this whole question of voting that we have huge segments of our population who are refugees or other kinds of stateless people who are not participating in our local elections so this whole question of what sort of that's more of an advocacy thing we would have to advocate the barriers not at the town level it's at the state level so we would have to take on an advocacy campaign at the state level to bring it to vote to force our state representatives to vote for or against that kind of local vote okay I would suggest that we go around and say our items and then we can try to organize them and discuss them in in clumps okay I'll just start with the fact that now we are electing are we actually choosing fire chief and then the superintendent for the schools and you know what Liz has also told the middle school and so on so I would really promote us getting involved in it and being there when the decisions are being made and so on this is the police chief or what chief police chief okay Liz do you want to go next we'll just go down the line well my two main priorities three main priorities was the superintendent search police chief and cssjc as it relates to what's going on with cress I love when there's intersecting priorities my main priority was cress and the question I raised earlier about whether or not it's possible for us to provide testimony for human rights issues and I gave the example of the indigenous people's day and this you know a whole indigenous rights agenda of I think five pieces of legislation and other pieces about including um factual education in public schools I'm not sure of what the rest are at this moment but that's just an example so providing testimony in statewide legis uh and the statewide legislature the main thing that I'm interested in at the moment is about the police chief search um it's one more information I guess um uh coming from out of state um not really living here holding that kind of college student role only here for four years um part of that is study abroad um so I think like in terms of human rights priorities and goals um and just thinking about how to get students more involved in that as well um because I know all of my close friends have no about the commission um and we've lived here for two years at this point um and also just in general about town um town local politics um it's something only really economic not economics um social jurisprudence and social thought majors deal with at Amherst college specifically so that's like about 1800 students um so I don't know I guess for me HRC priorities I want to get the reason why I want to take on this role is so I can get more exposure to things happening at the local level um now that I'm of age to vote um so yeah that's um one of the things is sort of getting our initiatives more out there to people within my demographic okay so um the ones that have the most um interest are the press CSS JC role and the police chief selection so maybe we should outline what we can do with regard to those did you have a process in mind for this family I'm just sort of taking over here we didn't decide no no no no this is meant to be your retreat so you have to take I mean you have to take the initiative about where you want to go with us yeah okay all right so maybe we should talk about those first is that a good way to go is um press first and then the police selection um and the superintendent I'm going to say that me personally that I think there's an intersection with the CSS JC and crest um that was the word I'm looking for right now in flux flux you could say transition and transition and I think that it also because of where the crest came from that they intersect with the police chief search yes no maybe okay let's look at them together and have the superintendent search be a separate discussion then or are they I was good putting that's just my opinion now it doesn't have to be everybody's well I'm making a proposal because I think we need to move forward so shall we talk about those three together does that help you right now when we're taking a look at all the stuff that's going on in the town um and also with the school committee those are the three things press um superintendent and police chief those are the three things on this list that is most prevalent and the folks that I talk to and what they are concerned about and have some um tension about um okay so just to be clear this is our goals and objectives for next year and it ideally would align with right as it as it results as it pertains to how we're supporting the rights of the citizens of Amherst these are the things that folks are talking about these are the things that are in the newspaper right now these are the things that are um need our immediate attention as a town these are the things that we're in influx I don't know what the word I'm looking for we're flexed about flexed about and they're urgent they need to happen sooner rather than later yes we have uh an acting superintendent yes we have an acting police chief however we need I think as a council we need to be aware and more involved in how these processes are making the active more permanent and maybe um help die down some of the tension and the um the rhetoric and whatever else is going on in the minds of the folks that we need to most serve that's the good girl say that word insecurity that's a good word I like it so what are we going to do about it in the next year is the question so remember you need to have your mic so what are we going to do about it is the question so I do believe that you and me and or me was asked to be part of whatever the police search is um as part of the human rights commission I think I got that and I'm not sure and I know I'm sorry that I got some information some emails from Paul at the beginning of September and then my sister passed away so I was just like I've been on and then since then I've had five more deaths in three weeks period so I have been not paying attention and now I'm actually receiving text messages about um beloved Barry Brooks and his memorial service there's a gentleman in our town his name is Barry Brooks senior he is an instrumental part of the african-american experience in the town of Amherst he it was um a guidance counselor and then as retired he was an ombudsman for the regional schools he was a guidance counselor at the middle school he raised two children here he was he and his wife his wife Judy was a beloved first grade teacher at Pelham elementary school Judy belonged to Goodwin Memorial Amy Zion church Barry belonged to Grace Episcopal church they were also resident directors for many years at the in the ABC program they are pillars of our community Judy passed away several years ago Barry passed away last week so right now I'm in the process of helping his daughter in part of our Goodwin Memorial community plan his very public memorial service that will be on october 28th so given that I also lost my sister on september 8th and some other folks in between um I also just um moderated the memorial service of Dennis Jackson who was another african-american man and a pillar in our community