Ferreira Resigns from Resident Oversight Board Working Group

Report on the Meeting of the Community Service and Social Justice Committee, March 12, 2025

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Present
Debora Ferreira (Co-chair),  Allegra Clark (Co-Chair), Lissette Paredes, Everald Henry, Erica Piedade. Absent: Angelique Ferguson. Staff: Camille Theriaque (Liaison and CRESS Director)

Announcements/Reports
Pat Romney, who was appointed on October 7, 2024 and who has attended only one of six meetings since her appointment, has resigned from the committee. Angelique Furguson, an Amherst College student who was appointed on October 21, 2024 and has not attended any meetings, is presumed to have declined her appointment. This would leave the committee with two empty seats, recreating the difficulty they experienced for much of last year in fielding a quorum. The chairs indicated that they would reach out to the Town Manager to request an expeditious posting of the openings.

Ferreira Resigns from ROB Working Group
CSSJC Co-chair Debora Ferreira announced that she has stepped down as the CSSJC representative to the working group for the Resident Oversight Board (ROB). The board is being created to adjudicate resident complaints about the Amherst Police Department (APD). She said that CSSJC Co-chair Allegra Clark has volunteered to replace her and be the point person for the CSSJC.  The charge of the ROB Working Group requires that the committee have a representative from the CSSJC.

Ferriera left the working group following a contentious meeting on February 25, 2025 where Amherst police representatives resigned from the committee, saying that Ferreira had violated their confidence by bringing information they had shared in ROB meetings to the public. This included a draft of a new bylaw that would create the ROB and a letter from the police union’s attorney, listing police objections to the creation of an ROB. Ferreira countered that these were government meetings and their proceedings were part of the public record, that the public had an interest in and a right to know what was happening in them, and that there was no basis for anyone to assume that they were confidential.  Ferreira also noted that there are differing opinions on the committee as to how much autonomy the ROB should have in investigating complaints about the police. Ferreira has continually argued that the ROB should be independent, objective, have authority to investigate complaints, and have subpoena power. 

Ferreira reported that at the last ROB Working Group meeting she urged the committee to move forward without the police but the committee decided to ask the police representatives to rejoin the committee. They did not however ask Ferreira to rejoin. Ferreira said that she did not want to be an obstacle to the participation of the APD nor did she want objections to her involvement by the APD to be the reason for a police embargo or for it to cast a shadow on the process or get in the way of developing the bylaw that is necessary to enact the ROB. 

According to Ferreira, establishing a strong ROB with authority to investigate complaints is more important than her participation in the group. “I decided that I didn’t want to be the excuse for the police not participating or for why the Town Council might decide that it wasn’t a legitimate draft bylaw and therefore would not adopt it.”  She concluded, “I was the one who was pushing for a strong, independent ROB that has the authority to do the work of oversight.  My job was to make sure that the people in this town who feel fearful of, or intimidated by the police are represented. And I want to make sure that people know what’s going on and that this is not a behind closed doors process.”

Everald Henry, Lissette Paredes, Allegra Clark, and Erica Piedade as well as Pat Ononibaku and Ellisha Walker who spoke during public comment, objected to Ferriera’s resignation and encouraged her to reconsider.

Henry pointed out that the positions that Ferreira had taken with the ROB Working Group were CSSJC positions that need to be supported in the ROB deliberations. “We need her strong voice,” he said. “The police have their own agenda and it is not for them to say who represents the CSSJC. The town chose people from different committees so that a large range of opinion would be represented and not overlooked. I think you should not leave. It won’t produce a good bylaw if you exclude the most critical people,” he concluded.

Both Henry and Walker questioned whether the police should be part of the process of creating an ROB since the point of the board is to establish external oversight of police actions and an effective alternative to the way complaints about police misconduct are currently handled.

Walker stated, “It is highly problematic that the police demand that proceedings not be shared with the public since one major reason for doing this is to take the process of resident complaints out of the hands of the police where they are currently handled.” She pointed out that one aim of this initiative is to increase transparency. “If we’re not going to even be transparent in the process of creating the board, then why would the public have any faith in the process and the product.”

