City Council - Rules & Government Relations Committee

CITY OF EASTHAMPTON OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL Easthampton Municipal Building 50 Payson Ave., Ste. 100 Easthampton, Massachusetts 01027-2260 Telephone #: (413) 529-1460 MINUTES RULES and GOVERNMENT RELATIONS Meeting 12/29/2020 Attendees: R&GR Committee Members: Councilor Thomas Peake, Chair Councilor Peg Conniff, Clerk Councilor Dan Rist Other Attendees: Homar Gomez - City Council Owen Zaret - City Council Louise Jacob - Resident Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm. The meeting was recorded. Minutes from 11/16 approved. 3-0 1. NEW BUSINESS A. Anti Bias Training (Owen Zaret) Proposal to create a new City Council Rule 19A - Anti-Bias Training. (see attached) “At the beginning of a councilor’s term, to be completed within 90 days thereof, each councilor must undergo anti-bias training. This training may be in the form of video, audio, or written material. Such training shall be available at no mone- tary cost to the councilor. The council shall be able to perform this training asyn- chronously, and the nature of the materials shall re ect this. Materials utilized for this purpose may be submitted at the recommendation of any councilor, re- fl  viewed by the Rules and Government Relations Committee, and af rmed by a majority vote of the council. Such material may be reviewed from time to time, and must be reviewed once every four years. Completion of anti-bias training shall be documented by each councilor, and submitted to the city council presi- dent” • Discussion regarding this proposed rule regarding creating standardized training. Councilor Conniff suggested reaching out to experts in this field who can help identify an appropriate program for the City Council to follow. • Councilor Gomez has some suggestions to the language as a proposed. Ref- erence Ch 151B of the Massachusetts General Laws. • Councilor Peake has some comments regarding whether Council has power to get money in the budget. Will there be a problem if some years, the council does not get the money? Councilor Gomez believes it is important to ask for this money to be a standing amount. • Councilor Conniff proposed that this program be city-wide rather than just the City Council. Councilor Zaret agrees that this should be a city program and align to the City Budget for this training. • Councilor Gomez stated that teachers at the schools are going through anti bias training but is not aware if it is also provided to the School Committee. • Councilor Peake will reach out to the Mayor to have the conversation around the direction for the training for the City employees. • Louise Jacob from the public made some comments in support of creating an email that goes to all members of the committee. • Councilor Zaret commented that this may not end up being a CC rule. It may end up in another venue or be something that results in a recommenda- tion to the Mayor. 2. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Committee Emails: Councilor Peake has done some research on this with the City of Greenfield. They use a central email for each committee that goes to multiple people. • Councilor Zaret: Spoke to IT director and was told that each group email costs $100 each. The conversation is around creating the ability of the pub- lic to get to any committee. • Councilor Rist would like to see a committee email for each member of a committee. • Councilor Conniff would like to see this happen soon and it is a pretty basic IT activity. • Councilor Peake also believes that this is basic and something that this should be discussed with the Mayor, the IT representative and possibly HR. fi .  • Louise Jacob from the public made some comments in support of creating an email that goes to all members of the committee. • Councilor Zaret commented that this may not end up being a CC rule. It may end up in another venue or be something that results in a recommenda- tion to the Mayor. • Councilor Rist suggested we reach out to the city IT department for addi- tional information on costs. • Councilor Rist will review whether this should be an ordinance and will do research to that effect. 7:04 pm - Motion to adjourn by Councilor Conniff, seconded by Councilor Rist. Next Meeting: ?