especially when it comes to education and um um growth in youth empowerment um and his memorial service was Friday Friday night so um I haven't really been paying attention to the police chief search and now I am telling you in person and on air that I am now back in that fold um so um and as a member of the Amherst regional school district since november of 1981 um I'm very much interested in the superintendent search so I don't know how we as a group do these things I know that we've been asked to be a part of the police chief search so so I'm gonna suggest that I fill you in uh on information I can fill you in on an information about Crest definitely um and also the police chief search and also a suggestion so the CSSJC had requested specific information about the police chief search which we provided them some written documents so Jennifer can make arrangements to send that information to you and she may be able to fill in more information but what I understand is that following the first round of uh public forums about the selection of the police chief that the consultants inform the town manager that there is a need for more information gathering so they are I think going to gather some more information from individuals in the community and um at the point in in time when a search committee is formed that it would include a member from this committee and a member from the CSSJC when the actual work of selecting a police chief occurs and Jennifer please fill in if you have more details so I have a question so I I want to see if you all did I know that everyone on the human rights commission was invited to meet with the consultant did anyone else meet with them I mean apart from the two of us you did did you meet with them okay thank you go ahead well since you've already met with them first of all I was going to say well since you've been at a commission you should meet with them but you already did so that's fantastic so never mind I think um I don't know if I was allowed to since I wasn't sworn in yet as a member have you been sworn in now then you're allowed to now can we get her on the list since I think yeah you just replied to the email I would like to say that in the course of my interview with the person it didn't happen at all like and it structured information gathering session like there was no introduction that said this is what is this here's the process first we're talking to you then this is going to happen this is going to happen this is going to happen there did not seem to be an order to the conversation so it sort of doesn't surprise me that they come back and say they need to talk to more people I wonder if we could somehow ask for them to be a little more structured in their questions or if they're unstructured still follow some thread because there wasn't any which made me deeply concerned and their own role they said seemed temporary and uncertain so they said you know I said what are you going to do with this information like there was no discussion of what they would do with the information is it confidential will you be quoted in the report none of that was presented and when I asked them they said that they would report their findings to the town to the town manager and when I asked about well what do you mean by that how are you going to analyze this qualitative data they gave me no the person I who interviewed me gave me no was not able to talk about how they were going to analyze she said oh well do the main points so I said so what about all the minority comments the comments that are not among these main points will they be included in an appendix or will they be left out or is it just the main points and she's then she didn't seem to know she said oh we'll include everything so I said well you're going to include everything everybody says so how then are you going to analyze what everybody says and really it's possible that I was being difficult in the way I was asking my question because I work with qualitative data myself and I know it's very easy to budget so I felt very concerned about the way the loose way in which they were dealing with the information they were getting and the fact that there's no end to their involvement also concerned me one thing Pamela that would help me a lot is to know like what's the plan like is is the idea that at the end of one year there'll be a new police chief or at x point they didn't even they said the town was going to develop the job description not them so I can see them submitting a bunch of information to the town about you know people are concerned about you know they want cooperation with crests they want this they want that they don't want gun use they want a gentle touch with young people particularly BIPOC youth so I don't know how all that necessarily changes anything about a job description that could be written today and they also said that the town this is my last point the town does not have the money they said oh don't feel bad you know it's not like it's not the town's fault that were she didn't use this term but I'll say in disarray she says it's not the town's fault they don't have the money but I find that hard I can I be talking to can I finish are you interacting with the person the person who I was asked to do my interview with the consultant who is doing the police search okay so it seems to me that's not acceptable because we don't have a police chief for one whole year which means we have a year of the police chief salary that we made that was allocated but is available potentially for this so to then say not to speak of whatever budget HR has for hiring but then to it doesn't seem believable to me that there's no money to hire a new police chief such an important position in this town so anyway I I left feeling very sort of saddened by it because I think it's an opportunity especially when you're willing to be open and I have the sense from everything I've heard that everybody wants you know a good police chief who can work with crests and you know be legitimate have legitimacy in this very diverse community with a lot of concerns I know everybody wants that but I felt disheartened from what I heard that's just my report of my interaction in responding to the town manager's email to all of us about signing up to talk to the consultant I just want to say that I had a very different experience than you had um I was able to say all the things that I wanted and needed to say I was able to get some answers to the direct questions that I had about what the next steps were going to be and just to clarify we do have a police chief right now it's acting but we do have a police chief yeah I also had a great experience in my interview um although the one thing that is your mic on it is I had a great experience in my interview and the one thing that was the same Ronnie is what you experience is um they didn't have an end game in terms of like here's the 12 steps from talking to you to hiring this police chief um because what and what they I was explicitly told is they're in game in this moment is writing the report from the data collection and then the town would make a decision