Ononibaku lamented Ferreira’s leaving the committee and pointed out that while the committee was quick to want to invite the police back, they expressed no desire to invite Ferreira back, even though Ferreira represented marginalized residents who would likely be the most impacted by the creation of the ROB. She said that the working group had shown “no consideration for the black woman on the committee who is defending the public’s right to know. It is shameful.”

DEI Update

• DEI Trainings: Efforts are ongoing to schedule DEI trainings with the remaining town departments that have not yet undergone training to ensure that all personnel are equipped to support an equitable work environment
• Youth Empowerment Programming: A youth entrepreneurship workshop is being held every Saturday in March. People are encouraged to stop by the junior market on April 5 and purchase items made by the participants.
• DEI will partner with Citizens for Juvenile Justice and CRESS on April 15 and May 14 to host Know Your Rights workshops. More information is forthcoming.
• Transgender Day of Visibility: The office will host a movie night on March 31 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bangs Center to commemorate Transgender Day of Visibility. The featured film will be Will and Harper.
• Amherst Global Village Festival will take place on April 5 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the Town Common.
  

CRESS Update

• CRESS Director Camille Theriaque reported that much of the last week was devoted to preparations for the annual UMass spring party held among Amherst apartment complexes, popularly known as “Blarney Blowout.” CRESS coordinated with the Amherst Police and the Amherst Fire Department and took at least a dozen calls during the event. They also set up a tent near Emmanuel Lutheran Church where they distributed water and checked in with students to ensure that they were safe. They also provided transportation for one student back to their residence. These efforts were apparently much appreciated by the students.

• Theriaque and Erica Piedade observed that this year there was a concerted effort on the part of UMass to organize alternative events (including several out-of-town field trips/outings) on the day of Barney Blowout and that seemed to ameliorate the impact of the day on the town.

• Clark offered that as much as we have mixed feelings about Blarney Blowout, the CRESS presence there, at an event that has the potential for many things to go wrong, may reflect a step toward CRESS taking on more such responsibilities.

• Theriaque reported that all CRESS responders have now completed Critical Incident Training and all are now trained for the highest level of CPR.

• Theriaque reported that the latest CRESS newsletter is now posted on the town’s web site .

• CRESS will participate in the upcoming Global Village Festival.

• In response to a question from Ferreira about CRESS’ work with town dispatch, Theriaque responded that the collaboration with dispatch continues to grow. There are new methods and training being developed for the dispatchers and they are coming along. Development of base SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are finished and Dispatch and CRESS are now beginning to work on the SOPs that will be specific to CRESS. The number of calls coming in to CRESS from Dispatch have increased.

• Theriaque reported that the grant that CRESS was expecting to fund the bulk of their work is not in the FY26 budget. They are looking for other funding options.

• Theriaque is working with the Town Manager to prepare a report on CRESS activities that was requested by the Town Council.

Youth Empowerment Center
The Town Manager reports that ARPA money that had been designated for the Youth Empowerment Center (YEC) has been moved into free cash.

Clark asked whether CSSJC should continue to keep pressure on the Town Council showing that there is still need for that money. Ferreira responded that we need to be very vocal that the money needs to be earmarked for the YEC and the YEC needs to be established and that this commitment dates back to the recommendations of the Community Safety Working Group from May of 2021. She added that the Town Council needs to give a clear directive for this as well as a deadline for when the center will be established.

Clark suggested that just as UMass set up an alternative to Blarney, this is one example of why we need a YEC — a safe space with alternatives, with positive programming and positive activities.

Ferriera observed that there are places in town with alternatives for youth that don’t necessarily feel like a safe space for Youth of Color. “Programming is important but it’s not enough,” she said. “We need a space, and one that is not connected to the courts or to law enforcement. And we had that money and now it needs to be earmarked again. That money is going to disappear if it’s not earmarked.”

Piedade pointed out that one concern of the Town Council is that they don’t want to use one-time funds to support new initiatives. She asked if neighboring towns
have YECs and if we could talk to them about how they manage their budget.Clark pointed out that Andover sustained several interesting services, apparently including those for youth, and Piedade said that she will look into it further if Clark provides her with a list of towns with youth services.