Committee Report CR-2

and thirty-five minutes P.M. in the Sullivan Chamber.  The meeting was held for the purpose of planning a 2007 Race and Class Forum.

Present at the hearing were Councillor E. Denise Simmons, Chair of the Committee, Councillor Henrietta Davis, Councillor Craig Kelley, Councillor Michael A. Sullivan, City Clerk D. Margaret Drury, Michael Gardner, Personnel Director, Duane Brown, Director of Affirmative Action and Karen Preval, Assistant to the City Manager and Officer of the Employee’s Diversity Committee, Laura Nichols, Consumer Council and Member of the Employee’s Diversity Committee, Steve Singer, Affirmative Action Advisory Committee, 45 A Museum Street, Kenneth Likes, 9 Saville Street, Affirmative Action Committee, Marla Erlien, Cambridge Human Rights Commission and LeRoy Cragwell, 13 Hubbard Avenue, Affirmative Action Advisory Committee.

Councillor Simmons convened the meeting and explained the purpose.  She described the 1998 forum, which she co-sponsored while she was on the School Committee.  Other sponsors included the Peace Commission, the Women’s Commission, the Human Rights Commission, the Mayor’s Office and the Eviction Free Zone.  Councillor Simmons then invited comments from those present.

Councillor Kelley said that he believes this is a great topic for community discussion.  It is a tough topic for discussion and he would like to see an environment where it can be accepted that people are speaking from a position of good will towards others.

Councillor Davis said that last week there was a program at the library organized by Susan Freirich on racial profiling.  John Roberts, A.C.L.U., discussed the law that now requires keeping statistics on racial profiling in the area of issuing traffic tickets.  Mr. Roberts was interested in follow up on these issues.  She suggested that he come to this meeting.

Councillor Sullivan suggested that someone go through the 1998 report and determine what recommendations have been achieved.  He also suggested looking as what could have made it better.

Councillor Davis suggested building in the kids’ concerns as expressed in the Human Rights Report on perceived discrimination by CRLS students.

Mr. Likis said doing something would be a good idea, but is a huge topic.  He suggested choosing a more narrow focus.  He noted the difficulties of trying to compare ten years ago and today.  Councillor Simmons said that the original forum was intentionally kept broad and the groups were internationally mixed.  She described the origin of the Civic Unity Community.

Ms. Erlien said it would be interesting to look at the demographic changes.  Councillor Davis said CDD has just done a report of those changes, based on the most recent census.  She reported that there has been an increase in households where English is not the first language to 25 percent of the total households in

life centered on neighborhoods.  Mr. Likis said that neighborhood demographics could be an organizing principle.  Ms. Nichols said that in her department they are finding in the community meetings that they do not get immigrants or people from different cultures at their meetings.

Mr. Cragwell asked how much the public knows about the 1998 forum.  He said that there are communications that the City sends out to almost every citizen.  There are some means that could be used for broad communication.

Councillor Davis said that she would be interested in a meeting that takes the community forward.  The National League of Cities (NLC) has a number of award winning programs in this area.  There is information and research readily available and accessible.  She noted the NLC “inclusions program”.  She said that she believes that it is not useful to focus just on what is wrong.  There are things that could have a positive effect.

Mr. Brown said that there are differences from ten years ago.  At that time there were some events that precipitated the forum, some events in the schools that led to a heightened awareness of racism in

Ms. Erlien said that the Human Right Commission is doing some follow-up to the report and presentation in CRLS students’ perception of discrimination.  For example, they are sponsoring a “know your rights” session.  Ms. Erlien said that in other communities the universities are doing more for their communities than the institutions in

Mr. Singer said that the 1998 forum was citizens telling the City what they wanted to see happen.  The City did not make a commitment.  If this is done again there should be a mechanism for periodic reports back.  Mr. Singer added that he would also suggest that the group discussions be reported back in a format based on some predetermined categories, so there could be more analysis.  Given the big health care issues facing the community, perhaps the impact of racism on health and health care could be a focus.  He expects there will the be a disproportionate effect in the area of health insurance coverage under the new Massachusetts law and also with respect to issues of whether the people know about the changes and opportunities.  There could be a number of topic-specific forums.

Mr. Likis suggested thinking about structuring the forum to take place on one or two days.  He also suggested involving the arts.  He noted the interviews and resulting skit that kids in one of the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Programs used to encourage discussion of sensitive issues.

Ms. Nichols noted that there is a whole group of post-high school kids who have not been reached by education or programs and are at risk.  Some focus on their needs might be useful.

Ms. Preval said the Employee’s Diversity Committee has found that sharing diversity of culture has been a successful way to foster positive discussion about differences.  She has wondered whether the schools could use this technique.

Mr. Brown said one way to shape this forum would be to bring it to some of the City boards for them to contribute to shaping the discussion.  He said that there are lots of different ways of having this kind of discussions.  For example,

Mr. Singer asked what the goals would be for this event.  If the event were multi-day, perhaps it could take place in different venues around the City, for example, in churches.

Councillor Simmons said that the context in 1998 came from lots of community meetings about what seemed like increasing racial tension in the City, especially in the schools.  The overall goal was to inform our policy makers, and for that goal it was very important to have the broadest possible group at the table.

Ms. Erlien said that she liked the idea of an organizing frame of “Cambridge Then and Now” also idea of looking at the effects of the ten years of existence of the Cambridge Health Alliance

Councillor Simmons said that a look at then and now could start a lot earlier than ten years ago.  She still sees the major goal as informing the policy makers.  She would be concerned about focusing on just youth because that would leave out a lot of

Mr. Singer said that even if the forum takes place all in one day, he would still prefer an issue-based discussion with three or four discussion topics that people could choose and access.

Mr. Likis said that he looks forward to reading the report 1998 and having another meeting.  He appreciates the focus on informing the policy makers but there are also other goals such as community building and education.

P. M. in the Sullivan Chamber and requested that everyone review the 1998 report before the meeting.  She thanked those present for their attendance.  The meeting was adjourned at