about what happens after that so that seems like it might be similar to what you had so I would love Pamela if you have more information about the sequencing of this process that'd be great so I don't have a lot of information because I haven't been involved in the process it is my understanding that this first phase would be completed and then the second stage would be the formation of the search committee and I'm not certain whether responsibility for writing the job description would lay with the consultants or whether that would be in-house by the HR department I'm I'm not I'm not certain so as far as we are concerned as far as we're concerned the next step for that week where we can be involved is to have one representative on the actual search committee is that correct I believe that's correct yes one invitation from from here want to clarification is the search committee and the interview committee going to be two separate groups or one group or do we not know that I think that it's one group when I saying the using the term search committee I think that was the body of people who would review applications and interview but again you know take what I'm saying with a grain of salt because I haven't been intimately involved in the process but it's my understanding that you would be a member of this group would be on the deciding among those individuals who would be making a recommendation to the town manager and I'm going to assume that all the information that is shared within the search committee cannot be shared outside of it because these are personnel matters and so we can't know who the who all the candidates are and what the criteria are so to the extent that people have prioritized the police chief search as connecting to the commission besides having a member of our commission on the search committee is there any other way we could possibly be involved so I oh so when we was selecting a principal there was the search committee and the interview committee and then the candidates came to the school and met with kids and staff and so I'm not sure that that's a true statement and if it is a true statement then I for one will bring up how before there's a final selection made that members of the community should be able to meet and greet and pick their brain and you know we was also able to even though we did not have a final say because I wasn't on the search I was able to put my suggestions and my thoughts and feelings in a little box for people to review great great yes what I was thinking is like if you get 50 applications that that information does not get shared widely but once you have like three finalists perhaps then what you're talking about can kick in yeah yeah I'm sure I'd like to add just completing the earlier discussion that I did get to say everything I wanted to say and I think she I think the person interviewing me did hear me I what I was reacting to was my questions to her my questions to her about what her purpose was and how the information collected from me would be used okay so before we move on to crest do you need to have any further conversation or take any action or are you satisfied with that well I want to make sure that what Liz suggested which is that there's a role for us as a body to meet with the finalists or you know give an input to vet them and give input at least all right so where would where would we go to or who would be what do we need to do to ensure that the commission can be more fully involved so I can inquire about more details of the process from the town manager I just I personally just don't know the answer to that question right now I do think that the process that Liz described is the process that would be used going forward but I don't you know I cannot say that with a hundred percent authority right so you can find out and get back to us and if this is not the process what would be our process for advocating for that yeah so I think your your process for advocating is always you're having advisory role to the town manager so you could send a letter or memorandum advising so and you also have that advisory role to the town council so you could do that as well but I would love the opportunity just to find out some more clarity about the so the next most important agenda is or equally important agenda I will say that is um crest crest so I can give you lots of information about crest so the town manager met with his executive leadership team I think now like three or four weeks ago and to have a discussion about setting up an interim leadership team for the crest department and at the conclusion of that meeting which was on a Friday I was told that I should think about taking on that uh taking on the that interim director role when I met with the town manager the following Monday I laid out to him or discuss with him what I thought would be really important scaffolding to put in place in order for me to do that which was to create a leadership team um because I do not have public safety uh as an expertise and so the leadership team includes chief Nelson the fire of the fire department sergeant Janet Griffin from the police department myself and cat Newman from the crest department cat has served in several roles and crests so she was a program assistant which was a union position which was envisioned as the second to Earl or to the director's position and she is currently serving as the implementation the grant implementation manager so at the time that the director left the position or was placed on leave the uh program assistant position also became vacant that person resigned so there was definitely a leadership void over in the department the the implementation leadership team has now been in effect for three weeks we met with all the responders in the first for our first day that we took over the role and had a full one day retreat where we reviewed the the mission and goals of the department I I I think hopefully they would agree with me and when I said that within the department there's there had been a little bit of like mission drift right that what people thought that they were higher to do and what they were doing there was a little bit of a gap and so each of the responders was asked to describe the air work in one to three sentences and then as a group we created a very brief mission statement that looked at what the actual mission of the department should be we also we meaning the leadership team have also put in some structure I think to help the department during this interim period so uh Janet uh Kat and I are on site the DEI office moved to the second floor of the bank so we are all there so uh Janet Kat and I meet every morning at 8 15 to talk about the department and then following that we try to have a morning meeting every morning with the responders to review their activities and plans for for the day we have tried to designate Tuesdays as an in-service day where they are starting to receive training on and refresher information on a variety of different topics we have tried to get have them begin to use more formally the use of their radios calling in following procedures around how