Community Safety Committee Voices Concerns About The Future Of Social Justice Work In Amherst

Report On The Meeting Of The Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, June 16, 2023.

Present
Pat Ononibaku (acting chair), Philip Avila, Debora Ferreira, Freke Ete. Allegra Clark (co-chair) joined the meeting at 7:40 p.m..

Staff: Pamela Nolan Young (Director of the Department of Diversity Equity and Inclusion), Earl Miller (Director, of the Community Responder Department (CRESS)).

The Future of The CSSJC And Social Justice Initiatives In Amherst
The meeting began with an announcement that Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) co-chair Dee Shabazz had resigned from the committee. Pat Ononibaku does not intend to apply for reappointment when her term expires on June 30, and Philip Avila will be leaving the area in July. Combined with the one existing vacancy on the committee, that will leave the committee with only three active members out of seven seats, not enough for a quorum. Members expressed concern about whether they will be able to continue their work under these conditions, whether the town manager will expedite filling those vacancies, and what the depletion of the committee means for advancing social justice initiatives in the town.

A considerable portion of the meeting was devoted to concerns about the future of CSSJC, and the impact of CSSJC on social justice work in Amherst.  Some of these concerns had also been voiced at a joint meeting of the CSSJC, The Amherst Human Rights Commission and the Town Council on May 10. (see also here).

Ononibaku voiced frustration with the town’s slow progress in implementing the recommendations of the Community Safety Working Group (CSWG), set forth in their final report in May 2021 (see also here) and integral to the subsequent charge of the CSSJC,  the slow progress of the town in creating a Resident Oversight Board (ROB) to monitor complaints about the Amherst Police, and the town’s inaction in creating a BIPOC teen center. 

She lamented the apparent indifference of the town council to the recommendations and concerns of the CSSJC and its predecessor, the CSWG. She said that she would like to see the CSSJC be more highly regarded, and their recommendations be more consequential – similar to how recommendations of boards like the Planning Board are regarded. She said, “Being an advisory committee is not consequential if there is no action on our advice.  We’ve been pushing for a youth center for three years now and so far we’ve seen nothing. But there’s plenty of action on renovating the Jones Library. I’m frustrated, and it feels like we are wasting people’s time.” 

Ferreira agreed, wondering: “If we’re the only majority BIPOC committee in town, why aren’t we  consulted on BIPOC related matters? How can this committee become more integral to the town government’s decision making process?” she asked. (Editor’s note: the Amherst School Committee is majority BIPOC. The African Heritage Repartions Assembly, which is not a standing committee of the town, is also BIPOC majority.)

Ononibaku said that the CSSJC needed to work on changing its status to something beyond advisory, although no one was sure of how to do that. Pamela Nolan Young suggested that it could be fruitful to take a look at the town charter to see what is specified about protocols and procedures for boards and committees and commissions and how that gets established and changed. 

Ononibaku reminded the committee that the town charter is up for a mandatory review in 2024 and that might afford CSSJC an opportunity to change its status. She said that the CSSJC should be vigilant and provide input into that process. “ If we want the changes that we have been talking about, then the role of CSSJC has to change. The Town Council has just been ignoring us,” she said.

Freke Ete countered that he doesn’t think that the charge of CSSJC needs to change. Rather, he wants to know first,“ if we were to take on more power, what would that entail and what would it look like?”  “We are in the process of making our issues known and we want to be cautious not to get ahead of ourselves. We have been successful in calling attention to important things”, he said. 

Ononibaku replied that “some committees have the power to impose their will, to enforce decisions, and some don’t. I want the town to take our recommendations seriously and to implement them. “

Public Comment
Vira Cage thanked Nolan Young for her extensive response to Cage’s complaint to the  Human Rights Commission alleging town discrimination against Black-owned businesses. Cage is proceeding with a complaint to the State Ethics Commission against Amherst’s Building Commissioner Rob Morra for what she alleges is differential enforcement of the requirement to construct a disability access ramp  at Hazel’s Blue Lagoon, a Black owned business vs. at The Drake, a business managed by the Business Improvement District. Cage alleges that Hazel’s was required to jump over all kinds of hurdles that were not imposed on The Drake.

Debora Ferreira agreed, saying that there appeared to be two different permitting processes, one for the white owned club and one for the Black owned club, with all of the ARPA money being funneled to white owned properties. She said that she wanted the committee to be kept informed about this issue and said that there ought to be reparations for Hazel’s and that the town needs to ensure that things like this do not happen again.

CRESS Update
CRESS Director Earl Miller provided an upbbeat report on the activities of the town’s civilian responder service.  He noted that:

• operations are stabilizing
• CRESS personnel attended a conference in Washington D.C. for alternative dispatch programs
• CRESS continues to reach out to private funders
• CRESS is aggressively looking for grants. “We’ve been awarded an important grant – to be announced soon – which feels like an important validation of our work”.
• CRESS is looking toward starting 911 services soon. Miller reports that CRESS is ready for this and is awaiting the green light from dispatch and the Amherst police.
• CRESS is one of the smallest civilian responder departments in the country but nonetheless is well known and on the radar of many of the others. Albuquerque, NM is the largest with a staff of about 130.
• CRESS maintains contact with a number of similar departments around the country
• Miller and members of the team are presenting at a conference on “Decentering Whiteness and Celebrating Intersectionality”  at the Smith School of Social Work on June 23
• Miller reported that CRESS  will continue to “show up anywhere where we are invited” and lately that includes some peer substance abuse communities

DEI Report

Nolan Young reported that her office has been focused on training activities.

• Staff trainings for town departments continue  
• DEI’s workshop last month on allyship entitled “Being an Ally Not a Savior”  was well attended
• Nolan Young has just started a five week training on bias with the ADL  in preparation for starting some new youth programming in the fall.
• Plans continue to hire an AmeriCorps volunteer to help move the teen center project forward.
• Amherst College library has offered some safe space for youth programming for the town in the fall.
• An RFP was circulated for a consultant to help develop a Resident Oversight Board. The town received just one proposal from the engineering and security firm Jensen Hughes. There will be further updates in the coming weeks.  The firm has previously done consulting on civilian oversight of police.
• Over 300 people attended the Young Heroes/Race Amity Day celebrations

A copy of the RFP was not available in the meeting packet and was requested by Debora Ferreira. She also requested that the work of the consultant build explicitly on previous work by the CSWG and CSSJC and that a timeline for the work of the consultant and the work on the teen center be provided by the next CSSJC meeting. 

Philip Avila reminded the committee that it is  important to incorporate youth voices and particularly BIPOC youth voices into the framing of the teen center. Nolan Young responded that this is one of the primary goals of the Americorps volunteer, to engage with local youth to get their sense of the kind of programming they would value.

Departing Words
The meeting concluded with members of the committee offering kind words of farewell and appreciation for each of the people departing the committee.