EASTHAMPTON – The City Council’s Rules and Government Relations Committee will review a request to create a committee to designed to examine Easthampton’s laws for potential bias.    

The council approved a motion to allow the undertaking.

City Councilor and Chair of the Rules and Government Relation Committee Tom Peake brought the idea of the Ordinance Review Committee to the city council along with Councilors Salem Derby and Homar Gomez.

“I’ve gotten a lot of emails and other communications ­– including some actual letters, which is rare – from members of the community sort of challenging us to talk about what we can do to fight systemic bias and structural racism in our community,” Peake told the council. “Like a lot of you, I struggled to think of things that are sort of meaningful and actionable that we as a council can specifically do.”

Peake went on to say he experienced a “moment of clarity” during a conversation regarding police training.

"What they brought up is you can have police that are very well-trained or excellent people but if the laws that they are enforcing are inherently unjust, then you still have a problem,” he said. “That struck me to say, ‘Well, is there anything in our local laws that maybe we need to be taking a look at?’”

According to the city charter, such a review should be conducted every 10 years, Peake noted.

“Given everything that’s going on right now, what I really am hoping we can do is form a committee that can take a look at our local laws and see if there’s anything in there that is treating some of our citizens differently than others,” he said. “My other hope is we can make this committee either through its membership or through other people that we bring on to help us have some people who either through their training or their own lived experience might have some different perspective on this stuff because, to be honest, there’s a pretty good chance it’s going to go over my head as someone with no real experience with these issues.”

Gomez added, “From the Latino community, from the Black and brown community, I just want to say ‘thank you’ to Councilor Peake. I think it’s a great idea. I think we should do this more often with all our ordinances and rules and see if we discriminate against anyone. We shouldn’t discriminate against anyone because of the color of their skin or because of any other reason … I am more than happy to help with anything I can.”

Council President Peg Conniff said, “I 100 percent support what Tom Peake is putting forth tonight.”

She also noted the early part of the discussion for the Rules and Government Relations Committee would be the makeup of the committee. She opined that seating the committee could be one of the more difficult and critical parts of the process.

“The work is going to be hard, but I really think we need to have the right people at the table,” she said.

To that end, Peake encouraged councilors and the public to talk about the committee and asked those with knowledge of all aspects of the issue reach out to him, reiterating his admitted limited knowledge and experience.

“The last thing I want is to think we’re set up to dig into that work and then have prominent voices in the community being like, ‘Why are you doing it that way? You should be doing this a completely different way,’” he said. “I want this to be a measure twice, cut once type thing where we figure out the structure of this and the scope of this right the first time and then go forward with it.”

Councilor Dan Rist said he reviewed the charter and the makeup of the committee is not mentioned. “So, I think we’re wide open as to how many members and who they are,” he said.

Rist also said while the primary focus of the review would and should be on racism, the committee should also review old bylaws.

“I just want to commend the councilors for putting this forward,” he said. “A little history – this has never been done and that’s because the word ‘may’ appears in the current charter. That gives the council leeway not to do the work and it’s massive work because not only are we going to investigate for racism, there are massive amounts of ordinances that may go back many years and no longer are current.”

As part of a prepared statement read during the meeting, Councilor Owen Zaret agreed with the need to review policies and make necessary changes to ensure safety for all. He acknowledged the work and partnership of the Community Relations Committee, city officials, residents and the Police Department in complex conversations regarding racism in America rekindled by the murder of George Floyd. He also credited the Police Department with instituting progressive policies and engaging in discussions regarding further action that can be taken to ensure a safe and anti-racist community.

“The blatant murder of George Floyd and other black people is intolerable and we must safeguard against a system that marginalizes minorities. We need policies in our cities that are sweepingly anti-racist, equitable and non-biased,” he said. “We’re facing a national discussion but the national discussion does not mean that it translates 100 percent to what we see within our municipality. Of course there is always room for evaluation, review and growth. We have a police department who cares, does great work for our community and has shown great dedication to being open to progressive policies and a willingness to listen.”

During the public speak portion of the meeting, resident Jason Montgomery said he was pleased to hear Peake’s announcement of the proposal at A Knee Is Not Enough’s protest and rally on Aug. 1.

“We thank every city councilperson who is in support of this,” he said. “This is the kind of decisive and much-needed action toward unraveling systemic bias and racism in our town.”

Resident Gaby Stevenson also said she was “looking forward to the process and to seeing the results of this review.”