SOUTH PORTLAND — The City Council said on July 28 that it supports creating a human rights commission with the goals to respond, educate, and build a community against systemic racism and discrimination.
Using six other human rights commissions as a model, Margaret Brownlee, resident of South Portland, said that the commission, proposed as the South Portland Human Rights Commission, would consist of 11 members, seven appointed by the council.
The commission proposed a budget of $30,000, $20,000 of which would go toward training, workshops and speakers, Brownlee said.
Brownlee said she researched six human rights commissions in six cities throughout New England in order to see what may work in South Portland. She picked communities with a similar size and demographic and reached out to their commissioners, finding support in those communities.
“A Human Rights Commission is a group of people appointed by city council to promote inclusive, empowering, and diverse community, to provide community education through training and workshops, increase community engagement in celebrations and events, but also to serve as that moral compass for the city in terms of policies and recommendations for changes, and to enforce the human rights ordinance that will be defined by the city council, and lastly, to actively work to prevent hate, discrimination, racism and injustice,” Brownlee said.
Councilor Deqa Dhalac and South Portland resident Pedro Vazquez, who also helped put together a plan for the commission, said that the commission would hold the city council accountable for the goals and policies and provide recommendations.
“As you know, we have council goals and those have policies we want to put in place, and the city has policies that may have not been looked into, 10 years, 20 years ago,” Dhalac said. “Those are the things we’ll look into and say, ‘OK, council goals for the last two years stated you would increase diversity — let’s say, 10 percent. You’re not even 1 percent, what’s stopping you?'”
The audit of policies will ensure that there is no language that could negatively affect marginalized people, Vazquez said.
“Historically, municipal policies have negatively impacted the marginalized,” he said. “So we must take intentional action to promote equity. We must move beyond services, and we have to focus on changing policies, institutions and structures. This is the role we’re envisioning for the South Portland Human Rights Commission.”
Maine has a human rights commission, which conducts investigations and provides legal counsel to marginalized people, many in the disabilities community, Brownlee said.
“I’m not saying we want to do what the Maine Human Rights Commission is doing,” she said. “I do not believe the South Portland Human Rights Commission should provide legal counsel or investigate crimes. That is the primary focus for the Maine commission, and they have a group of commissioners with a background in law, so they can really dig deep to investigate those crimes.”
However, the director of the Maine Human Rights Commission has told Brownlee that she fully supports South Portland’s work and has offered assistance, Brownlee said.
Many individual members also support the commission, like South Portland Chief Timothy Sheehan, Councilor Dhalac and Councilor April Caricchio, Maine Sen. Rebecca Millett, and South Portland residents, Brownlee’s presentation said.
The commission would strive to create and maintain spaces where people listen to one another and educate one another so that changes to the “status quo” are made and people are supported, Vazquez said.
“It is our intent that this commission be a vessel to promote sustainable and shared prosperity in our city, where everyone has equal an opportunity to learn, earn, and be healthy,” he said.
Although the beginning of this conversation began at the end of May and early June, when protests on social justice swept the nation, Brownlee said that she’s happy to have found a positive atmosphere and progress in South Portland.
“I think people are noticing,” she said. “The state is noticing us. I’m so impressed, and it’s so nice to see. I think when Deqa had said a lot of us were numb when hearing about the murders, we were. It’s nice to finally focus on something that’s positive and has positive change and know that we can make a difference and make a change for this community.”
The commission has a goal of starting in January of 2021 and continuing indefinitely, the presentation said.
Members of the public who offered comments said that they were glad the council was discussing such a commission.
Rep. Anne Carney said that she thinks the commission will serve the community well through elevating the voices of people of color and spreading awareness of systemic racism.
Erin Elizabeth, a South Portland resident, said that she wanted to make sure the commission would contribute to policy changes and do more than just inform and discuss.
“As a member of a marginalized community, I’m concerned about what sort of protections we have for ourselves and what sort of measurable changes we’re making in our structures, not just sitting around and talking about what we could do, you know?” she said.
The commission should also emphasize police education, Becky Wartell, South Portland resident, said. Although she added that citizen education is important, too.
Councilors said that they supported the commission, but Councilor April Carricchio was concerned that the scope of the commission may be too large or too broad.
“I have a slight concern that it’s a very large umbrella,” she said. “There’s so much to do, so we’ve got our low-income families and individuals, and we also have our disabilities population, and that’s such a big umbrella. That’s going to be a challenge for you guys.”
Mayor Katherine Lewis agreed that the commission may do better if it narrows down goals a bit in the beginning, especially in terms of funding.
“We may really benefit from doing a few things or maybe one or two things in the first year and then layering onto that in the the second year,” Lewis said. “I think we have a supportive council and city government and community who will put more funding into this commission. It’s hard to sort of, blanketly, say, pick a number out of the air — that’s what the human rights commission needs.
“I like the idea of focusing on this equity audit, understanding what the barriers are to committee service. And looking at the committee recruitment process, I think those are very timely and critical issues. I’m good with going to 11. I think if we go bigger than that, we may get into a situation where it may be hard to have a forum or make decisions.”
Councilor Katelyn Bruzgo said that it was inspiring to see other cities and their human rights commissions.
“So much of this had begun with a conversation of the police budget,” Bruzgo said. “I feel like the police force needs to have a specific education and be very involved in learning from the commission and being involved in all these trainings and being exposed to things they may not have been exposed to before to help change any biases they might have, or even weed out people we don’t want here on the police force because they’re not up to the task of being open-minded and living in a city where people are created equally.”
Councilor Misha Pride said that he also wouldn’t mind seeing a more narrow scope, and even though the work the commission will have to do will be hard and possibly controversial at times, the members will find moments to teach the privileged why something needs equity and change.
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