HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/15/2019 RECEIVED
JUN 1 7 2019
Southold Town
Southold Town Clerk
Anti-Bias Task Force
April 15,,2019
Minutes
Present: Val Shelby (co-chair), Sonia Spar ( co-chair), Cindy Smith, Emily Geiger, Christopher
North, LeRoy Heyliger, David Schultz, Loretta Hatzel-Geraci, Susan Dingle, Eleanor Lingo
Excused: Jean LePre, Carolyn Peabody, Marjorie Day
Absent: Nidya Palencia, Christine McFall
Also present : Ann Smith, Greg Doroski, Chief Flatley
1. Meeting was opened at 10:15
2. Minutes were reviewed. A typo correction to #9: "attempted to attend" and two other
attendees were added: Dennis Noncarrow and Bill Ruland. Minutes then accepted.
3. Report on Synergy: 26 people were in attendance and a good discussion regarding the
hate crime unit and training in shooting incidents. A detective from the hate crimes unit
present and spoke about the designated responsibilities of the town vis a vis Suffolk
County jurisdiction. Suffolk Co supposed to control all hate crimes but a question of
both "intent" and severity. Tabled discussion to police report and the arrival of Chief
Flatley. Reports, however, seem often to be minimized and kept locally.
4. Report on Peer Leadership: Ann Smith was there on day 2. She and Sonia Spar met with
facilitators, spoke to students. Skills of participating students to be taken back for use in
their individual schools. Thirty kids benefited from a new awareness after interacting
with each other and discussions led by trainers. Mental health issues—in particular
crisis response and treatment follow up for youth of the NOFO- a system now in place
due to NY State funding. There are now two certified social workers t deal with crisis
issues and no one is turned away. There are small group meetings that work to help
kids develop coping skills and deal with anxiety. Possible Town Hall for State, County,
local level to discuss kids on NOFO and possible overlap with police and schools. Family
Services League the provider with mobile unit to send worker to home if necessary.
Susan Dingle and Sonia Spar at workshop for day 3 and picked up food for lunch from
King Kullen which was an extremely generous donation of food for the very hungry
students.
5. #4 Report on Walmart Letter: Despite the fact that the East Hampton Anti-Bias
Committee has neglected to sign off on the letter all agreed that it needed to be sent
ASAP.
6. Common Ground Garden: ABTF has been given a raised bed plot. David Schultz
suggested a mini-book cub: gather to discuss "Seed Folks" and can invite the public to
participate. Cindy Smith indicated that the garden last year was very productive and a
lot of the crop was donated to CAST.
7. Student Scholarship Opportunities and Renee Phelps Award: Valerie wanted'to get
criteria that the schools use. Susan Dingle suggested a scholarship in Renee Phelps
name and presented written information about a possible award ih her name. LeRoy
spoke of the March 21 School Board meeting where a short film about suicide and
mental health awareness produced buy a high school senior was shown and he felt this
student might be a good candidate for this award. Scholarship tabled until May meeting
after a special meeting May 6th held to discuss criteria.
8. Indivisible North Fork: Susan Dingle spoke with representatives from Indivisible who
had attended a Riverhead ABTF meeting where nothing was done about an egregious
bias incident. Possible to attempt to gather meeting of all chairs of Riverhead,
Southampton and NOFO ABTF's to discuss or perhaps a conference call.
9. Reports:
Police:
Schools: Greenport: Cindy went and lots of discussion of budget
Southold:
Mattituck: LeRoy attended—budget discussion and track repairs
Fisher Island: Sonia requested artwork from kids
New Business:
LeRoy: need to send letter to Fire Dept to request in writing the bbq pit for the picnic.
Susan will update letter already on file and send.
Sonia read letter to ABTF from 5th and 6th graders complaining about a meeting with
Amy Folk of the Southold Historical Society—students found her to be
disrespectful/intolerant of difference and felt she treated the kids as if they were stupid.
It was decided to forward a copy of the letter to Ms. Folk for her response.
LeRoy wishes to try to form a chapter of the NAACP. Eleanor explained the
requirements ( 100 persons unaffiliated with any other chapter and dues paying)
and indicated that past attempts had not been successful because not enough people
would show up. It was thought to ask Mr. Ware to come to Greenport to hold a
meeting and/or perhaps ask him to attend the next ABTF meeting.,'
Cindy: At the Synergy meeting an employer who is on the Southold Town Board was
there and he is interested in minority hiring.
David passed around 4 copies of"Seed Folks".
Chief Flatley arrived 11:44. He had his departmental ethnicity statistics regarding
arrests which the State of NY requires and tracks. He stated that there is no breakdown
of ethnicity for traffic stops because his department simply does not keep track as those
are local and are not reported to NYState. In 2018 : 214 arrests ( cannot get the figures
to compute properly ) 136 Caucasian; 24 African American; 59 Hispanic.
Susan moved to adjourn. Chris seconded.
Meeting adjourned at 12:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted: Emily Geiger