HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020_12_17 Racial Equity Taskforce Minutes
Minutes of the Racial Equity Task Force of the Town of Mamaroneck
Held December 17, 2020 at 7:00 pm, via Zoom
Present: Councilman Jeffery King (Chairperson), Councilwoman Sabrina Fiddelman, Helen Horsham-
Bertels, Diana Lovett, Andrew Tannenbaum, Town Supervisor Nancy Seligson, Councilwoman Jaine
Elkind Eney, Councilwoman Abby Katz, Town Administrator Stephen Altieri, Assistant to the
Administrator Lindsey Luft, Police Chief Paul Creazzo.
Supervisor Seligson opened the meeting and welcomed all panel members and attendees and turned
the meeting over to Councilman King to introduce the committee and the purpose of this evening’s
meeting.
Councilman King spoke about how the committee was formed and how we have arrived at this point. He
spoke of the events of 2020, the increasing awareness by all Americans of the poor treatment of people
of color in this country, his interest in the formation of the Task Force on Racial Equity, and finally our
need to re-imagine the Police Department in response to Executive Order 203. He welcomed all
community participants and gave an overview of what the Task Force has done to date. He asked
residents to participate in the online survey and described the process for making comments at this
evening’s meeting. He further detailed that the purpose of this meeting is to listen to public comment
on the subject of police reform and specifically the Town of Mamaroneck Police Department.
Of the more than one dozen community participants, only 3 wished to speak to the committee. One was
a woman who described being poorly treated when she went to the Police Department to report what
she described as a serious incident. She felt she was treated disrespectfully. Councilman King asked if it
would have helped her if she could have spoken with a Spanish speaking officer. She said she believed
that would have been helpful.
The second attendee to speak described himself as a new resident interested in what the Task Force’s
objective is. Councilman King spoke about systemic racism and the Task Force’s objective of addressing
systemic racism in our community. He indicated that Police Reform and response to Executive Order 203
was the beginning of the Committee’s work.
Lynne Murphy-Rivera, a member of the Task Force, joined the meeting as a Community participant and
said she was appreciative of the work the Task Force and the Town were doing on this issue.
When there were lulls in the input from community participants, Councilman King asked the members
of the Task Force to introduce themselves and speak about why they had volunteered to work on the
Task Force. Ms. Horsham-Bertels, Ms. Lovett and Mr. Tannenbaum each introduced themselves.
When all community participants had been heard, the Task Force worked on the timeline for our work.
We tentatively scheduled several future meeting dates and deadlines for submission of work from the
Task Force to the Town Board. The timeline will be revisited at the Task Force meeting of Monday,
December 21 and dates will be made firm.
The next meeting of the Task Force will take place via Zoom on Monday, December 21, 2020 at 7:00pm.
The Task Force will host a roundtable. Invited guests include: Mark Levy of the Community Counseling
Center, Jirandy Martinez of the Community Resource Center, Robert Shaps of the Mamaroneck School
District and a representative of the District Attorney’s office.