City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Menard Culpepper, District 7 City Councilor, and I am chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Civil Rights, Racial Equity, and Immigrant Advancement. Today is July 21, 2026. The exact time is 2.05 PM. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being live streamed at boston.gov. backslash citycouncil-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and Files Channel 964. Written comments may be submitted to the committee, email at ccc.civilrights at boston.gov, and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify. If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-in sheet near the entrance of the chamber. If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison, Megan Kavanaugh, at megan.kavanaugh at boston.gov. For the link, and your name will be added to the list. Today's hearing is on docket number 1237, order for a hearing regarding the future of the Boston Human Rights Commission. This matter was sponsored, co-sponsored by Councilor Ed Flynn and Councilor Brian Ruel, and was sponsored by Minyard Culpeper. It was referred to the committee on June 24th 2026. Today I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councilor Murphy, Councilor Flynn, Councilor Fitzgerald, and Councilor Braden. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank my colleagues for being here today, and I want to thank our panelists and members of the public for joining us for this important discussion on the future of the Boston Human Rights Commission. I want to begin by saying that I am concerned that the Boston Human Rights Commission has now been inactive for more than two years, at a time when residents continue to face discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life, I believe Boston should have an active and effective human rights commission, one that residents know exists and can trust to protect their rights. Today's hearing is not simply about looking backward at why the commission became inactive. I want to use this opportunity to begin a broader conversation about how we rebuild and reform the Boston Human Rights Commission for the future. During the fiscal 27 budget process, the city council secured $200,000 to continue the Human Rights Commission. Now that funding has been preserved, we need to determine what kind of commission we want to rebuild, what authority it should have, and how it should operate, and how we ensure that it becomes a meaningful and lasting institution within our city. We also have an opportunity to learn from what is working elsewhere and determine whether Boston's existing ordinance provides a commission with the tools it needs. That includes examining its complaint process, investigative and enforcement authority, staffing, reporting requirements, accessibility to residents, and relationship with organizations such as the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and other state and federal civil rights agencies. I also want to use today's hearing to receive feedback on the draft ordinance to reform the Boston Human Rights Commission that has been distributed to the counselors and our panelists and is available in today's hearing folder. This is just a draft, and today's discussion is intended to help inform and improve it. Among other reforms, The proposal considers establishing clearer timelines for complaints, a structured investigation and appeals process, mandatory reconciliation, discovery, and public hearings, stronger data reporting, and a more defined adjudicatory role for the Commission. Ultimately, I want us to leave today's hearing with a better understanding of what an effective Human Rights Commission should look like in Boston and what changes are necessary to get us there. We have an opportunity not simply to reactivate the commission as it previously existed, but to rebuild it into a stronger, more accessible, accountable, and effective civil rights institution for the people of Boston. Now I'll turn to my counselors. Counselor, you will have five minutes for opening remarks. We'll start with Co-sponsor, Councillor Finn.

Thank you, Councillor Culpepper, Mr. Chair, for adding me as an original co-sponsor and want to say thank you to Councillor Culpepper for his long-time work as a civil rights attorney, civil rights leader, not just in the Commonwealth but across the country as well. This is an important hearing today. We must always, as a city, strive to live in a city and country where civil rights and human rights are protected and respected. Since its start, the commission provided an important voice for those that were discriminated against or a victim of a hate crime. And we've seen a lot of hate crimes in this city, especially in the early to mid 80s. I remember those days clearly. This commission, the Human Rights Commission, was established under Mayor Flynn, and I believe he selected the first director was a woman who lived in South Boston recently and moved, but Ann Saunders. Many people might know Ann Saunders. At that time, there were a lot of hate crimes against gay and lesbians in the city, And I don't, I didn't use the term LGBTQ because it wasn't, that wasn't the term back then, but there was a lot of hate crimes that we witnessed and experienced. We also witnessed and experienced a lot of assaults against, um, African Americans in the city, but this human rights commission was an opportunity for people to come forward, um, and document these cases and they would be investigated. At one time, the Human Rights Commission was well respected, and they did a lot of outstanding work. As a city councilor for eight years, I tried to do as much work with the Human Rights Commission as I possibly could. I probably have sent more documents asking for various investigations on hate crimes against persons with disabilities, against LGBTQ community against communities of color, probably more so than anyone in the city. That's the respect I had for the commission and for the members and for the officers, those on the board. One of them who I've had great respect for is a woman, Margaret McKenna, as well. But I know we've struggled over the years, and when something's struggling, doesn't mean that you need to end it. What we need is the strong, positive leadership to make it an effective board, an effective organization. I'm not here, as Councilor Culpepper mentioned, to point fingers, but I'm here to work with all of my city council colleagues in the mayor to see how we move forward to make this a strong commission where people that are discriminated against or not treated with respect, or a victim of a hate crime, can come to the commission, document the case, hopefully it'll be investigated. But it sends a message to people across the city, Boston is serious about civil rights issues. Boston is serious about human rights issues. I remember when the Boston police had a community disorders unit. Many people remember that. They investigated civil rights issues. I strongly believe in that role for the Boston Police as well. I'm going to stop there, but I just want to say I'm willing to work with my city council colleagues and the mayor to make this a more effective body. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I also want to acknowledge the important role and leadership of Councilor Brian Worrell as well.

Thank you, Councilor Flynn. Councillor Murphy?

Thank you.

You have five minutes.

Thank you, Chair. And thank you for your opening statement. One thing you said, which I know you and Councillor Flynn and Councillor Worrell and others have been saying, especially through the budget season when you were advocating to grow this commission, not disband it, is do the residents of the city of Boston, I'm paraphrasing here, But do they even know that this commission is here to support them? And I believe it should be. And in the first whereas clause today, we'll be speaking about how the Human Rights Commission was established to ensure full and equal access to public services, accommodations, investigate and address discrimination and to promote human rights and to educate the public. and I believe city workers and city council. And I know there may be other departments or other areas that touch upon or address some of these issues, but I also agree, it's been said and will probably be said again, that because the city hasn't been really doing much under this commission in the past few years doesn't mean that that is a reason to just get rid of it. I think it's time to take a good hard look and see if we should be making it stronger and what was positive about having it be a standalone commission. I know we'll hear a lot and I know already from the work I've been doing these past five years, but just also researching for this, that there definitely are departments and there's expectations across every city department for this type of commission.

information but i think it's important that we talk about and listen to the three colleagues who put this forward who really believe that we should be growing this commission so thank you for this chair thank you counselor murphy i'd like to add that we've been joined by our second co-sponsor counselor brian well and uh council will you ready you come back to me okay Councillor Fitzgerald, you've got five minutes.

Thank you, Chair. I will not need all five, but I just want to thank yourself, Councillor Flynn, and Councillor Orrell for bringing this forward. I do appreciate Councillor Flynn's brief history that he gave here as well. I'm interested and I want to thank the administration and the advocates for being panelists today. Interested to learn about, you know, where this came from uh what it's done in the past uh why it may have fallen off recently and where we feel um either parts are being picked up elsewhere or how we can make strengthen this again so i look forward to the opportunity to be educated on all those things thank you very much thank you counselor counselor braden you have five minutes

Thank you. I'm not going to use the five minutes. I just want to thank you and the lead sponsors for bringing this forward. I think this Civil Rights Commission has a storied history. It goes back to the 1980s, as Councillor Flynn has already mentioned. I think it's a timely moment to just examine the history of where the Human Rights Commission has been, the work that they've done and how we may need to modify or change things going forward but that we shouldn't be disbanding it and making it obsolete without due diligence and looking at its purposes and how we might address the prevailing challenges that we face right now in terms of discrimination and human rights abuses in our city. And then also learning from other municipalities that still have functioning human rights Commission's that what work are they doing and how How we might modify or change what we are doing going forward So I look forward to the conversation and look forward to learning more.

Thank you Thank you. Council brain Council were well Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to my sponsors, and thank you to the administration for being here. Something that we fought for in the budget to make sure that this department, this commission, sticks around for this FY27 budget. But we'd love to just hear, we're looking forward to hearing what the administration thinks vision is for the commission in the department. I know there was a consultant that was that provided back a report. So love to get the details of that. But I do think it's important that we work all together on strengthening this commission in this department. And if we are looking to shift course or change strategy, I think that's a conversation that should be had with this body prior to making those changes inside of the budget. So looking forward to this conversation. And thank you again to my sponsors. And thank you to the chair for hosting this hearing.

Thank you, Councilor Woodwell. I'd like to add the letter of absence from Councilor Mejia. My dear Chair Culpepper, I am writing to inform you of my absence during today's 2 p.m. hearing on the future of Boston Human Rights Commission. My staff will be listening in, and I will review upon my return. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I'd like to now introduce today's first panelist, Maya Guetta, Deputy Chief of Operations for Equity

Inclusion cabinet for the city The scatter you have six minutes Thank you chair and councillors for having us So I'm put together some slides just to walk folks through where things are currently with the Human Rights Commission I'm going to try not to mess this up and I already have okay so you guys have seen these from our budget slides, but just wanted to sort of reiterate the basis of the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet as a whole. And we work really hard to make sure our departments are also feeding into this mission in a real framework, thinking about the services we offer internally to staff, as well as the targeted programming, and then the work that we do externally to sort of build coalitions across our different teams, which include language and cultural access, the LGBTQ access team. Could I have next slide, please? I'm just going in order of their offices. The immigrant advancement team and then our women's advancement team, black male advancement, and then upstairs we have the Fair Housing Commission and the Disability Commission. Those teams all work really hard to make sure that we are thinking about things from an intersectional lens and that we are not duplicating work. We strive really hard to make sure that we are meeting our constituent needs and ideally we are meeting them the first time when they come through the door. I have the slides up on my laptop, so I will just, I'll look at them here for a moment. Oh, thank you. So wanted to, I think we're past a slide, sorry. We could go back to slide number four, that would be great. Wanted to talk a little bit about, and the slides will show up eventually, about the constituent requests we got in calendar year. 2025 for the Human Rights Commission. That is not what you're seeing up on the slides right now, but I'll walk you through them. The numbers are pretty simple. So these requests come in via a couple of different ways. They come in via phone, via email, via 311 routing, and then the occasional in-person walk-in. We try and make sure that all of our teams take in their requests the same way. And we got 40 constituent requests for calendar year 2025 for the Human Rights Commission. Those break down to the following. So we had eight requests for internship and job inquiries, 11 requests that were outside of our jurisdiction. That included things that were geographically outside of the jurisdiction, so a different city, town, state, or outside of our subject matter, which we'll go over in a little bit. And then 20, so the other half of them, were referred to government agencies or nonprofits that provide the relevant services that the concession was looking for. Those could have included things like somebody who was looking immigration legal access or food access support. So it's a wide variation. But as you can see, not very many requests. If I could have the next slide, please. This is smaller font, and I apologize for those of you reading. But this slide walks us through the real difference in requests you see for our other teams. So we'll start with the Disability Commission, which has been created. They started a couple of years after the Human Rights Commission and are built off of the American with Disabilities Act. And they handle both ADA grievances as well as various constituent requests for resources and referrals. They also run our accessible parking placard program. So that's parking spots on the street that allow somebody with a disability to be designated a spot on their street. You'll see the numbers for both fair housing as well as language and cultural access, which 5,000 interpretations is quite a few. But those come from mostly constituent requests, but some of them will also have been from staff that proactively requested an interpreter ahead of an event. Black Mill Advancement has 147 referrals to internal city departments. That is just a fraction of the work they do, but we definitely always want to count their numbers as well. Immigrant Advancement. with 3,500 interactions when it comes to resource navigation. A lot of the time that is referrals to outside folks who can help them best, but they are great at keeping track of those numbers. And then finally, 500 referrals from the LGBTQIA2S plus advancement team. Again, similar to some of the other advancement teams doing that referral internal to the city. Next slide, please. And then outside of our, sorry, these slides just walk through some of the more proactive work that we do as a team to make sure that the things that the Human Rights Commission is built to address don't happen in the first place. So that ranges from fair housing training to fair housing testing that should be coming out soon, work that we do with My Brother's Keeper, work that we do with the Office of Returning Citizens, As you can see, there's 220 applications processed for the on-street accessible parking program that we run in conjunction with the parking clerk's office. The teams work really hard to make sure that these things are handled. Some of them are required by how the teams are set up, and others are things that the teams have added over the years and worked together on, and quite frankly, often work with other departments across the city on to make sure that we are meeting the constituent need. Those are my slides. I'm sorry that things got a little jumbled, guys. That's my time.

Thank you.

Each councillor will have five minutes for questions and we'll start with my co-sponsor, Councillor Flay.