they record their calls we're reviewing policy we're making some recommendations we again the leadership team are making some recommendations for about the structure going forward the the intent is that this is a temporary leadership team not meant to be in there permanently in fact I've said at every meeting it is my goal not to be in this role come January 2nd like I'm only guaranteeing my participation through the end of the year so the town needs to move quickly to decide what a future structure will be as the town manager pointed out in the documents that will have Jennifer share with the group this leadership team looks very similar to the implementation team which included members of fire police department Jennifer's role as the in the as a DEI so it's sort of a similar structure I I I would hope that if you spoke with the responders that they would feel that we are trying to listen to concerns that they have about how the department has operated in the past and we're trying to address some of those concerns I would say from a management perspective we've also sort tried to address some of the concerns that management had as for as wearing identify I don't want to call it a uniform because it's not a full uniform but having people show up to work in their crest identifiable you know shirts and apparel so that you know that they're crest responders and one of the things that I've tried to do is model that so if you see me Monday through Friday I'm wearing a gray crest shirt so to model that expectation and we did unfortunately have two responders resigned no one has been one individual has taken an opportunity at within the school department the other person you know I don't know but you would you know if if you knew who they were you'd have to ask them specifically about their rationale them for we have the right to know who they are know yeah well generally personnel matters we wouldn't you know yeah but so the I think that the group that remain are still very committed to the work there is still some discussion about what that work is there have been some obstacles that the town is moving to overcome as far as like the concern that they're not that the responders are not receiving calls from the 911 dispatch system yet but there were some legal obstacles as far as collective bargaining with the dispatch union that have been have been mostly resolved and so things are moving along in that way on Friday our earlier during the week last week I received a call from their union representative who wanted to just check in on the status of the of the leadership of the department we arranged for the union rep to meet the entire leadership team so we were on a zoom call with him answered any questions that he had and then left that meeting so that he could have a private meeting with the responders so that they have an opportunity to you know raise their issues the trainings that are the in-service that have taken place thus far was a refresher with the dispatch department and a training that was on domestic partner violence and then two responders and Janet both participated in a two-day workshop around suicide prevention and working with youth around a number of issues so that we've asked the responders to provide us with a list of requests for things that they would like to have more information on or have a refresher and they've done so we met with them on Friday afternoon to go over to have a group discussion about professional goals both short term and long term as well as educational attainment so I think we're trying to be as supportive as we can and to have the have the department in a position where there will be an easy pass of passing of the baton to whomever next directs the department well thank you for that update does anybody have any questions I know I just have one okay yeah the fact that we not sure as to why this happened that there's the vacuum and the top you know the crest and I don't know and there is a lot of privacy around that also but how can we be sure that it won't happen again so I think the answer is that you can never be sure that there won't be some sort of issue that might come up but because it is a personnel matter we're not allowed to really discuss that and in full I think you can and the town the town manager in his conversation with the town council reiterated his commitment to seeing the department be successful I think you can you know you would have to take him as his word that that is true I think that the members of the leadership team certainly are all there to make sure that the department is successful when I spoke publicly about the leadership team for the on the first opportunity was at the last September meeting of the CSSJC I said you know I am late in my career I did not sign on to this task to be a part of something that is designated to be a failure my goal in taking on the role is to for it to be successful I was adamant so I take all praise and criticism together about the formation of a leadership team because the idea of me being in charge of this department without any public safety background would just be in my opinion nonsense and so the goal is to put together a team that can really provide the structure for that easy handoff so that has required like looking at the current policies and procedures that were in place about and making sure that the responders understand the difference between labor and management and how what rights they have as part of being a part of a collective bargaining unit I mean there's some real I guess complexities because they are part of the same union that the dispatchers on and normally when I think or it's easier for you to envision like resolving collective bargaining disputes when people are working in different unions right and so you have to reconcile between the two they are actually in the same union as the dispatcher so there's a lot of nuance to to having that conversation and then of course on to that that there are two unions for fire and two unions for the police department and all of them have to interact with the Cress responders so as I said to the responders as well and to the CSSJC if you can envision a way in which this department would work without having strong relationships with those other departments then you know please let me know but I think we need to establish strong relationships between all three public safety departments in the town the other thing I think that's important to know so we the Cress department recently like a lot of their funding is coming from the Department of Mental Health they recently did a site visit I think they were fairly pleased with what they learned about this interim transition leadership team we'll hear back from them if they have concerns the department under the leadership of the prior director had applied at least twice before to be a part of a government leadership lab through the Harvard Kennedy School this past spring they were awarded that non-financial grant to be a part of this government lab so all of the members of the leadership team and I will be meeting with this cohort and the cohort is a group of other