Anti-Racism Task Force

MINUTES ANTI-RACISM TASK FORCE MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT REGULAR MEETING MAY 10, 2021 Present: Brian Gartner, Valerie Light, Viviana Conner, Bobbye Knoll Peterson, Samantha Rival, Councilman Darnell Ford, Precious Price, Kayon Morgan, Councilman Ed Ford Jr., Stacey Barka, Patricia Alston, Kirk Hart 1. Call to Order. Meeting was called to order at 6:23 p.m. 2. Public Comment. One person attending from the public. No comment by the public. The Motion was made by Councilman Darnell Ford to close the public comment. 3. Approval of Minutes: MOTION: Viviana Conner made a MOTION to approve the minutes of the April 26, 2021 Anti-Racism Task Force Special Meeting. The Motion was seconded by Kirk Hart. The Motion passed 10 to 2. Patricia Alston abstained from voting due to not being in attendance on April 26, 2021. Valerie Light also abstained due to not having the minutes from April 26, 2021. 4. New Business. A. NCCJ Report 1) Discussion on status of HR Request (labor equity) - Discussed the position of the HR Specialist and how the General Council Commission will review and make any changes to this job description. Councilman Darnell Ford encouraged the committee to attend the next GCC meeting to weigh in on the discussion of the HR Specialist so this does not get tabled. He also discussed the importance of this position since it will focus on diversity. 2) Discussion on MPD compliance on Police Accountability Bill (Criminal Justice System Equity) - This will be a standing item. Councilman Darnell Ford will have more robust reports to share in the next month. There will be transparency and accountability with the MPD with this bill. 3) Discussion on CRB and Charter Revision vote on mandating creation of a CRB (Criminal Justice System Equity) – Councilman Darnell Ford will send out an email of the collective bargaining agreement so all members of the Task Force can review it and formulate questions, obtain clarifications, and ask for recommendations by OGC. Members of the Task Force want to dive deeper into what subpoena power actually looks like for the CRB in correlation with the collective bargaining agreement. Discussed inviting OGC to the next meeting. B. Vote on acceptance of Mission Statement and Goals with glossary – Chairwoman Sacha Armstrong-Crockett was going to make edits to the Mission Statement and Goals with the glossary and since she was not present for this meeting to present all the amended  documents, a Motion was made by Viviana Conner to table this item to the next meeting. The Motion was seconded by Valerie Light. The Motion passed unanimously. C. Discussion on agenda, location, and dates for task force retreat – Retreat was supposed to be 5/10/2021 and 5/11/2021, yet this event would have needed to be recorded. Since this was not discussed with the whole group it was decided by Chairwoman Sacha Armstrong- Crockett and Councilman Darnell Ford to postpone the retreat. Councilman Darnell Ford stated how the facilitator recommends the retreat to be in person to get the most out of the retreat. There was a discussion of whether the format for the retreat should be virtual, in person, open to the public, length of retreat, time and dates of the retreat, public being able to participate and location. Precious Price stated how the purpose of the retreat was for the task force as a group to bond and to have honest conversations with a plan for the next few years of the task force. Everyone decided to possibly have OGC involved in the registration process for the public attending this retreat. The Motion made by Viviana Conner was for an in-person retreat. The Motion was seconded by Valerie Light. The Motion passed unanimously. Another Motion was made by Valerie Light for the retreat to be 2 days with each day having 3 hours of training. The Motion was seconded by Samantha Rival. The Motion passed unanimously. The group decided to look at their calendars for July and August of 2021 and discuss a location for this retreat at the next meeting. 5. Adjournment. MOTION to adjourn made by Viviana Conner. The MOTION was seconded by Valerie Light. The Motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.