Thank you.

I was just curious, listening to your opening statement, What is your message about the Human Rights Commission?

Sorry, I want to make sure my mic's on. We wanted to be clear that the work is still happening. I'm sorry if that was not clear in the slides.

No, it wasn't clear to me. So the hearing is on the future of the Human Rights Commission. What is your opinion about the Human Rights Commission?

So I know the slides aren't up anymore, but that first slide that walked us through the number of constituent requests for the Human Rights Commission, we were working to then illustrate on that following slide the significantly higher volume of requests that we get, some of which do overlap with the commission's oversight. So if you think about the Commission of People with Disabilities, the public accommodation section of the ordinance, those contemplate the same work.

Oh, so are you saying that because other departments are doing this work that there really is not a need for the Human Rights Commission? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is that your message, basically?

No, I think we are not trying to make the argument about need versus not need, but ensure folks that the work is still happening.

Okay, so I just want to, I won't use the word pushback, but a lot of residents didn't know about the Human Rights Commission for many years. They didn't know how to submit a complaint to the Human Rights Commission. Again, I probably have submitted more complaints than anybody in the city of Boston to the Human Rights Commission. But a lot of residents didn't know how to do that. I think that was a big part of it. I think a major part of the Human Rights Commission is educating people across the city, educating the public about the Human Rights Commission that It's an important body. And it's there for a purpose. But I think there was a message there that it was not working or it was shut down. And there was a lot of, there was office turmoil, wasn't there? Is that fair to say?

I'm not sure, Councillor. I started my time in the cabinet, I think now, two summers ago. So I wasn't present for most of Like by the time I arrived, the commission did not have members.

Okay. Well, that's what I'm trying to get at because I think the members of the commission wanted to do the work. And I do think they were discouraged from doing the work. And I don't know why that was the case, but if the complaints were down, I believe they were down because residents did not necessarily really know how to file a complaint, or they didn't know the process. They didn't know the Human Rights Commission was in existence, or there was always a message that maybe that's not the right avenue to file an issue. If you have a civil rights or human rights related issue, maybe it's not the place to that complaint with the Human Rights Commission. I disagree with all of that, but that was the perception out there. So my point is, when I hear that there weren't many complaints from the public, I take that with a grain of salt because the public didn't know how to formally make a complaint. Here's my question. What type of outreach did the mayor's office do to the public telling them about how to file a complaint?

Yep, so we've made sure to update the website for the Human Rights Commission.

No, but going back over the years.

I can really only speak to what we've done in the past two years since I've been on our team. I'm not able to answer questions beyond that. But was it non-existent over the last year? The intake for complaints?

Yeah.

No, I showed those numbers at the beginning of my slides. Those were calendar year 25 numbers.

Okay, and how many people were working there?

None.

How many people were working there?

None, but all of the complaints were handled by Equity and Inclusion Cabinet staff.

And how many commissioners were there?

None, in 2025.

Okay, that's what I'm getting at. So there was no one working there. So that's basically a Human Rights Commission in name only. If the commission... Commission members are not working there, and there's not an executive director or director doing the work, and some other organization is doing the work. To me, that means it's not existent. It's not doing its job. I'm not blaming you. I'm not blaming anybody. But those are clearly the facts. And again, I don't want to point fingers, but what I want to do is acknowledge that there wasn't not only public education and awareness, But there wasn't even staff there to answer a question at the Human Rights Commission if you had a particular issue. Because I communicated often with the Human Rights Commission, maybe 30 times, maybe 40 times. And a lot of times, people weren't there. As you said, there was no one working there. So I understand that. My calls or emails weren't being returned. If no one is working at a commission and there's no commission members, it's basically nonexistent. Mr. Chair, I have no further comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councillor Murphy.

Thank you. How many departments or commissions fall under the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet?

So departments and commissions are a little bit different. Do you want both?

Yes.

Okay. So we've got language and cultural access, and they also house the literacy task force. So that's two. Move over to the LGBTQ advancement team. They have a new commission coming online later this year, so we'll call that four. Then you have immigrant advancement. Then you have the women's advancement team, black male advancement team, which also houses the black men and boys commission. Then you have the fair housing office, which also houses the fair housing commission. the Commission for People with Disabilities, which also houses that commission. In the E&I office, we also run the Reparations Task Force. And I deeply hope to my teams that I have not forgotten anyone.

How many employees altogether?

Over 80 staff, but that does not include commissioners. I'd have to get back to you on that number.

And zero staff were assigned to the Human Rights Commission?

Yes, formally. We make sure that the tasks are handled and that everyone gets responses to any outreach, but no one is assigned to the office.

Is there a desk? Is there like a door that says the Human Rights Commission upstairs somewhere?

No.

This is, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. Why? I mean, because if we just walk away from something and just leave it empty... Nobody's going to pay attention to it because obviously the other thing what but the other departments and commissions you mentioned have very specific roles and Have jobs so none of them we went through the budget Process none of those departments or commissions have the time or staff to free up To then take like who then is responsible to answer a call when nobody is assigned to the Human Rights Commission

So equity inclusion office staff, some of the staff that help to sit in the cabinet itself, make sure we answer those phone calls.

How many are just staff waiting for a call to this commission?

There aren't necessarily call takers necessarily, but my phone rings and I answer it. I'd have to double check with you on the exact phone number we're routing things to.

So if you could then walk me through the process. It's confusing for the public to know. what to do who to call what supports are there but if you could then talk on your role as the deputy chief of operations what would it look like like what email do you send it to which data entry point like where does this information go because in my opinion it kind of could go nowhere and nobody would ever know

Yep, so those are good questions. We did ensure that the emails and communication are still going to our core equity email, so equity at boston.gov. When you go to the boston.gov website and go to the Human Rights Commission page, you can still click submit a claim or submit a complaint, and it just routes to that email, which several staff have access to, and that's how we ensure that those complaints are still being handled.

How many emails have gone to that site?

Specific email that you can access from the website So I went through this in the slides But there were 40 complaints sent to that were human rights specific sent to that email address in calendar year 20 to differentiate Questions from complaints or do you just mean 40? We do so. Yes inside, you know in the notes that we got somebody said I'd like to speak to the Human Rights Commission or the Human Rights Commission was mentioned in those 40 notes and But those include walk-ins or 311 transfers, things like that.

When was the last time a city employee was assigned to the Human Rights Commission?

As a staff member or to make sure these constituent complaints were happening?

As a specific staff member. At one point, there were actually employees that knew their job was to work in the Human Rights Commission, correct? Yes. Yes. When was the last time any city employee was paid attached to this commission?

I would have to double check, but it was before my time.

And when did you stop?

In the cabinet two years ago.

So maybe two years ago, but could it be as far back as 10 years? Like, wouldn't you know?

I don't. I'm not sure it's quite that long, just based from what I've heard from folks in the room.

Is it fair to say that It's since this administration started five years ago, or do you think it went back further?

I'm not sure, counselor, honestly.

And when you have conversations with the other directors and chiefs of these other departments that fall under equity and inclusion, how do you uplift the work of like who speaks for them? Like who speaks for the complainant with the constituents complaint know who just speaks for the Commission that is important Is anyone questioning like because if we wiped out like when we went through the budget process and realized many of the departments that fall under equity inclusion are 100% grants and 100% of grants to many departments falling in this Commission, I mean under this cabinet had zero grants, and there was conversation about, well, if the only purpose of your department is to issue grants, and now we have no grants, and there were staff members attached, we have direct understanding of what is your budget, how much of it is grants, how much of it is city operating budget, how many staff members are assigned. At what point did people say, we don't care about the Human Rights Commission anymore, and we don't want to staff it? Because if we were sitting here and we found out that nobody is working anymore in the black male advancement office, or nobody is assigned or responsible for anything that happens in the women advancement office, to me that would be alarming. So why wasn't somebody in the administration advocating to make sure that this commission was properly staffed?

I'm going to try and answer that question. I'm going to answer this last part, but please correct me. I think a lot of where, when I came into my role, I wanted to make sure that the work we were getting was being done. And we have found that the referral system we have in place works really well, and that often people are reaching out about things that are not relevant to the Human Rights Commission.

or that they are reaching out about things that are specifically under the purview of a different team or department even outside of our cabinet so it was intentional because you were seeing that the calls or complaints as you were saying that come in the concerns could be handled in other places so we we as a city or you as the deputy or the mayor like somebody intentionally decided that it was overlap and not needed

I'm not sure. I'm really not sure. I'm not sure I was part of those exact philosophical questions.

I'm not trying to, like, corner you, but you did just explain saying that when you looked at the calls that came in, and when you looked at what the commission was covering, that you saw that other people were already doing it, or the complaints, probably, I don't think I would call it a complaint, but that they weren't even properly The public may have called in and you wouldn't have considered it a human rights issue So it would have gone to a different department anyway I'm not sure I understand what the question is counselor. I'm sorry But I mean when you wipe out a whole department and expect Other departments to step up I mean when you think of like a school you just wipe out the reading teacher and just expect the math specialist to flag when there may be concerns. It just doesn't seem like it's the best way to handle such an important commission in the city of Boston. So hopefully when my other colleagues ask questions and we hear from the other advocates that we can come to some understanding if this was the best choice that we have made as a city. So thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Murphy. Councillor Braden, you have five minutes.

Thank you. I'm just curious, you know, the role of the Human Rights Commission was to adjudicatory primary function was the Commission should serve as an administrative and adjudicatory body for the investigation, hearing, resolution of complaints of discrimination. So who deals with complaints of discrimination in the Equity Cabinet now?

So they still are submitted via the Human Rights Commission in the ways that I outlined. And then we refer them to the team that handles that kind of a case, right? So the public accommodation section of the ordinance is covered by the ordinance that we passed around the Disability Commission. And so we would send them there.

So what about wage theft and employment discrimination and housing discrimination?

So something like housing discrimination would go to fair housing, right?

Depending. Yeah, but we've got a problem with fair housing because they haven't had an executive director since Bob Terrell passed away. So I imagine that fair housing is not up to speed either in terms of investigating discrimination.

I don't think their intake numbers have gone down significantly. And that's what you're seeing is like the intake number is sort of somebody comes for help.

So they come for help, but adjudication, resolution, you know and and mitigation of complaints like are we do we have a report and like an annual report of the the type of complaints how they were resolved what mitigation and then also what work are we doing in terms of educating people about human rights generally like wage theft housing discrimination employment all sorts of gender sexual orientation country of origin you know it seems to me that people, to Councillor Flynn's point earlier, that people don't know that the Human Rights Commission actually exists and that there's a form of recourse if they feel that they've been discriminated against in the City of Boston. Is that a fair comment? People don't know you're there? In fact, you're not there at the moment because it's like I'm looking at other jurisdictions, and they seem to have a much more proactive role and a more proactive approach to adjudicating human rights complaints in their jurisdictions.

So the way I think about it, at least, is I try and break it down by the different protected classes that you're talking about. So if we take housing discrimination, Someone comes into the fair housing team, which, again, is seeing the same number of intakes that they have been seeing previously. And they would work with the constituent to figure out if they have a fair housing case or if maybe they have a housing stability issue, right? If they are facing eviction and we can't pinpoint a protected class issue, we refer them to the next team. Something like public accommodation, right? This sidewalk was broken in front of City Hall. Or I couldn't vote at my polling location because the sidewalk was broken. those things go through the grievance process with the Disability Commission. And they do have the same sort of adjudication methods, at least for fair housing. And I am not the best person to speak on the exact process for the ADA grievances, but Commissioner McCosh works really closely with the constituent to find a resolution that both the impacted party, so the constituent, and then the team that is accused of discrimination find is reasonable and meets the constituent need.

So having a Human Rights Commission was duplicated, is that right?

I think for some of these cases, yes. For some of these types of projected classes as you go through them. The Human Rights Commission was created before the ADA, and so I don't think it's the Human Rights Commission's fault for that, but the ADA was passed several years after.

But surely in the context of an equity cabinet that something like the Human Rights Commission would act as an umbrella in which all of those questions of human rights violations could be dealt with, regardless of whether it's a sexual orientation, a housing, fair housing, employment, that you would have an attorney on staff and you would have people who would be well-versed on how to deal with the different complaints?

I think it's a little complicated. I think HUD funding for fair housing does stipulate who sort of works on that, that sort of work and that intake. And Title II under the ADA also does have some requirements for how those kinds of grievances go through. I think it's a, you know, we work to do pretty complex work within the ordinance and to make sure that things are handled, but I'm not sure it's quite as simple as having an umbrella organization.