responder type departments across the country to learn from each other and to get advice about how to move the department forward and this you know as you saw if you read in the paper right each city and municipality is making their own decisions about where best to house this type of work if they want to do it and Northampton is being housed in you know in a public health department and some places it's embedded in fire and other places it's embedded in the police department and here the town had previously decided that it would be a standalone you know department a third public safety department okay Deborah had a question as well yeah actually I have a comment and a question this far precedes your involvement I just want to say that I understand collective bargaining complexities I used to be a staff person at a labor union and my job was to negotiate collective bargaining agreements but I have to go on record as saying that I'm very frustrated that people were hired and the staff was you know the department was created without having those issues resolved first because core to their mission is to be getting these 9-1-1 calls so I'm just very frustrated maybe I'm even a little aggravated by that so it is there's nothing for you to respond I just want to say that because that what has happened is the trust and credibility and excitement and hope for this department has been so greatly diminished far before you know the director was put on admin leave I just want to say that I also am frustrated and concerned at how long this administrative leave has been dragging on and I think that you know whoever is accused of anything needs to have their due process but have such a tiny department lose its head and have you know be in the position of needing to have interim and have no hope in sight for when another search process is going to happen or when he's going to be returning further diminishes the trust and faith and hope and credibility of the department all of that has nothing to do with you so I totally agree with you I feel like the legal questions should have been answered well before they were sworn in but all of that history predates me and I don't know why decisions were made I just don't have any idea I do think that the town has been working probably not at a pace that is visible to members of the public on the aspect around the paid administrative leave and coming some to some resolution but I think as you know like it those things tend to take time the town did hire an independent investigator to investigate the matter and so all of that takes time and then there's just a process involved in doing it go you go ahead because I have to digest what she just said just given everything that you've said given everything that you've said I'm just wondering you know apart from the disappointment that many people including myself feel about Cress and sort of anyway my question to you is given that you are now have now become quite familiar with Cress and what it has to offer and you know the HRC really well I'm just wondering where do you see the windows of opportunity for us to be involved so I actually um Rizwana had a really good suggestion that I wrote down when you asked the question earlier about Cress taking on the role of helping people to walk through some of the processes or having some involvement in that I I don't know the complete answer to that because I think right now I would say that the the majority of the responders are taking on the role of gaps in social service agencies so they've been very helpful with working with seniors the inspection department has asked them to assist with individuals in town who are subject to eviction because of hoarding but that is not what was envisioned as the primary work of the department and so I see that once the department starts to receive 911 calls their their work and the ability to do those things will be shifted quite a bit um and I think it you know it is yet to be seen what the demand will be for response to 911 calls and what their capacity is I I mean I have lots of thoughts in my head that are I have said to the town manager my goal is to provide um you know a pretty comprehensive report of like what we've done during this interim period as well as future suggestions but they will be you know they I've described them as wild ideas so I'll just say like publicly one of my wild ideas is that I think that the Crest Department even if it is a standalone department should probably have space in the new fire department that is going to be built at some point in that building right so that there's a more intimate collection to um to one of the public safety departments um you know one of the ideas that the responders floated themselves was whether they should receive training to become EMTs I mean so there are lots of good ideas floating around but I um I don't know where the department will be and you know three years time or in five years time so the way I see it from a human rights lens is that part of the reason for Crest's formation was that there were violations of human rights being carried out by the police department and there were a number of studies done prior to my move to Amherst but I've read the studies and they've all called for some sort of barrier between the police and their training and their particular way of responding including the way they're socialized to respond and the person on the other end and it seems to me that Crests can get lost in all the needs of any society in America like Amherst where there are huge disparities in healthcare and elder care in all kinds of fields and what I see is that they're getting distracted by those true needs however addressing those needs is great they're legitimate needs too but in terms of the human rights violations that were occurring some of them very blatant particularly against BIPOC youth and for other BIPOCs people um I don't see I mean Crest was supposed to be that space and my question is what can we excuse me what if anything what sort of role do we have to highlight the need for that barrier so that there's it reduces the likelihood of violations occurring when there aren't many eyes on it you know on the event that's taking place where such violations occur so I think that the that the need for the barrier was well documented in the prior reports that you've talked about and I think that the um that the responders that is the work that the responders really envision themselves doing the primary obstacle to doing that work has been receiving calls through the 911 system at least in my opinion I would say that's been the primary block and then so overcoming that obstacle will I I think lead to more responders being able to do that type of work and that's why I say I would be reluctant to say oh the um you know the responders will be able to do X Y and Z with the HRC because I think when they are fully uh designated and um able to do the work as it was envisioned for them they will not have the time to do some of the social service uh type of actions they've been in basically I'd like to share my own experience with Crest because that reflects