Okay, how are we doing for time? I think I've got seven seconds. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councillor Braden. Well, I see no other councils are here. So I did have a few questions that I wanted to talk to you about with regard to the, you mentioned adjudication several times. You talked about the adjudicate cases. What's your definition of adjudication?

Perhaps I misused the word, Councillor, but what I was trying to explain was the fair housing process that a case can go through in the commission. So it can mean a settlement. It can mean a lot of different things for the claimant, the aggrieved, the constituent, usually, and then the respondent, so the person accused of discrimination in the housing case. But those processes vary, really, in how exactly they're worked through. But an investigator goes through the information at hand. They do some real investigating. They do site visits and things like that. And they try and come up with what they think happened and make a recommendation to the commission.

Would you agree that adjudication means a tribunal, legal tribunal or a judge or someone sitting to hear the matter in dispute? Sure. And so what of any of these equity departments would you consider is an adjudicatory body pursuant to some kind of tribunal or judge to hear a case?

I think the Fair Housing Commission has some of those powers.

Would they be able to hear a race discrimination case?

If it was related to housing, yes.

But not related to housing. If it was related to employment?

No, that would not be under their jurisdiction.

So a person with a race discrimination case in employment, where would they go under the Equity Cabinet to have their case heard?

We would refer them to our partners at MCAD.

And with regard to the referrals to MCAD, how do you track them? How does that happen once you refer a case to MCAD?

We refer cases over to them, and actually things are pretty quiet after that. We should not.

So you don't track them?

We keep track of the cases that we have sent over, but it is not MCAD's responsibility to let us know the resolution of those cases. And once they are out of our hands, we want to be careful about knowing things we should not know about a case that is in progress.

And so you don't think you should know about a case that was filed with one of the agencies here that was then referred to MCAD?

I think if MCAD found that to be appropriate, I don't wish to step on their toes through their own investigation process.

So we don't track the cases that we refer to MCAD or any other outside agency? To external agencies, no. We don't track them?

Not that I'm aware of.

On the web page for the Boston Human Rights Commission, there was discrimination. On the dashboard, it says there were 76 complaints that were received between 2021 and 2023. And it says 61 of those cases have been referred out. Can you tell me of those 61 cases that were referred out, do you know where they were referred to?

I don't, Councillor. I'd have to go check that dashboard.

Can you? Come back with that information.

Remind me what the numbers are for the dashboard in the year range.

21 to 23. There were 76 cases. 80% will refer out. Okay. 18%. And this is where I'm really trying to figure this out. You might be able to help me with this. 18% of the cases, maybe 14%. It says that they're still in progress. So if there's no staff, no one doing any work on cases, how are they in progress?

I'm not sure, counsel. This isn't a dashboard that I'm familiar with or that we are currently using.

It's on the website. It's still there.

Yeah, it sounds like we should take a look at that. I presented the numbers from calendar year 2025 because that's what we are actively tracking and using. The dashboard might be out of date, and we should take that down if that's the case.

But my question is more basic. It says that they're still in progress. If there's no one there, how are they still in progress?

I'm not sure, Councilor. I really am not familiar with this dashboard that you're asking about.

I know, but here's my question. Forget about the dashboard for a minute. It says they're still in progress. If there's no one there, how are they still in progress?

I think it is possible that the dashboard hasn't been updated. It's possible they are sitting in limbo, but I really don't know. I cannot speak to it.

So someone who filed a complaint is still waiting for a decision, and we have no idea what happened to their case.

We might. I'm really not sure.

And so if they called the Boston Human Rights Commission, they wouldn't get a...

No, currently when folks call, we take that in. We have a different tracking system.

And if they called about one of the cases that are in progress, what would we tell them?

We'd have to get back to them. I'm sure we have the information. We keep all of our records in good order. So we'd have to look into it. But I'm not sure that's ever happened. I'm not sure we've had somebody, to my knowledge, in the past two years call about a previous case.

And so if it was a case that was referred to MCAD, you wouldn't know what to tell them because you're not tracking the cases that...

they should be calling mcad for updates is probably what we would tell the constituent initially and then if there were some issues identified we'd be happy to call mcad and support them through that process but you know if mcad is running an investigation i don't i don't want to trample on that and and potentially so the dashboard hasn't been updated since sounds like 2023 2023 you think it needs to be updated potentially yeah it's before my time in the cabinet but I'm happy to take a look at it.

And so in the presentation, it talks about 11 requests as being outside of the commission's jurisdiction. What's outside of the commission's jurisdiction?

So that is a combination of geography, so outside of the city of Boston limits. We do get a decent number of cases that are from local, like nearby towns and cities. We do sometimes get things that are out of state just because people No Boston. And then we also get things that are outside of the scope of the commission or the commission's ordinance.

For a case that was considered outside of the commission's jurisdiction but still a Boston resident, what would constitute being outside of the jurisdiction if it was filed with the Human Rights Commission and they were a Boston resident?

Yeah, that's a good question. It is about where the issue of discrimination took place. We see less of this now because a lot of things are happening online. But this would be if somebody was in Cambridge and experienced discrimination.

The question was for a Boston resident that filed a case with the Human Rights Commission. What would be considered out of the jurisdiction for a Boston resident?

The... DISCRIMINATORY ACTION HAS TO HAPPEN INSIDE BOSTON. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

FOR BOSTON RESIDENTS?

YES. IT IS ABOUT PLACEMENT IS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORDINANCE. I THINK THAT IS PART OF WHERE YOU GET SOME OF THE OUT OF STATE STUFF. IT MIGHT BE A COLLEGE STUDENT. WE DO OUR BEST TO POINT THEM IN THE DIRECTION OF THE RESOURCES BECAUSE THINGS HAPPEN IN OTHER CITIES AND TOWNS. MCAD IS A GOOD CATCH ALL FOR THOSE.

WHAT OTHER OUT OF JURISDICTION BASISES ARE THERE?

That would be like if somebody reached out about a conflict that is not, or a protected class that's not listed in the ordinance.

And what are the protected classes that are listed in the ordinance? Do you want me to read them?

It's quite a list. Go on. Yep. So race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religious creed, disability, national origin or ancestry, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, prior psychiatric treatment, military status, ex offender status or source of income.

So for, for the categories you just listed under the equity cabinet, there wouldn't be any place where they could go under the equity cabinet to have their case heard or decided for the categories you just listed.

So I do think it is important to remember like, the disability listed there, as well as national origin or ancestry, that often shows up in language. So that is handled under the LCA team.

But they don't have any adjudicatory functions, do they? They don't hear the cases?

They do not formally, but we do have some requirements under Title VI to ensure that things that people are not being discriminated based on national origin or ancestry. So Title VI protects a couple of these things, but especially is often found to be a great protector for national origin and ancestry. In LCA's case, what they do is if somebody comes and tries to come to a council hearing and can't the interpretation system doesn't work, right? It's a genuine mistake, but it happens. That complaint goes to LCA. They would then make sure to check in with council central staff to make sure that next time the systems were set up correctly or if folks needed more training, that that could be offered.

So for sex discrimination, there's no department or under the equity cabinet that they could go to to have their case heard. Is that right?

Yes, if it wasn't related to housing, that would be correct.

Housing is the only thing that folks can come to the City of Boston other than the Human Rights Commission for discrimination.

And the Disability Commission.

And the Disability. But all the other categories, they would have to be referred to another agency.

Again, it depends on national origin and ancestry. If that's related to language, then we also handle that.

But to take that away, there's no other place where they can go in the city of Boston to file a discrimination complaint?

Correct.

OK. And we don't track them when we refer them to MCAD or any other agency. And so how do we know? Do we just close the case, or does it just fall on deaf ears in terms of the data that compiles the cases that are filed?

So we don't track them when they leave the City of Boston, but if they stay with the City of Boston, we do track them. So that's cases that get referred to Fair Housing or sometimes something is actually about a housing stability issue, right? Sometimes we do obviously track things like the ADA grievances. If somebody's having a hard time just simply reaching a department, we make sure to offer support there via technical assistance. But those are the sort of broad ones that I've spoken through already today.

So in your presentation, it shows that the constituent activity across equity, inclusion cabinet 25, 2,900 disability commission referrals, 150 fair housing discrimination intakes, With no fair housing director, how are there 150 discrimination cases that refer to fair housing decided or handled?

By the investigations team. The fair housing director very infrequently would have weighed in on the final version of a case. That usually is left up to the team of the investigators and the director of investigations because they have to present to all the commissioners, including the fair housing director, for a final vote.

And so if there's no director, there's no presentation?

No, the presentations have still happened. The commission continues to meet.

And so there's no adjudicatory function there? There's no hearings there?

There are hearings for the Fair Housing Commission.

For the Fair Housing Commission?

Yes.

Without a Fair Housing Director?

Yes, the commissioners, the appointed commissioners handle the hearings.

How many have been heard the last year?

I would have to double check a lot of the time and this is a good thing. They end up in settlement. At least that is the good thing based on what our constituents asked for and they are who guide the case. I'd have to double check how many hearings exactly we've ended up having.

Do you know whether or not there were any?

Yes, there were a couple. There were definitely some. And those get scheduled. They're not publicly noticed in the same way because they are private. But those get scheduled with the commissioners.

There were 147 black male advancement referred to city departments. Do you know how many of those were discrimination cases?

None that I'm aware of. Those are usually referrals, people sort of looking for the right door, and we try and be the place to point them in the right direction.

3,500 immigrant advancement resource navigation interactions and more than 500 LGBTQ students. one A2S referrals. None of these cases were able to be handled by any city department because there's no discriminatory agency currently operating.

Well, I'm glad you actually asked about the LGBTQ2IA plus, 2IS plus team. So they do some really great work with the Boston Police Department. And I've created a toolkit for, they call it the anti-hate crime toolkit. They do really incredible work that is well recognized in the community as well as by BPD.

What about if they brought discrimination complaints? I know the police department wouldn't handle those, would they?

I don't want to speak on what the police department would or would not want to do, but I think it would have to rise to a criminal level, if that makes sense.

Right. I'm talking about discrimination cases, not criminals. the Boston Police Department wouldn't be handling any discrimination complaint, would they?

If it rose to a criminal level, potentially, but I think... No, no, no, we're not talking about criminal.

If it's a discrimination case, the Boston Police Department wouldn't handle a discrimination complaint that didn't rise to a criminal case.

I think the MOLA, the LGBTQ advancement team, works closely with BPD to make sure that that's not what the complainants or the constituent, that's not the avenue they want to take, right? So there have been a couple of sort of newsworthy, you know, pick a thing that happened in the past year that rose to your news feed around LGBTQ couples in public being discriminated against maybe for bathroom usage. And that's work that MOLA works really closely with. They often hear from the individuals who aren't sure, right? Is this a crime they want to go to BPD with? Is it something that they want to handle via MCAD? And so they sort of act as a helpful navigator through that process in a place where people don't always feel comfortable with the institutions we're familiar with.

The question was a little more basic than that. An LGBTQ complaining that has a discrimination case would have no place to take their case in the city of Boston. Where would they take the discrimination case? The Human Rights Commission is inoperative, and that's the only place that would handle the discrimination complaint. And if it's inoperative, there would be no place for them to take their case. Isn't that correct? Yes, I'm trying to explain what we do in the current- No, no, no, I'm just trying to get to the, I'm trying to get to where would folks that have been discriminated against take their case within the city of Boston, knowing that the Boston Human Rights Commission is currently not in operation?

I'm trying to describe that they often do bring those things to our teams. That might not be the right place. They aren't adjudicative bodies. But we do get those phone calls, and we work really hard to help them navigate and decide where they want to take the case, right? Sometimes people do want to go to MCADs. Sometimes people want to hire lawyers. And our teams really just work to make sure that they offer people that roadmap. You are correct that it does not include the Human Rights Commission as an option.

But the city of Boston has no place where A complaining for a discrimination case can take their case to be heard.

For? Any kind of discrimination. For disability discrimination, they will go to the Commission for People with Disabilities. That is an avenue for that protected class.

There's no hearing there. They couldn't get a hearing.

The ADA describes a different process.

But there's no hearing there.

No, there are no hearings as described under the ADA. Okay.

Let me just ask a couple more questions to see if my colleague is going to be back anytime soon. The Disability Commission received six ADA Title II grievances in 2025, two of which were outside of this jurisdiction. What was the basis for concluding that it was outside of that jurisdiction?

I'd have to look up those exact two cases, but that would be something like, the discrimination took place in Newton, not in Boston, right? Or it wasn't like the discrimination issue wasn't about disability, it was about age or it was about something else.

Can you check on the other four too, the other four grievances that were filed to see what happened with them, whether they were referred out, whether there was some kind of resolution to the complaint that was filed?

The four that are listed here would have been handled by Commissioner McCosh. So she does a process where she works with the constituent to understand what the core issue is. And then they work together to come towards a plan and ensure that the public accommodation where they were discriminated gets retrained, has to write a letter of apology. It can really range on what the constituent is looking for. But she and her team work through that process with the constituent.

What authority does the Disability Commission have to investigate and resolve grievances? The Americans with Disabilities Act. And how does that differ from the Human Rights Commission?

My understanding, I'm not a lawyer, is that they are given their authority by the federal law passed in 1990, which creates Title II commissioners in municipalities across the entire nation. So this is her charge that she is given under that law.

Thank you. I've got a few more questions. Let me just see if my colleague has any further questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The dashboard hasn't been updated since 2023. That's accurate, isn't it?

That sounds right to me.

But we've had staff there in 2024. Is that accurate? I'm not sure, Councillor.

I started halfway through 2024.

So if the dashboard, it's an example. If it hasn't been updated since 2023, that signals that this agency, this commission is really not important. That's what it signals to the public. If you look at something that hasn't been updated in five years, the public will move on. They'll say, this agency is not serious if they're not informing the public. And I say that because a critical part of the Human Rights Commission, for people to know about it, is to Educate people on how to file a complaint What education has taken place over the last several years to educate the public about the importance of the Human Rights Commission Yep, so my understanding counselor is since the Commission lost its staff again somewhere in the early 20s range

there hasn't been that proactive work. And I think you can see that in some of the numbers, right? But we have ensured the website is up to date so people can still reach a real live human. And I've worked with groups like 311, right, to ensure that those phone calls still go through.

Wasn't Evandro Cavallo the executive director?

At some point in that range, that sounds correct, but my understanding is he left and then is at OPAT now.

Yeah, but when he left, was the position ever filled?

No.

Was there anyone besides Evandro that worked there? Was he the only full-time employee?

I'd have to double-check. I think there might have been one other at that time, but again, this is well before my time in the cabinet.

But when he left, I think around 2024... Was there any person working there?

When I started, no. But I'm not sure he was with us in 2024. But again, I'm happy to go look at the employee records and get back to you all.

So we're going on. So for about two years, more than two years, there's been no staff. There's been no commissioners. There hasn't been a sign in the door. There hasn't been the homepage updated. No one answers the phone call from the Human Rights Commission. To me, that signals that the commission is defunded. And we can say, yeah, well, someone else answers the phone call when it comes in, and someone over here at another department can fill in. Public does it by that. Public wants to see someone sitting at their desk, 9 to 5, doing the job, working. Well, let me ask a question. There's seven commissioners, I believe, at the Human Rights Commission, seven appointed by the mayor. When was the last time we've had human rights commissioners that were commissioners?

Not since my time. I'd have to double-check the exact dates.

Why would they let go? Why would they let go from their job, or why did they leave their job?

I'm not sure that's how I would describe a commissioner changing roles in the sense of you're talking about the commission members.

The commission members, they did their job, whether they were paid or not paid. But why weren't they doing that? Why did they leave their job? And why weren't those commissioners? And if they did leave their job, why didn't we put in new commissioners?

I just want to clarify. You're talking about the board members, right? Yes. Okay. I'm not sure. This is, again, before my time, but I'm not sure they all left. I'm not sure of the current status.

Well, there's no more commissioners that still serve, though, are there?

I don't believe so, but what I'm saying is I'm not sure they formally left or didn't just roll into holdover status. I wouldn't describe necessarily a commissioner no longer serving as a as leaving something.

Well, they left, if they were a commissioner, and they either resigned or were asked to resign, that means they left their job as a commissioner, whether it was paid or not paid, and at a point when there was zero commissioners, it seems like there's no commissioners now, at a point when there's zero commissioners, and there's no staff, and there's no sign on the door, and no one answers the phone, and the The homepage is not updated. That means the public, it's defunded. That means we're not prioritizing a way for the public to file a civil rights complaint. Yeah, I will, I will. And again, I'm not blaming you. I want to know the facts of what happened so how we can learn from the facts to move forward. But we do have a lot of unanswered questions, Mr. Chair, and with a lot of unanswered questions, I think we do have to do a 17F so we can learn more about what happened. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Oh, did you not want me to answer your question, Counselor? I apologize. I didn't mean to interrupt.

Yeah, I asked a lot of questions in there or comments. You could take the time.

I was going to try. Sorry. No, that's fine.

That's fine.

I do just want to be clear that we do ensure people's phone calls go through. I don't want the public to walk away from today's hearing thinking that if they call the number on the website that it won't be answered. I understand that we are pointing out that the commission is not fully staffed, but I do want the public to be fully, fully aware that they can call the number on the website. They can use the news, the info form on the website.

We will do our best to be responsive. But it's not only, I mean, it's not, You mentioned it's not fully staffed. That's not correct. It's not staffed at all.

Right.

And when it's not staffed at all, there was no money in the budget for the Human Rights Commission. Is that accurate?

I believe you guys put an amendment, but yes.

Yeah, we did. Thank you to Councillor Culpepper and myself and Councillor Worrell and my city council colleagues. Yes, we fought for that. Let's wrap it up. I'm going to wrap it up. I'm going to stop there because my good friend, Councillor Culpepper, gave me a sharp eye, and I listened to my senior citizens here.

Councillor Murphy.

Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, Chair. So I just have a few timeline questions, so it's clearer to me. When did you start?

I started in the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet. in july of 2024. and was your role then what it is now no i was just about to clarify that i started in my current role as deputy chief the following january so january of 2025. and was there a deputy chief there when you got there in july uh no we had we reworked in that window so in that july to january window so the titles were different but there was a chief of staff right um but there was not um there wasn't the same reporting structure right it was reorganized

So if I have my dates correctly, Evandro went to OPAT on May 6th of 2024. He did not have any other city job, but he did have, so he would have left just weeks before you came to go over to OPAT if you said you started in July of 2024. But if he was the last director of the Human Rights Commission, that was his last city job that we had a director up through may 3rd of 2024. i i really do not know but i'd be happy to get back to you after checking and so who would though be able because oftentimes and this isn't on you but oftentimes we have these hearings and the administration comes but the people who can answer the questions on here so Who would have been in that role through 2023, 2024? Because we're only talking weeks before you started. We're not talking years. Because when you reference way before my time, it wasn't years ago. Evandro, we had a director up through May of 2024. OK, if that's confirmed, I'm not sure. Or we didn't. Was he not showing up? Maybe the next panel knows more. So that's what I want to know. How long did that director position stay empty?

Yeah, my understanding is he left earlier than that, but again, I would have to double check. And then there were some interim staff. He was not the only person there when he left. There were some staff that over time, which makes me, this is, again, what I remember from being told by others. My predecessor, to answer your question, works at BPS now. Who's that? David Martinez. Okay. But the... I've lost my train of thought, Councillor. I apologize.

No, that's fine. But I think we all agree that we as a council will have to just get a clear timeline because I think that will help us understand, or for myself at least. I do have a question about what happens when a city employee files a complaint. And I believe, I know it's happened to me, that... you then maybe get sent to human resources or you're told to go to the legal department or the Boston Police Department. So if you could explain, I think it's important to know what your relationship is and what this commission, are you asking people then to like walk down a different hallway, like city employees directly?

Right. So I experienced discrimination in my workplace or outside? In your work. In my workplace.

So you're going as an employee, not as a resident?

As an employee, not as a resident. Yeah. My understanding is those things do go through HR and that is sort of, I believe the ordinance's intention is to separate those things. It is a little bit different if a resident is discriminated against in the city infrastructure. Like if you flip it.

And being in the role you're in now, do you think that's fair that employees who feel that they've been discriminated against in the workplace here at City Hall wouldn't get the same supports that are human rights. And I feel like the safety nets and the anonymity, then having to walk down to HR and have to file it as an HR complaint to, I would assume, in most cases, a boss, someone who could retaliate against you.

Um, I think there's a couple of things in that question. One, like the equity inclusion cabinet does not oversee the office of human resources or the office of labor relations. Those were both in the people ops cabinet. Um, and I, I certainly defer to that team to answer some of these more detailed questions. The city does have its non-discrimination and non harassment policies, right? Things like that, that we all do sign as employees. And so.

Those are things created by that team and I you know, I think we I'm not sure the ordinance contemplates handling those things your dashboard or do you have data that keeps record of how many times the city employee has come to your office or has tried to reach out to this non-existent human rights commission even if you are telling them because it seems like we tell everyone to go somewhere else because no one can go to the human rights commission at this point let's wrap up so we can move on to council braden and then i guess was my question not important or what it was important they're all important but we have and i did give you two minutes let's just wrap it up well i hope the city employees out there know that i support them also

I can answer that question. That's fine. No, it's fine.

I'll find out on my own. Thank you.

Councillor Braden, you have two minutes.

Thank you. So in terms of resolutions, if there's a complaint, is there under the original ordinance for the Boston Code for this adjudication of primary as a primary function and then is it data-driven reporting, and then further down in Section 5, it said, mandatory conciliation upon finding a probable cause, all parties must attend a mandatory conciliation session, facilitated by the commissioner's mediator, and if a settlement is reached, the case is closed, and there's a binding conciliation. Do we have that sort of apparatus? If we close down the Human Rights Commission, do we have that sort of apparatus to support complainants in other departments?

That is not dissimilar, but not exactly the same, to the way a process works in the Fair Housing Commission for a fair housing complaint.

Well, so there's a whole range of, if it's an employment complaint, I'm not talking about a city employee. I'm talking about maybe someone who's got a contractor with the city who's discriminating Like, how do we handle those complaints? Or do we pass those on to MCAD?

So a contractor, someone who has a contract with the city, and someone is being, like, they're a subcontractor for this person, that is a very particular kind of case. And that's something that, if that happened to one of my, say, we found out about this happening about one of the contractors working with someone in our cabinet, that is something that we would quickly talk to our ACC's there are things that our contractors sign when they are given funding from us that make this, there's several steps. That's maybe not a perfect example, but there's sort of a different process when it comes to.

So there's a covenant of an agreement with contractors that they will abide by the expectations of fair employment and wage theft and housing discrimination, et cetera. Correct. Yeah. I'm just curious about how the, the infrastructure actually supports adjudication and resolution going through in the absence of having a Human Rights Commission. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

MS. And I think what you bring up, Councillor, is a good illustration of sort of the interconnectivity of a lot of this work. This example is helpful to show us that it's not always just up to this one body. There are other bodies that are doing this work sort of in parallel or can even be in contradiction. thinking about this from sort of that holistic view is really important. And it's not something that, from my understanding of the ordinance, is really how the commission's meant to work. But that's something that, you know, we would need to take into account.

Well, this is an opportune moment to do a deep dive and see if we can, you know, if there's amendments or changes that need to be made. But my personal opinion is that the Human Rights Commission is an important structure to have in the city of Boston. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councillor. I just had a couple of questions, Maya. So what functions did the administration consider important in terms of referring the matters that came to the Commission to the Equity Cabinet? What functions were important to the administration when you began to refer complaints that came to the Commission to the Equity Department? To the equity cabinet.

Do you mean when we referred certain cases to separate certain equity cabinet departments?

Let me ask something more basic.

That would be helpful.

What analysis did the administration conduct to make the determination under the fiscal year 27 budget that the commission should be defunded?

This is a more particular question. Thank you. I think we were in a financial situation that was quite tough this year and we had to make a lot of really tough choices. I think about the number of cases that are coming to this commission and, Councillors, truly the number of calls that my other teams get, as you can see, heavily outweigh. I am not saying that the work of outreach doesn't impact those numbers, right? say we were able to double them, that's still half of my team that gets the smallest number of referrals.

But some of those cases that were referred to the other equity offices were discrimination complaints, right?

Which set of cases are you discussing? I'm sorry. We have the 40 cases from calendar year.

We talked about all the different cases and complaints and referrals to the equity cabinet. What number of those were discrimination complaints?

I think you were talking about the 40 cases that came.

No, no, no. I'm talking about the 300, the 220, the 188, the 100, the 126, the 264, the 913. What percentage of those were discrimination complaints?

I see. So we would know that some of the ones under the Disability Commission?

Do you know how many, what percentage were discrimination complaints?

Not percentage-wise, but I can walk you through those numbers and tell you which ones are which.

Do you know how many were discrimination cases?

Yes. So the disability, those six ADA grievances, those are discrimination cases.

Right.

And then the fair housing intake, that's the first step in deciding if something is actually protected class discrimination.