very well and positively reflects positive impact that they made on my life because I had just entered this community Amherst and I had bought a car and it turned out to be lemon law it was dealing with a local you know garage and they you know they were not they were very uh and if I had I known I would have come here because they were very uh there was racial intonations and they were really treating they were very aggressive my um you know the uh seller car sales people so I don't want to take their names but um I did get a loss also on that and they did everything illegal so how I got to get Crest involved was because they were in the library at the time and I frequently went there and they were very nice and very cordial and I got to know them just saying hi and so on and then they I said you have this badge you know you have this Crest and they said yes because we are doing this there was Q there and then I think Brittany was there so they actually were so good they said no we are going to go with you we will accompany you because I didn't have any male person so there was this underlying gender issue also going on because I am coming I am a stranger I'm coming out of the community there's gender there's a there's a misogyny going on there and they went with me and then the person you know my um because the the seller he said who was supposed to give me return my money that was substantial for me at that time and because the car was junk so um the Crest Q said no we will come back again with you so after a couple of hours they accompanied me again because they knew that it was unsafe place for me that that business was very unsafe for me and I felt also very threatened so I did not register the complaint here because again the process of complaint is has not been implemented so the Crest people helped me but I wish I had known that I could go further and take it along because I didn't want to go into the small courts claim I went through the attorney general and she followed up and I was right I will I had the money hinged on to it but they did not even deem necessary to call back or even do anything and this is a very old business on the main street on the Pleasant Street it's a garage and so in the end nothing came out as you say there was no mediation but the Crest people did protect me so I have to let you know that so I would say that um that the Crest responders the work that they are doing that has been in that more social services realm is very meaningful and impactful for those individuals and I should also point out that the department has a memorandum of understanding to work with the school so there are a couple of initiatives that they are doing with the schools and that the department does have a presence in the library and the plans are that they would have some office space in the in the library so one of the issues that came up and just reviewing the work over the last few weeks is that you know at one point the department we had there had two shifts of working from eight to four and then from 12 to eight but that the department is in the bank center in that building is closed at four so you had responders who were in a building that was really locked away after 4 p.m and although there are notices on the doors you know call this number right you didn't have access to them and so one of the suggestions that I would say going forward would be that you know if there's a night shift that that work should occur at the location of the library which is open to the public rights so that you would have people have actually have access to to responders so the the plan is at the conclusion of this interim leadership to provide all of this information to the town manager and to whomever is going to be in the future leadership role for them to make ultimate decisions right now we have three responder positions that are open I had said at the very beginning that taking on the interim role that I really did not want to hire right I think that should be a decision for the next director however because we have we only have two complete teams and one team that's only has one member we will probably hire one responder so that we have three complete teams well you actually answered my question which is are we filling the vacancies that is the question is written right there in black and white now then so I will move on to my comment and it has to do with the part about um our past director our current director being on administrative leave and that comment is that it's taken me aback a little bit about um money I'm going back to money because we have him on administrative leave we have raised my taxes for the building of a new school I fully supported that okay I want everybody to know I fully support that but it seems to me that we are spending money on events that are tearing us apart as opposed to bringing us together we have bought out the past superintendent we have folks from the middle school that are under investigation and on paid leave we have a crest director on paid leave and I know the different parts part pockets of money come from different places but I think it's ironic that we have this money to put folks on a leave while we're doing these extensive investigations but we don't have money to fund the events that bring us all together as a community I think that that's ironic and we need to fix that quickly not us I'm talking about the town by the way so I think we're back to this question of how to prioritize our goals for next for this coming year like what are we going to really focus our energies on um we seem to have talked quite a bit about this so maybe we should talk about some of the other things so we can actually come up with things we can do so I'm looking at with crests and CSS right so those are two priorities is to keep those in the forefront of every conversation I think we need to have updates on them at each of our meetings I think that one of us needs to be on the police search and the superintendent search and these are the three items crests superintendent and police chief that we discuss each month also I'm in education about human rights I think that we need to develop Jennifer some kind of pamphlet or something I think we talked about this a little earlier and also how to incorporate the rights of our students as they navigate our town in the few years that they're here they may not want to I do we have a student here that's very interested in that and I think we need to support her and that mission and do they know some of the things I know that UMass has a department over there do they not that helps students navigate things that may come up when it comes to their human rights I'm not sure if Amherst College does Amherst College like a lot of the like routes that you can go to when it comes to like a couple human rights violations like sexual assault discrimination they're all sort of combined into like title nine um the person who represents that um title nine board or whatever um and a lot of students have their own anecdotal testimonies having really bad experiences um and then Amherst tries a lot to deal with sort of