So my question is even more basic. So if I have a discrimination case, and I call black male advancement. What records are you making that a discrimination case came to black male advancement?

I think it really depends on the case and on the protected class, but... No, do you collect that data? If the black male advancement team refers it to fair housing, yes. If they refer it to the Disability Commission, also yes.

Right, what if they don't refer it? then you don't collect that data?

If they were to refer it to MCAD, I think they keep track of those things, but it's not something that they pass up to the cabinet, no. Is that what you're asking?

That's what I'm asking. Okay. My final question is this. We know that there's now $200,000 that's going to the commission. How does the administration envision the future of the Boston Human Rights Commission now that there's funding there?

It's something to think about. We only got our final budgets the very first week of July. So I'm still working through with all of my teams to finalize their grants, some of their contracted services. We really appreciated the council, obviously, for all the amendments this year. But there was so much back and forth that it's taken some extra time to finish up the planning for FY27. So I just am not in a position to really answer that question.

And you do agree that there are reforms that needed to be made to the Boston Housing, Boston Human Rights Commission?

I think I could have a very long conversation with all of you about the ways in which the current ordinance sits and doesn't contemplate, especially some of the other teams that I oversee here that are throughout the city. Sure.

And so as we work and as we review the Human Rights Commission, how can the administration ensure that the essential work of the commission is continued?

So that is what we have striven to do. I would argue that the essential work of the commission is to ensure that we are answering constituents when they reach out. I am not saying that is the only thing we should be doing, but I do think we owe it to the public as public servants to ensure that we are taking those phone calls. And I think this has been a conversation that has brought some things to light, but I think we would love to discuss further what the council believes is essential above that. But I do think the biggest thing we focus on, and I think genuinely we do a strong job with, is ensuring that those constituents at the very least feel heard.

And do you agree that the commission should be, the Human Rights Commission, should be a place where someone can go and file a discrimination complaint and receive a hearing on that discrimination complaint?

I think I would go back to my previous answer of I think there are other entities at the city, and again, I'm not a lawyer, that exist after the Human Rights Commission was, the ordinance was written, right?

Well, tell me then, if there are other departments where a person can receive a discrimination complaint hearing in the city, what department is it?

So the two places where that happens.

No, I understand that. Race complaints or sex complaints.

I was not talking about those protected classes. I just, I think from a broad vision of the ordinance, if we, again, I know it doesn't cover those.

My question is, if you came to the city of Boston with a race discrimination complaint, There's no place in the city of Boston where you could have an adjudicatory hearing.

Not if it was not related to fair housing.

Thank you. Councilor Whirl has joined us. You've got five minutes, Councilor.

Thank you, Chair. In an effort not to repeat any questions, I'm going to save my questions for the next panel.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Maya. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. We're going to move to the next panel now. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Maya. I'm going to call the next panel to the... I see you're ready, Commissioner McKenna. Leonard Lee, Commissioner. Michael Mimolo, Executive Director from the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. And is Carolina Amante here?

Yes, hello, Carolina.

Is she going to be on? Great, great. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule. We're gonna start our first panel with Carolina Almonte. And you have six minutes, Ms. Almonte.

Thank you so much. And it's Carolina that happens all the time. So happy to be with you all this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as I shared, my name is Carolina Almonte. I use she, her pronouns. And I am the proud executive director of the City of Cambridge's Human Rights Commission. I also oversee our Commission on Immigrant Rights and Citizenship and the Cambridge Police Review and Advisory Board. I appreciate the opportunity to share more about the Human Rights Commission's mission, its work, and the dedicated Cambridge residents who serve as commissioners. We were established back in 1984 as the city's local civil rights enforcement agency. And big picture, our mission is to protect the human rights of everyone who lives in Cambridge, works in Cambridge, or visits our city. The Commission receives and investigates complaints of discrimination under the Cambridge Human Rights Ordinance and also the Fair Housing Ordinance. These complaints involve discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, and education. Although the commission does not provide direct legal representation, we investigate complaints as a neutral agency. We facilitate conciliation and mediation when appropriate, and we often connect community members to relevant legal, social service, and advocacy resources. We're fortunate to have a very dedicated and wonderful attorney investigator, Vanessa Carr, who manages the intake and investigation of our discrimination complaints. Our team also consists of a wonderful program manager, Esther Farah, who recently joined our team, and she leads event planning, keeping our website and public facing materials updated, and she handles initial community calls. Following an investigation, when a complaint is filed with us, I work closely with Vanessa to determine whether there's probable cause to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred. When probable cause is found, commissioners may assist the parties and reaching a resolution through mediation. If the matter cannot be resolved, commissioners may serve as hearing officers in a public hearing. Although we do not have many public hearings, or at least not since my time overseeing the commission. The commission is also a fair housing assistance program, or a fat agency, and that means that we receive federal funding for enforcement efforts from the US Department of housing and urban development to support our work. So that includes in the intake investigation, conciliation and resolution of housing discrimination complaints. Also just wanted to add that in addition to the seven classes that are protected under the federal for housing law, the Cambridge ordinances provide broader local protections based on characteristics, including age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, military status, and source of income. The city recently added two new protected classes, which are relationship status and family structure as well. The commission's work extends beyond complaint investigations. We also really focus on education and prevention, which I find very central to our mission as well. Our staff provide trainings, workshops, and presentations to landlords. We meet with employers, business owners, city employees, students, community organizations, and community members. These efforts address topics such as fair housing overall, and that's the highest number of complaints that we get, reasonable accommodations, source of income discrimination, sexual harassment in housing, harassment based on national origin or race, and other emerging civil and human rights issues. Commission staff also collaborate regularly with other city departments. We were recently restructured, so now we now live under the Equity and Inclusion Department in the city of Cambridge, which has really strengthened our ability to coordinate across departments and align our work with the city's broader commitments to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The commission itself is comprised of 11 volunteer members who live in Cambridge, and they reflect the diversity of our community, including populations that have been historically experienced discrimination. Our commissioners bring a wide range of professional expertise, community knowledge, lived experience to their work. They help us identify human rights concerns. They hear from residents and subject matter experts. and they help shape outreach and educational priorities that the commission staff can implement. Commissioners also review staff determinations and settlement agreements, and as I mentioned earlier, participate in mediation and hearing processes when appropriate. To prepare them for these responsibilities commissioners receive training on fair housing law on mediation on standards for reviewing staff determinations, because they're not required to be lawyers. Some are some aren't the open meeting law and the state's ethics law. This training helps ensure that they carry out the responsibilities fairly and partially and effectively. In a typical year, our commission investigates approximately 30 to 40 complaints, and we successfully mediate roughly 40% of our cases. Resolutions are often monetary compensation, anti-discrimination training for the respondents, and sometimes also, in addition, changes to policies or practices. Because we are embedded in the Cambridge community, we understand local institutions, conditions, languages, and emerging concerns. This allows us to not only respond to the individual complaints that are filed with our office, but also to identify broader patterns and use enforcement, education, outreach, collaboration, as I mentioned, and policy change to help prevent future discrimination. At its core, our commission works to ensure that Cambridge remains a community where everyone is treated with dignity, has meaningful access to their rights, and that there's a local place for folks to turn to when they experience discrimination. Thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Almonte. Let's start from our left to our right. Let's start with Commissioner McKenna. You have six minutes.

Yes, so I'm Margaret McKenna. I am trained as a civil rights lawyer in employment discrimination. I sued police departments all over the country for the Department of Justice. In addition, I was the executive director of IOR, which was the International Association of Statutory Civil Rights Organizations, MCAD, Philadelphia Human Rights Commission, the Boston Human Rights Commission. So I was the executive director. I actually years back trained all the MCAD folks when Gloria Putnam, famous Gloria Putnam, was there. So I know this field really well. And in addition, I've been on the Boston School Committee, Chair Dessy, been around in and out of government forever. It's been actually frustrating for Leonard and I to listen today. There's a difference between constituent services and legal adjudication of cases. It is nice to have constituent services, nice to have. You have a right. to file cases and get them adjudicated in a system that is laid out in the ordinance. Those are two separate things. I left the Human Rights Commission where I was the chair when the Chief Equity and Inclusion took the staff of the Human Rights Commission and had them report to her, not to the commissioners. We, Leonard and I, and others, and I've talked to the others, had no say in what the staff did anymore. It was up to the chief of equity and inclusion. So you have to decide is this an independent agency or is it an advisory committee to the mayor? And that is a big distinction. If you see one of the things that happened is the UMass folks did a report that basically looked at statutory human rights commissions around the country and said, you have to be independent. Otherwise, you're an advisory committee. So the question that was asked, if I'm a city employee and I've been discriminated against, I am not going to go. to the city Human Resources Committee. I want to be protected in my rights. That's why you have a Human Rights Commission. And we had that experience. And if there's ever been a time, I'm old, been around forever. And this is such an unbelievably difficult time for some of us to watch what's going on in terms of hate speech that is now the norm. As opposed to, people used to be afraid to say the things they're saying. They maybe believed them, but now it's like okay to say them. So if you can say them, you also act in a certain way. So if there's ever been a time when an adjudicatory body needed to exist, it's now. We have to protect the rights of people of color, One of the issues we brought up was transgender, not only discrimination, but violence. At the time Leonard and I were there, we had Proud Boys walking on the streets with masks, intimidating people at Brigham and Women's. So there are times then, I think, and these are the times, Organizations like the Human Rights Commission needs to exist. And one of the things we were asked to do by then the mayor, for instance, was to follow up on the police reform commission's recommendations. We did scorecards about what they had been doing. But when our staff started to work for the equity we had no staff to do what we wanted to do. The only thing that was done was by, now followed me as the chair, was a professor from UMass continued to do some reports. But there's been no staff for years. It isn't when Evandro left, to go to the police accountability, it was two years before that. So there's been no staff. So it basically hasn't been functioning. We did a lot of interesting things. We did broadband access. We brought all of the providers in to hearings to ask them why there was a difference between the costs in Roxbury and Mattapan to get the same services that you got in the Back Bay. And as a result, they actually did something to improve that. We had subpoena power. None of the constituent services that work for the mayor have subpoena power. The Housing Authority does, but there's no executive director of the Housing Authority. My recommendation is you bring housing under the Human Rights Commission, which are both legal entities with subpoena power, with adjudication power, with resolution power, and give some teeth and some real expertise to the organization. I don't think there's been a time when we have seen such a struggle for so many. My friend Leonard here, in terms of black boys and men and what's happening to them, they're disappearing from higher education. Why is that? What's happening in the schools? There are so many issues that it is exactly the place where the Human Rights Commission should shine. So I'm thrilled to be here. I am thrilled as a civil rights lawyer to be talking about this. I've spent my whole life talking about opportunities for those that don't have them. So even to be here and to be able to do this, I feel privileged, and I think it's so important. So I urge you, and I think you'll hear from others. I mean, MCAD is a great organization, but has a backlog two to three years. I don't blame them. The staff is struggling. If there's ever a time, this is the time to bring this back as an independent, not in constituent services, independent entity to deal with some of the issues we've heard today.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Lee, you have six minutes.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you to Councilor Culpepper, Councilor Flynn, Councilor Worrell, Councilor Breeden. I'm from Boston, born and raised, wasn't busing. Anyone in this city who thinks the Human Rights Commission in Boston shouldn't be and should be under the mayor, they must be sleeping. I grew up in a very racial tension city. which it still is as I travel around. I'm a former deputy commissioner of public health, bureau director of public health and injury violence prevention, very well known in the community, advocate for virtually any and everything. People still come in today like I'm a city councilor. So I have my finger on the pulse in terms of when people are feeling disenfranchised because of the color of their skin or their sexual orientation. My colleague here, who I highly respect and was one of the reasons why I wanted to get on the commission, because I didn't want to be a part of a circus. So under Walsh, she brought in a lot of talented, educated advocates to be on the commission who will not sit and just go along to get along or get along to go along. Who would really advocate for the little man or whatever the situation was. So I was really hopeful that we are going to change the narrative of this city, one person at a time, where people will feel comfortable about coming to a commission knowing that they may not get what they want, but they're going to be treated fairly, humanely, and it's not going to go because it's offending an administration to the back burner. We did some pretty amazing things in the short time that we were here, And as my fellow commissioners said, one of the things that we talked about a lot was the transgender piece, which was, I mean, it was bad. It still is bad. Another thing was the human rights for black men in terms of discrimination that's been going on forever. But also changing the narrative of this city. I get to travel around this country quite a bit. And people to this day still say the city of Boston is one of the most racist cities in America. And I fight that every single time to tell them that is not the case. However, when I have someone who works for the city of Boston and someone who discriminates against them, knowing I'm on the commission, comes to me and says, I went to everyone and no one wants to hear me because it's offending the administration. It makes me feel like we're just going along to get along and still keeping that narrative that which is going to travel throughout the country. I think we have and had an opportunity to help change that, but But as you can see, and as my colleague said to me, said to everyone today, the importance of having an independent body, being able to advocate for the person who's been discriminated against or treated unfairly is not only crucial, it's necessary. It's humane. But for someone to talk something different, especially with the history that we have, that means we're sleeping. And as I said earlier, we did some pretty amazing things. We connected with a lot of people. And interestingly enough, people would come to us because of our relationships, of other things, because they know our integrity is in place. And they would bring stuff up to us that maybe they wouldn't bring up to other people. But they knew because of our past that we would do something and not just sit around and accept it to make it happen. I mean, we advocated to have a staff so we can get the work done that we needed. However, it didn't make any sense for the staff to report to the mayor. Because therefore, the question that we always had is, what happens if it's from the administration? You can't police yourself. So I'm here. Two reasons, one, I'm proud of my city council for bringing this up, because this is a bold step to maintain something to keep the integrity of our city in place. Two, I want to let people know the importance of human rights, not only in the city of Boston, but throughout the entire state. Because it's happening in our city hand over fist. You can sleep on it if you want, but it exists. So having a human rights commission is just really, really, really important to make that happen. And as the other commissioners who were here, I mean, we just had some pretty amazing people on the commission. And I was listening and I never got a letter to say I wasn't a commissioner. I never got a notice saying that, I looked on the site and they didn't have my name anymore. And I was like, what does this mean? So the way, not only how we were disrespected, but how the city was disrespected around one of the most crucial pieces of the city, human rights. So any questions? At least to my colleague, who I know very well.

Thank you, Commissioner. Attorney Memolo, you've got six minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And to clear the record, I am actually not an attorney. But thank you to you and thank you to your colleagues here on the council for entertaining the MCAD today in this discussion. You know, I do applaud your efforts to seek and to strengthen and improve the adjudication of civil rights in the City of Boston. It's been said before by Councillor Brennan and as well as my colleagues up here, this is truly a time and moment where strengthening civil rights protections is the utmost. I won't sit here today to try to tell any city or town how they should move forward in establishing their human rights commissions. What I will do is give some context from the state side, from the MCAD side of our interactions with human rights commissions over the years. Generally speaking, human rights commissions were established around the mid-80s into the mid to late 90s with the purpose of attempting to assist the MCAD in its longstanding backlog. as well as to create community-based entities that could help address discrimination complaints closer to where people lived and worked. However, in practice, most of these human rights commissions face significant operational challenges. Most lack the necessary funding to support staffing. Instead, they were relying heavily on volunteers to perform functions such as intake, complaint review, witness interviews, mediations, investigations. While these volunteers were very well intentioned and no doubt committed to public service, they often did not possess the legal training or specialized knowledge of state and federal anti-discrimination laws, jurisdictional requirements, or applicable statute of limitations. As a result, complainants experienced delays that jeopardized their ability to preserve their rights before the MCAD or the EEOC. In certain instances, cases were made with local human rights commissions for extended periods of time before being referred to the appropriate agency, resulting in missed deadlines and impacting critical evidence. During the late 1990s into approximately 2001, the MCAD entered into work share agreements with several municipal human rights commissions. That was done to leverage local resources and again, reduce case processing times and assist the MCAD. Ultimately, these partnerships proved to be ineffective. Unfortunately, investigations took substantially longer than anticipated. The resulting findings frequently lacked the evidentiary development necessary for MCAD to record them substantial weight. Consequently, we were required to conduct our own independent investigations, effectively duplicating efforts and expanding additional agency resources. In many cases, the MCAD had to start the investigation from the very beginning. The underlying concept of human rights commissions in assisting the MCAD is very worthwhile. However, our experience has shown that local commissions are rarely funded. are staffed at a sufficient level to perform the complex investigation, adjudicatory, or mediation-based functions that are required in assessing a discrimination case. Additionally, and not true for Boston, as the Commissioner adequately and superbly announced, most HRCs generally do lack the enforcement authority or the subpoena power or the formal investigative structure or established alternative dispute resolution programs to be able to be a heavy hand in anti-discrimination claims. And even further, most, including the Boston HRC, are required by their own ordinances to actually file with the MCAD or the EEOC to ensure the protection of state and federal rights. And just as a reminder, in Massachusetts most claims of discrimination require the exhaustion at the MCAD, meaning you need to file at the MCAD before you can remove your claim to court. This exhaustion cannot be satisfied by filing with a local HRC. Based on, again, our experience, local HRCs are most effective when they are focused on community education, early resolution initiatives such as mediation when available. outreach and public awareness, helping residents understand their rights and the remedies available to them. These functions complement the MCAD's statutory enforcement role and provide meaningful value to the civil rights ecosystem without duplicating investigative and adjudicatory responsibilities that are uniquely vested with the MCAD. As we move along at the Commission, we are about, and I see the clock ticking down here, about to unveil and endeavor upon a great new initiative of online filing of complaints of discrimination. Truly, people will be able to file where they are and at a time that is convenient for them. And we are looking towards reestablishing our longstanding commitment to local HRCs, which is actually statutorily required by our advisory board, and hopefully having HRCs leverage the MCAD's online filing portal to give that assistance to your constituents at the local level and assisting them to actually file a complaint with the MCAD in a timely way. I thank you very much for your time and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Councillor Flynn, you have five minutes.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to Margaret, and to Leonard, and to the Mass Commission Against Discrimination, and to my good friend as well, Cassandra, for being here. So I listen closely to all your public comments and respect the work you have done and worked with Margaret for a number of years at the Human Rights Commission. But does the city, Margaret, does the city of Boston, does the mayor's office unilaterally just have the ability to defund an organization, defund a department if they don't want it? Maybe I should have asked it to the previous person from the mayor's office, but if something is built by stature, established by stature, I should say, Doesn't it mean that it has to continue?

My answer would be yes, you should. But in essence, several years ago, they basically defunded it because we hadn't had a staff for three years, maybe. And the only work that was being done is volunteers was a professor from UMass who was my predecessor, my successor as the chair, who was doing some work in terms of reports. But other than that, there was no one there to do the work because the staff, when they were there, were reporting to the chief equity officer. And then the staff was gone, there was no staff, so there's been no activity at all for years. And what we heard this morning from the deputy chief, those are constituent services. Those are like, I want not a placard for my car because of a disability. Those are not discrimination complaints. that there are subpoenas and hearings and adjudication or even attempts for mediation and resolution. Those are very different, and I think one of the issues with the city is understanding the distinction between constituent services and rights being adjudicated.

I know we had the deputy director of operations that testified. I believe the Director should have been here testifying. In fact, the director, I met with the director about this issue when I was city council president and nothing against the deputy director, but I think the director would have had more knowledge of a lot of these issues because she was clearly engaged in this discussion and it was somewhat frustrating to me that a lot of our questions were just not answered. And again, not criticizing the deputy director, because she just didn't know the answers. But let me ask Leonard a question. And Leonard, and Margaret, and Cassandra. But Leonard, you've been around a long time, and we've had a lot of racial turmoil in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s and 80s. I'm not that old. But here's my question, Leonard. And certainly, we have made progress. But to continue that progress, you need to stay on top of the issue. And you mentioned you travel around the country, and people still criticize Boston. I hear the same criticism, too. I travel to DC in support of disability rights for veterans. And I hear the same criticism. But imagine hearing the criticism and then that person knowing that this is the city that defunded the Boston Human Rights Commission. That's what's apparent to me, that it shows what your priorities are. I just want to see what your thoughts might be on that, Leonard.

Well, you know, I love my city. So I defend it. it's kind of hypocritical in a lot of ways when i tell somebody i'm a human rights commissioner and i'm dealing with this stuff and perception uh 24 7. and not being able to articulate the the commitment that the city has in terms of fighting not only the perception but the to to have somebody where people can honestly feel they're gonna be heard and something's gonna be done at some level. But when you hear, this is not, I'm defunding polls, parking ticket polls. We're talking about defunding an entity that some people lose their lives behind it some people have serious mental issues behind it some people wind up leaving the city and never coming back and the biggest thing of all is the perception that is given to the world so if someone looking through the window it looks like they don't give a damn and so that's really really hard for me You know, I'm not moving. I love this city, and I'm going to continue to fight the narrative around this city is a racist city in the world. I'm going to continue to fight regardless with administration, without it. But it speaks volumes, Councillor, when someone defunds a human rights commission that could be an independent body to support the people who are being disenfranchised at any level.

Thank you a lot. Mr. Chair, could I ask a question?

One final question.

Yeah, I wanted to ask Cassandra a quick question. I have great respect for Cassandra, the work she does in advocating for persons with disabilities. But Cassandra, did you, as a disability rights advocate, did you know the process of how to file a complaint or communication with the Human Rights Commission? Or did you know about the Human Rights Commission? Or did you ever receive any type of briefing about it? Because I respect you and the work you do. And I'm just asking the question is because one of my goals is really to make this more known for all the public. And Cassandra, thanks for being here. I just wanted to hear what your thoughts might be.

I did not know about these commissions until much later on in the beginning of my disability advocacy here in Boston. And I never really got a briefing about how this works. I had to learn through trial and error. And it really helps if people, especially such as myself with lived experience with lifelong disabilities, would be given the opportunity to have the chance to be briefed on said agencies that exist. Because it gives us a lot of time to feel heard and seen and to actually receive helpful support because there's always a roadblock in the way whenever we're trying to go through with fighting for our rights and when we are stuck at that roadblock this is left for us to feel disparaged and to never go through with what we're going after and i hope that answers the question directly i just wanted to answer her just going

Yeah, Cassandra, yes, it does answer my question. You answered it completely, and thank you very much for being here, Cassandra.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Counselor, and Cassandra will have two minutes to testify once we finish with this panel. I want to move to our other co-sponsor. Counselor, we'll avail you of five minutes.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the panel for serving and also being here. I'm lending your voice to this conversation. One of my questions is, you described, and you touched on this a little bit, independent, or you said constituent services versus adjudication. Just for the public, can you just go a little bit deeper on the differences on what the commission was doing based off of what you heard? from the administration what they plan on doing and why that's not the right way forward.

Yes, thank you. The difference is if I'm a constituent services, I can go and complain about something and it may or may not be resolved and then that's it.

Right.

But if I file a complaint, there's a process. which has to be followed in terms of hearings. We can subpoena people. We could subpoena a company. Suppose somebody's being discriminated against by a company. We can subpoena the company to come in and testify. They have to do that. They don't have any authority to do that. And they don't do that. So there's a huge difference between having legal authority to call people in and try to resolve disputes when you have both a carrot and a hook. I mean, both. But here we have the authority to bring people in and try to resolve these things.

Right. And do you see any other? I mean, your time being on the commission, do you see any other city department that could take on that role if the city decided to eliminate The Human Rights Commission. No.

They don't have the legal authority to do that. The only place is the Housing Commission, the Housing Commission, which now actually doesn't have a director or staff. So they're in the same situation. But they would have the authority if they were funded and treated as they should be, like HRC.

And then you spoke about the, well, Commissioner Lee, you talked about how this all happened. Was there any conversation prior to the removal of staff, prior to the consultant reporting out what they think should happen to the Human Rights Commission, was there a conversation between you and the Chief of Equity to say, let's try to do better, here goes the improvement plan, Was there any such conversation?

No, it was disrespectful in a lot of ways. I mean, I just want you guys to picture who was on the commission. We had the dream team of advocates who knew the law, who fought on the street every day, who were advocating for people who were being disenfranchised. We didn't have a bunch of people sitting there eating cupcakes. We had people, once they left the commission, they were doing stuff 24-7. That was their life. And that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to be on the commission. I love being with people who think like I do in terms of wanting to change and make a difference in this community. So for me, to your question, it becomes really, really important to have those conversations, which we never had. It just, we were like, what the hell? Excuse me. We were like, what the heck is going on? And then, well, it's going to be a report here. And I was like, well, do we have a say? No. So we were disrespected not only for us being on the commission, but for our time, for our effort, for our relationships, all that. And we still stay.

And did you have any conversation with the consultant that issued the report? Was there any discussion?

So what consultant are you talking about? There were two reports. One I mentioned, which came from UMass Boston. It's about 30 pages long, and it recommends being independent. What I understand is that there was a $50,000 retainer for some consultant. I tried to get that report, but was unable to. I have no idea what it says.

Right, and then haven't reached out to it. either of the past commissioners.