on-campus on-campus incidents like there was recently a um anti-black racist slur that was spray painted on one of the columns at a dorm on campus um and so they sort of sent out they just sent out a statement saying that they're trying to you know make amends with the situation um and that they're really upset about it but it's a lot of statements um and then kind of continuously just kind of brushing things under the rug like never hear about it you never hear about the investigation um or who's held accountable so there are a lot of things happening on campus that students are aware of and then a lot of these conversations happen in affinity groups um about you know like I feel uncomfortable but they're not often had with actual people that can make disciplinary action um or any other action of that sort so I guess to me it seems really important uh specifically with the police chief's search uh search because there we have our own like um well actually I don't know but how the different um Amherst police departments work I know there's like town of Amherst and then there's one more that's slightly bigger we have town of Amherst you have UMass police and you also have a police department on Amherst college yeah so Amherst they interface with each other mostly when there's off-campus entities however I know that for UMass sometimes if something is large they'll call an AP to Amherst police department to come over and assist with that yeah oh I'm sorry so I was just going to add that both for UMass and for Amherst college uh there is a state statute which allows them to have full police power so they are considered like a city police department for the campus um so they operate just like a municipal to police department would yeah and so I feel like um a lot of students have brought forth that like BIPOC specifically um when they feel like they're being intimidated by a police officer on Amherst college and so we had there's been a large ongoing conversation that often never gets solved because students are filtered out so quickly in the system um especially since COVID now that um students are not and I mean I think it was really um intense during COVID just because there was so much policing in general about like quarantine and everything but I know um now that like more social gatherings are happening that there still can be incidents um but I don't think people know how that those situations can um inspire more change um and so I feel like a lot of those conversations stay within the affinity groups and kind of have like a social um so would it be I was wondering if there would be room um for us as a an organization to go over to the campus and do some kind of workshop with the students around human rights and taking some of our documents over and talking about the laws as they pertain to their human rights and or answer any questions that they may have um are they invited to our meetings are the students inviting to does the campus get um notification that there's a human rights meeting happening on this date and they can come in and have public comment um things like that would be way that we can move forward um and when is human rights day or human rights December 10 December and yeah and maybe we can um go over to your campus on that day or a couple of days leading up to that or maybe even a day or two after that and talk to your students about his the rights you have as students uh we have to be careful because I think Amherst College is private as opposed to UMass which is public so we'd have to we carefully as to we'd have to be invited actually so that would start with you I think I also wonder if these discussions that happen in these little affinity groups those concerns of those issues can be brought to a higher level if somebody were to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission because then there would be a way um just to raise it to a higher level so that the authorities realize it's something that needs to be addressed um I think that what's not clear to many people and even Crest didn't think to send Rizwanar to the Human Rights Commission but it seems like we really do need to spread the word that the commission is here if not to solve a particular problem at the at that point to elevate it to a higher level of attention while preserving the complainants um confidentiality yeah so I feel like the conversation about Crest was really illuminating especially because um I didn't know what that acronym stand stood for um I haven't heard of that organization um but reading like a little bit about it it already seems like um like it would alleviate situations that could escalate with a police officer or help when there is a police officer to provide support for students for people who are shaken in those situations um or like if you get pulled over you can call Crest to let them know that you have been pulled over um and that there is a police like altercation and even if it doesn't escalate just having someone to go to in case a situation like that that's really traumatizing for a lot of people um but I know that I I've never heard of it and I don't think Amherst has done enough to you know even acknowledge the fact that there's this organization that's trying to partner with so um Crest would not currently have the authority to enter onto Amherst College since it's a private university right and you have your own rules and regulations and policies and your own police department I do would say that you know one of my recommendations for the town in the future would be to think about the growth opportunity for the department if it were able to enter into memorandums of understanding with UMass with Hampshire and with Amherst College but that doesn't currently exist so they wouldn't have authority to be on campus there were um UMass students who were very interested in having UMass create a Crest-like department for the university so you know there there may be a growth opportunity for the department and the town in the future but that doesn't doesn't currently exist one other thing that I want to say before I forget is that so um universal declaration of human rights takes place on december 10th the town common is going to be under construction so Jennifer and I discussed and have sort of thought about moving that uh celebration to the courtyard at the bank center for a candlelight light um candlelight lighting event and then moving the reading of the declaration of human rights indoors to the room 101 which is right adjacent to the courtyard at the banks and the day um the next day on december 11th the um mass commission against discrimination representatives will be here to do a know your rights workshop um and they will provide a translation services in spanish so that's in the works for that event could I uh before we lose um Jacinta's issue all together I could I clear could we clarify that Amherst students can still file a complaint with the human rights commission they can't access Crests but if they want to file a complaint confidentially like anybody else in the within the bounds of the city of Amherst they can file a complaint if