We haven't reached out to any of the commissioners. I know that because I've spoken to all of the commissioners Leonard and I served with.

And then a question for Executive Director Almonte, and I hope I said your name right. What would you say to the city of Boston who is currently in this, thinking about disbanding or eliminating the department, what would be your message to the chief of equity, city councilors, and the administration?

sure thank you very much for your question um to me i would respond to say that i wholeheartedly believe in human rights commissions i've been with the city of cambridge for six years and i'm very proud of our work and i think for human rights commission to be successful it has to be well funded there has to be staff available to not only oversee the commission but investigate complaints And I'm thankful that when I became executive director, there was already a strong foundation rules of procedure. As I mentioned before, we get funding from the federal government as well. And I think I'm really proud of what we do, but it does require a lot of. Coordination and a clear understanding of our mission and what we're really seeking out to do, which, as I mentioned, is our investigative process, which I know someone else noted that has a big backlog really proud of and I know they do incredible work. think our benefit is we're much faster we resolve most of our complaints in under 100 days and I think you know as I mentioned before the education we bring out in the community the fact that we try to mediate a lot of our cases and we're very successful and that's why we really don't have many public hearings you know I'm really proud of our model and I'm of course happy to continue this conversation To to partner with the city of Boston, which is a really important partner for us to see ways that. You know, it can continue kind of on this path forward to. Hoping to kind of better serve the community.

Thank you.

Sure.

Thank you. Comes up bravely at 5 minutes.

Thank you Mr Chair, thank you all for being here. I came in not having no preconceived notions about what I was going to learn and I've learned a lot this afternoon and I really thank you for your service. I've been looking at not just other other human rights commissions and I just glanced at the the webpage for Cambridge and the Cambridge They have it there that the Human Rights Commission in Cambridge is a city law enforcement agency. That's very different from, as you mentioned, Margaret, a constituent services operation. Could you speak to just how important the independent law enforcement aspect of it is in terms of how a Human Rights Commission could function? I know you've traveled the country educating people about this. In terms of best practices, what would it look like and what do we need to bring back our Human Rights Commission to its full force and effectiveness going forward?

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think the independence is key. It protects the individual who is reporting discrimination. If reports to the mayor's cabinet, the mayor's cabinet is part of a group of people that report to the mayor. This way, that person is protected, feeling they can come forward and be protected. And that will not get back to whoever they're lodging a complaint against. Because there are procedures to protect that individual. So I think it's very important. I don't even think this is sort of purposeful on the part of the city. I don't think there's a clear understanding of the difference between complaining about something, help me with, as opposed to, I was discriminated against and I'm afraid.

Yeah, the difference between constituent services and law enforcement.

Yes, totally. And law enforcement agency is very different than somebody saying, you know, help me out if you can.

Yeah. In terms of, I know you mentioned the importance of community education, and I feel that You know, that's a very important role because I remember hearing a union organizer in Belfast talking to people about human rights to public cleaners in the hospitals. And they said, you've got human rights. And they said, well, what does that mean? And they said, well, you are humans and you have rights. And she said, well, that's the best kept. secret I've ever heard of. People don't know what their rights are. Amazingly, people don't really appreciate their rights until it's really spelled out to them. In terms of good practices in public community education, what's your thoughts on that from MCAD's point of view?

Yeah, thank you, Councillor. We actually have an entire unit dedicated to that. We have a training and outreach unit that is consistently going throughout the Commonwealth, educating individuals, businesses, places of public accommodation, housing authorities and housing providers about what the law in Massachusetts is relative to discrimination. We also partner very closely with all the cities and towns. We have a whole role of Know Your Rights trainings that we do in collaborations with cities and towns. We do leave it up to the municipality to contact us to say, we'd like you to bring this here. But we're out there doing those rather consistently. It's truly, you know what you know, and you only know what you know if somebody tells you. And at least from our perspective, outreach and education is the only way that people are going to understand that an HRC exists, that the MCAD quite honestly exists. I can't tell you how many times we come across individuals that say, I didn't even know who you were or what you did, and that always breaks my heart. No matter how much We do outreach, whether it's through social media. We've partnered with the MBTA for the past many years to do extensive statewide PSAs. So really getting the message out, I think, is an incredibly important piece of any HRC in just making people understand they exist and what services they can provide to them.

I know, again, looking back at other jurisdictions, they sometimes combine their human rights ordinance and the oversight. The Human Rights Commission has a role in human rights ordinance and their fair housing ordinance and put it all under. I think that was my point I was trying to make earlier to the previous panelists. The Human Rights Commission can act as an umbrella organization enforce the law and adjudicate complaints. In terms of, Mr. Chair, if you don't mind, does that seem like a reasonable, given that we are basically cutting back on our fair housing section as well, does it seem like a reasonable way forward to put those two things under the same umbrella as a way to strengthen both and keep their... keep their strength and make sure that those laws are being enforced.

It's one of the things we suggested as commissioners because they're both law enforcement agencies. I think it makes a great deal of sense to have them separated out from the equity and inclusion cabinet and have this as a legal entity housing and discrimination.

We found Because we investigated a bunch of HRCs throughout the country, like in Seattle, San Diego. There was like three or four, actually it was like five or six that we looked at, and some of the most successful models were exactly what you're talking about. I even went to South Africa and talked. When I told them I was on the Human Rights Commission, they thought I was God. Because they said, you actually can enforce something when somebody does something wrong to you. Another example in Bahia, Brazil. If you say something that's discriminatory, you will go to jail. And they're very serious about that, because I was talking to the Human Rights Commission, and I was like, you have been polished like that? And they're like, yes, we take it very, very serious around any type of discrimination. So, again, the model that you're talking about has been proven to be very successful in other cities and towns throughout the country.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Councillor.

Can I just say all of us are available after Leonard and I, Annie Russo, uh, Robert McEachern, all of us who were on a very committed to this and we'll do anything to help you, uh, and provide any support and advice.

That's exactly what I was going to ask. Let me ask you a couple of questions regarding Boston residents increasingly relying on MCAD. What impact is it having now if we don't get the commission back in order to handle some of these cases? What impact will it have on intake later and on investigation and complaint resolution timeliness?

Mr. Chairman, do you mean in terms of the impact on the MCAD?

Yeah, because right now they're referring... Most of the cases are coming to MCAD that would be handled by the Boston Human Rights Commission. My point is, if we keep referring all these cases to you, what's the impact on MCAD and your resources, intake, investigations, and timeliness?

Yeah, it's a great question. And I would say from our perspective, the MCAD is probably positioned as well as it has been in many decades to really be able to weather that type of impact. We have recently gone through an entire statutory reorganization that was passed by the governor and the legislature relative to reorganizing our board. doing certain changes to the position of the executive director, which hadn't existed before, as well as the new commission stepping in and really going and listening to So many individuals that made comments on our procedural regulations relative to really trying to expedite the process, make it a better experience. I think, you know, we've said it, we don't back down from it at the MCAD. We understand it and what the impact of a backlog means. And I think everyone, at least from the governor to the leadership and rank and file in the legislature at the state house, has committed to the MCAD in a meaningful way to try to mitigate any bottlenecks that we've had to make it a better agency. And we're starting to see the fruits of that come to fruition now. So from our perspective, you know, the impact is something we can probably absorb, but again, we do value the local HRCs and the types of, you know, types of information, types of assistance that they can give to people to help us and, you know, to really be a resource for their constituents.

What fundamental changes was made with this recent reorganization?

Yes, so we went from a commission board. Again, we're talking about independence. The MCAD is an independent state agency, so we do not report to the executive or the legislative branch. We have a commission that was formally appointed by the governor. There were three members. We now have a board of five, three of which are appointed by the governor and two of which are appointed by the attorney general. Those individuals are appointed to five-year terms. The chair is designated by the governor and is the sole full-time employee of the commission. The other commissioners are all per diem or volunteer commissioners. Really now the paradigm has shifted to the agency taking control and overseeing the Investigations and moving the cases in a meaningful way with the commission being sort of the appeal board relative to after decisions are made to be the sort of final say on a decision that's made at the agency, whether it's an appeal of a decision that's made to either dismiss or lack of probable cause, right up to still serving as full commission members on those matters that have been adjudicated because, again, we are not only the investigative arm, but we are also the adjudication arm, where we have our prosecutions and hearing officers rendering decisions after full adjudicatory hearings, which are then subject to appeal and review by the full commission. Those were really the major tenants of the legislation. And then to sort of dovetail with that was the procedural regulations and their update. So the commission, the new commission came in. There was a great deal of changes that needed to be made just relative to the reorganization. The fact that the agency was implementing new technology and a new case management system and online filing portal that was not otherwise contemplated under the old regulations. And instilling new, I think, innovative ways to move cases more quickly and get people decisions in their option and ability to remove to court in a more timely way.

What best practices have you seen across Massachusetts for the local human rights commissions?

I will say, not just because the executive director is online, but we have had a great deal of interaction with the Cambridge HRC. They really are committed to that organization, as the executive director mentioned. The funding is there. The staffing is there. They have a solid ordinance and way to enforce and adjudicate discrimination complaints. They've got great leadership, too. And, you know, I think they're one of the ones that we would probably look to and say, you know, they're really doing things well. And, you know, from our perspective, we have very little interaction with other HRCs at this moment in time. Again, it's a priority of mine and a priority of the agency once our new advisory board is impaneled. But again, both the governor and the attorney general have appointing authority for those positions to really get back to our roots and have that board be the conduit and the bridge between the municipal HRCs and the MCAD and strengthen those relationships.

Did you get a copy of the draft ordinance for Boston and I don't want to try and put you on the spot, but take it back, look at it, and then give us what recommendations you think need to be made, whether we're working on it, it's a work in progress, it's just a draft, but we do want you to take it back and look at it, and then we can talk about it after you've had some an opportunity to digest it, even with your general counsel, you may want to share with him. Take a look at it.

Absolutely. And I did appreciate the clause of not duplicating efforts with the EEOC and the MCAD. Again, resources are very precious these days all around, whether at the municipal level or at the state level. So I appreciate that.

Thank you. Commissioner McKenna and Lee, these Both of you can answer these one at a time. What contributed to the Boston Human Rights Commission becoming inactive? What was the major contributions that made the commission become inactive?

Well, I will say quickly, giving the staff and taking the staff away, not giving us the authority to manage the commission.

um and feeling like we're not just placeholders that we have some impact to help support those who are being disenfranchised at any level no i agree when the when we were told that the staff would now report to the equity cabinet we had no authority over the staff anymore so we were going in two different directions, the commissioners and the staff. Let me also say about MCAD is, if I'm correct, there's a significant number of MCAD complaints that come from Boston more than anywhere else. It is a burden on MCAD. And if there were a relationship with MCAD of a very professional staff in Boston, it would help Boston and it would help MCAD. And it would help the citizens of Boston be responded to in a timely manner.

Ms. Almonte?

Yes.

I had a couple of questions for you. Regarding Cambridge, the Human Rights Commission, the role and the scope of your local enforcement authority. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Sure, so the scope of our enforcement authority is detailed in both of the ordinances, our local laws that we are charged with enforcing. So as I mentioned before, the Fair Housing Ordinance and the Human Rights Ordinance, and that details our complaint process, our commission structure, what kind of outcomes are available if discrimination is found, things like that. So those are the laws that we enforce, and then also the Fair Housing Act through our partnership with HUD.

What about damages?

So we can. If a case gets to a hearing, which, as I mentioned, does not happen very often, there can be civil damages that are mandated at the end of our process. So we do have authority. I believe it's. 300 dollars from the date of the 1st, alleged discriminatory act or something, or around 10,000 per violation. But again, that's at the end of a hearing process, we do have authority to issue damages. 10,000 per violation. Yes, I believe so. I'll have to double check, but I believe that's what our ordinance says.

And what about punitive damages?

We do not. I think MCD does. I know Mikey could clarify that for me, but we do not issue those under our local laws.

And with regard to enforcement and education and outreach, how do you balance that?

That's a good question. I'll say that the meat of our work is definitely our enforcement activities. I think our attorney investigator said that even in just the last few weeks, we received about 16 to 20 new intakes, which for, again, a three person department is a good number. And a lot of our enforcement activities are dependent on the kind of cases we receive. So if we see that we're getting an influx of disability related cases or national origin discrimination cases or sexual harassment-based cases, then often we'll frame our outreach and community engagement efforts along those lines and then figure out which, you know, who we should collaborate with to make sure that the public is aware of their rights and that we're a free resource available to anyone who would like to file with us.

Did you get a copy of the draft ordinance that we were working with?