they definitely want to learn more about how the town and like um Amherst work in terms of like policy so in general um colleges and universities may maintain authority over their campuses so while it's true an Amherst college student could file a complaint with the human rights commission the town itself would not have the authority to dictate a change in Amherst college policy or you know actions because of the private nature however as uh Ronnie has pointed out it does elevate the profile of the complaint complaining about an Amherst business right a business that lies with outside of Amherst college which we then would be able to help and support and you also might want to check in with Sarah Barr because she is the uh what is the proper word that I'm looking for um Nancy and Tony are our town gown representatives from UMass and Amherst and Sarah is our town gown representative for Amherst college do you notice I don't know if you know Sarah Barr or not but and I know that would like when we send things out saying like we're going to have these events or that events that Sarah Barr actually takes that and forwards it to the community at Amherst college so I know recently Amherst rec did it for the block party and Sarah they were able to get multiple people who came in and did face painting for the youth and I just for the kids let Deborah speak for just one second please I need to go and I'm going off the mic right now so it's really hard to follow that and be present that's um but I'm looking at the time and I'm looking at the fact that at least three of us have another event to go to shortly after we dismiss so I've been taking some notes a little bit about some of our priorities um the one was to plan a human rights information and or workshop at Amherst college however I do believe that we can invite your folks here for the MCAD workshops that are happening on December 11th so that's a priority and um if we can help you get some flyers or whatever to put around campus so that we know that that's available and maybe even UMass and Hampshire college so that the students can be present if they wish to be at that at that event on December 11th I also wrote as part of one of our charges is to follow up on press and keep that as an agenda item for each of our meetings um a member of this committee or members of this committee being on the police chief search I also wrote members of this committee being on the superintendent search I wrote meet with the town council recording the budget um and I wrote um trying to get a pamphlet um regarding the HRC and as in education about human rights being as part of that pamphlet so education about human rights and what this commission actually is about being as part of that pamphlet so those are the ones that we've already discussed I'm sure that we have some other things there are other things on this agenda that we haven't gotten to but I also know it's 20 minutes to four and we have already worked through lunch and we have a four o'clock deadline so um one thing we didn't discuss and I'm happy having it postponed to our put put on our next meetings agenda is this question of whether we want to advocate for voting rights or that part of our mandate for residents of Amherst obviously it won't apply to this year's election but if we did um it would be something that would be relevant for two years from now yes and I'm you know agreeing with you that is more of a statewide thing as opposed to just an Amherst thing so we'd have to take a lot of hard look at that I mean we can advocate for the other folks in Amherst but we'd have to also interface with our state when it comes to that right but we are advocating for folks in Amherst to be able to uh to vote I agree okay all right it seems like that covers it in terms of what we're doing I don't see like big priorities and I see that priorities might shift depending for instance on how Crest goes and uh the thing that I see as the priority that we all agreed to is having us pick out um committees that we think we want to take a more active role in and then making it official so that we can then join those committees or just go and listen to what's happening and come back and report as our way of connecting and also um maybe speaking at those committees to let people know that we exist and what we do and how to get more information about our about us so that would be my last thought so maybe we should go around and have some last thoughts before we uh leave is that well according to our um agenda we should open it up again for public comment then we have member reports and then any other topics we did not think about so that's why we have 20 minutes for that and maybe we can take five or 10 minutes for that and then go around with final thoughts from each of the commissioners if that's okay with you Pamela so do we have anybody in the public's well while he's not speaking I do want to say that he's our wingman when it comes to lifting and bending when we have events because he's he gets put to work hsc member reports um I think the biggest report is that the css jc is having a meeting on Tuesday at 6 30 they're not having a meeting anymore is that the 11th whatever the 11th is Wednesday at 6 30 um their primary um goal is discussed uh the discussion of crest so if people want more information about crests or more in depth I'm not sure exactly where they're going with it I was just invited to come to the meeting so and they're posting the Friday the zoom the meeting has already been posted for Wednesday no no meeting is but if you go to the town calendar at amherst ma I mean that's something else that we should probably do at your next meeting and show you guys how to utilize the town calendar so or the town website so if you go to amherst ma.gov on the scroll down to the calendars for the 11th there'll be a zoom link attached to that I could show it to you now if you needed to but I think you actually the actually the hard part is not going to the calendar and finding the meeting the hard part is if you missed the meeting and two days later you want to hear it finding it is nearly impossible well yep because it posts the meetings on Fridays next Friday if I wanted to watch it and I hadn't attended I could watch it yep you can always call and ask for us to send you a copy of it oh okay thank you so if I may I will ask that the committee members take a look at the amherst mass.gov and take a look at which committees they are interested in attending and letting us know that on our next meeting which is October 18th if that's okay and also what are they thinking about do they want to do which of the searches do you want to be a part of if we if you can and how we then get that to the folks leading those searches candidate searches um so for those to be posted on our agenda for our next meeting so I just want to interject for a moment to say that Wednesday the 11th is also the candidates night for potential candidates so department heads will be here in town hall to meet with individuals who are running for office so I will not be in attendance at the CSSJC meeting but in their current packag