I did, yeah. I didn't have too much time to review it, but I'm happy to similarly provide the feedback.

No, I wouldn't expect you to try and comment now, but I do want to talk to you about that at some point. Take some time and review it and mark it up or mark it down, mark it around, however you want to mark it up. Because we need outside help also, especially from one of the... human rights commissions that we think is doing really good work, especially hearing from the MCAD. Just one last question. Based on your experience, what best practices from Cambridge could Boston consider adopting?

It's a big question. What I'm most proud of is, as I've kind of said a few times, really our ability to you know, remain neutral and thoroughly investigate our complaints so that, you know, as maybe not surprising, a lot of our findings are lack of probable cause because, you know, the legal standard to make a discrimination complaint is a little bit difficult, you know, but when we issue out determinations, we are really thorough and we make clear that we do not skip any steps. And I think we have over time built a lot of public trust that, you Even if you might not get the outcome you're seeking, we took the time to hear you out, made sure that we were available to meet in person, on the phone, with an interpreter on the line. If you want to mail in a complaint, that's fine. We have translated forms. Really just thinking about how can people actually use us and trust that our job is really to leave no stone unturned. um i'm proud of our model again i think we're small but mighty is how i always describe us and i think we're really diligent in our work um you know and i'm really excited that to be a part of this conversation because i think boston is an incredible city and i think as i've said before as well human rights commissions are a really invaluable tool to have um and if there's ways we can support and also lessening the burden on mcad and and making it so that more folks just have another avenue to use, especially now more than ever, which we know discrimination and harassment and things like that, there's been an uptake over the last few years. Yeah, I think just really having like a clear system. We have clear policies, protocols. We lean on the law department if there's any kind of murky questions and really try to prioritize resolving complaints in a timely manner and then always trying mediation no matter what. And we've been, I think, pretty good at achieving those goals.

And who do you report to?

I report to the chief of equity and inclusion.

And how does that work?

So she's my direct supervisor, as I mentioned, we've been restored to the commissioners. Not necessarily so our commissioners are advisory to the city manager and the city council.

Okay, great. And what's your budget?

Our budget is relatively small, because we have the HUD, the head funding, which pays for the portion of our attorney investigator salary about 40 K. we usually get a grant around that much per year and it's dependent on how many cases we resolve. And then we typically, we get an additional grant that we would use for community engagement, but we haven't received that grant in the last year or 2. And then. The rest of our budget is covered by the city.

So you are hard equivalency agency.

Yeah, fair housing assistance program.

Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I'll give you 2 minutes. I want to get to the public testimony.

So I wonder if you could, if you could, we could ask you to see the report that the consultant did. It's not online and I'd love to see what they recommended.

Margaret is that the. Is that the report you mentioned, the UMass report?

No, there's a consultant that was hired for $50,000 to do a report on recommendations about what to do, and we haven't seen it, and it's not online.

No, I know, that's an important topic. I would assume, Margaret, the report is public, although we haven't seen it. Mr. Chair, through you, Could you ask the administration for the report? I will. And I believe it is a public report. It should be, I believe that the report should be posted online. If the city is using city resources, money, to pay an organization to do a report, I think that's a public report.

Council, we will check, and you've got one minute. No, I know, but these are important, though. These are important.

I want to say thank you to the Mass Commission Against Discrimination for helping Boston or for dealing with the cases that Boston should be dealing with. I want to acknowledge that and say thank you. I appreciate it. The residents of Boston appreciate it. Thank you, sir. And let me just ask, Margaret, do you, or Leonard, do you know what the purpose of the report was?

It was to recommend the future structure of the Human Rights Commission. Yes.

Okay.

Our understanding was that consultant was going around the country and looking at models that work and then coming back and giving a solid recommendation how we should structure the commission.

So, and I know we haven't read it, we don't have it, but do you think that report was based on basically the decision of the city to... Defund the Human Rights Commission. Oh, we just don't know Okay, and my final question to Margaret and I have known Margaret for many years Margaret But the way the city of Boston Human Rights Commission Is written into law. Is there anything wrong with? That writing does it need to be changed? Does it need to be updated? and Is there anything that we're missing in the way it was written 84? Certainly times have changed, but what is your recommendation on that?

Well, my recommendation is who it reports to. That's the basic. It can't report to the mayor's cabinet, not to equity. It could report to the general counsel if you want, or just administratively someplace, but it can't report to the chief of equity.

Okay. Leonard, I also want to say thank you to you for the work you have done. Let me just ask one general question to you, Leonard. How important is it to ensure that the public knows about how to file a complaint to the Human Rights Commission and to educate people in Boston about how important HRC is to the residents of Boston?

I think it's essential. I mean, I can honestly say through my network, I know through Margaret's network, once people found out that we were associated with the commission, our phones started ringing. So imagine if we, there was a big education process throughout the city around the Human Rights Commission and its function. It would be, phones would be ringing off the hook. It's crucial to get that information out there.

Thank you, Leonard. Thank you, Margaret. Mr. Chair, I think I only have six more questions.

Well, please submit them in writing and I'll forward them to the panelists. Let me just say this, Commissioner McKenna, Commissioner Lee, Mr. Mimola, and Director Almonte, I really appreciate your Testimony today your commitment to seeing that the Boston Human Rights Commission become active and effective in the near future. And we'll be talking to you and working with you as we begin to finalize the ordinance that we're working on. I think it's essential that we have an effective Boston Human Rights Commission. especially in Boston. And I just want to thank all of you for your testimony and for your commitment to ensuring that Boston becomes a city that other cities can look forward to in terms of human rights and carrying out the best interests of the citizens. We want to move now to our public testimony. Thank you so much. And we'll be in touch about that report. I know what report you're talking about. We'll be in touch with you about that report. And I just thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Working to serve the city of Boston. Thank you. Thank you. Direct them a memo and thank you. Director Monte will be in touch with you. Real soon. Thank you want to call up Carolyn? I think you're there already. Rachel and Heather. Come on up and you can sit in the panel seat if you want. Come on up. We've got Carolyn up here. We're breaking precedent today. We're putting you in the panel. We've got Cassandra. I saw you on your way here. I saw how excited you were to get here, Cassandra. You were walking so fast. You were walking faster than those cars were driving. So I know you wanted to get here. Look. Thank you for being patient and waiting all that time.

Was that you in that car?

That was me riding by.

I was like, he hugged that.

I was like, who is that? You each have two minutes. Look, I really thank you for being patient and waiting all that time you've been here. We'll start with Cassandra, and then we'll go to Rachel, and then we'll go to Heather. Cassandra, you have two minutes.

Hi, my name is Cassandra Xavier, and I'm a disability advocate out of the north end of Boston. And I have a slight concern to raise. Well, first I want to say thank you very much for having me here. I couldn't wait to get here to speak with everyone. But the concern I have to raise is the ethics in which the police department interacts with persons with disabilities, especially when they call for help. In turn, it leaves some of us feeling victimized. And in the end of the interaction with Boston Police Department, it left a not so good feeling. And I don't really have a lot of dealings with the police department. So when I was asked information, a police officer asked me for my social security number. And I was taken back by that question. And because I was uncomfortable and I was a little scared, if I refused to give that, I was afraid something was going to happen to me. And so I begrudgingly gave him my social security number. And I didn't feel good about that because that's very tender information that I don't think anyone needs to be giving out to anyone for any reason. And so we're communicating with the police accountability department in Roxbury to find a way to remove that questionnaire entirely, either throughout Massachusetts in total or all of America in total. Because oftentimes, a mixture of dealing with police as a person with disabilities is always never a really good interaction. So I'm looking forward to working more with having accountability and that question being completely removed when interacting with police. Thank you.

Thank you, Cassandra. Cassandra, was that your testimony?

Yes, if that was your testimony. Yes.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you, Cassandra. And we'll talk more about that offline.

Yeah.

Okay, Rachel. You have two minutes.

Okay, so first of all, I'd like to thank you, Chair Culpepper, Councilor Flynn, and Councilor Worrell for calling this hearing. I like to say that I have several babies, and one of them is the Boston Human Rights Commission. About 10 years ago, I started making calls to Boston City Hall regarding the Human Rights Commission, And then in 2018, I renewed my advocacy and it resulted in the commission being reestablished. And I submitted a blueprint that would explain what its role was, its raison d'etre. There was an educational arm and I felt like while it wasn't complete and I understood that over time there would be adjustments and additions, that I felt that even so that it was a good start. After I submitted the blueprint, I did not hear anything else. from Boston City Hall. Some people talked about feeling disrespected. I have felt incredibly disrespected because I have been trying to get answers about the Human Rights Commission here in Boston for the last eight years. And I don't want to point fingers. I'm going to follow the lead, the professional civil lead of Councillor Flynn. But it's left me feeling discouraged because I think that Boston, given its history, we should have this beautiful, wonderful Human Rights Commission. And I want to kind of give my background really quickly as I wrap up. I trained as a barrister overseas and my background was in human rights. And what led me to focus on human rights is that I'm Jewish and members of my family escaped horrible conditions. in Europe. And so that's kind of influenced everything that I've done. I've done human rights work in Austria, in Hungary, in Israel, in the UK. And when I brought information to Boston City Hall about relaunching the Human Rights Commission, I brought that knowledge, as well as my professional formation, and the human rights commissions that I had looked at around here. So I think it's rather ironic that as a human rights commission, and we're talking about that, that there hasn't been a lot of respect, not only to me, who led the advocacy to relaunch the commission, but also people who have served upon it. And I want to be part of these conversations, because we absolutely need this Human Rights Commission, and we can't expect other commissions to kind of pick up the slack, so to speak. There's a place for it, and we need to make sure that we're educated about it and that we advocate for it and that it functions the way it should. Thank you for your time.

Rachel, thank you so much. And if you could get a copy of the document that you submitted. Sure. If you could get that to us so we could look at it as we begin to draft amendments to the ordinance.

I would be delighted to. Again, thank you for your time and thank you for your advocacy.

Okay, Dr. Cook.

Hi, good afternoon everybody. First off, I want to thank Councilor Culpepper, Councilor Flynn, and Worrell for sounding the alarm on this matter. I took a few notes and wasn't initially, I was really here to support Cassandra, but kind of felt compelled to step forward and say a few things from some notes that I took. First and foremost, I'm a lifelong resident of Boston by way of the South End. I was born into eminent domain and gentrification. came up under the leadership and tutelage of our pioneers and leaders within the community as it relates to advocacy. I have about 35 years of local, state, and federal advocacy, primarily with housing and, more recently, public safety. I also hold multiple roles of advocacy within the community, of which are all free to the community. Even to the space where I have self-funded platforms of culture bearing where I've provided resources and not to mention referred people to this space, this commission space that seems to be defunct. I was very shocked to learn that this is an empty space. I'm not sure if it's gatekeeping, a gatekeeping space or what the purpose is. But some questions that I have are, is funding what's determining the continuity of this space? I see from the conversation that was had with Cambridge that there's an opportunity to share their blueprint. I'm wondering why the Human Rights Commission is not fundamentally prioritized. That's a huge concern, especially since the people become the collateral damage. We have people who are losing their housing, they're losing their lives, they're losing their dignities, and these behaviors that are unjust are just continuing. Um, I wonder why the subject matter experts have been in these roles and if they didn't sound the alarm, why did they not sound the alarm? Um, I'm wondering, are these positions nominal and are these people still holding these positions? If work is not being done in these rooms, I want to know where the accountability is. Um, and now I've heard that there are subject matter experts in these roles and within this commission, but I also want to know who are the people in the community. because we have advocates and activists like myself, yourself, and Cassandra who are happy to step into these positions. It's really not about getting a paycheck. It's about making sure that the city of Boston is a safe space. And so that's basically, you know, I appreciate you all for sounding the alarm. I hope that this is more than just a conversation, because we all know that if there's no action behind it, What's the point of us being here? So I plan to stay involved in the conversation. And if you all need to call on myself, I'm happy to step in. Thank you.

Thank you, Heather. One final statement.

I want to say thank you to both, actually all three panels that were here. I want to say thank you to Rachel, to Heather, to Cassandra, to the previous panel as well, to the administration official that was here, but I do think Boston should have the best human rights commission in the country. Certainly Cambridge has an excellent human rights commission, but I think Boston should have an exceptional human rights commission. We're not there, and I think working with three people right here that want to be engaged and active, and there's other people across the city. I think residents want to see us take civil rights and human rights seriously, whether it's addressing hate crimes or discrimination against people of color, persons with disabilities, people in the LGBTQ community. Boston is a city that we need to ensure that when people come to City Hall, and file a report. It's taken seriously. Human rights and civil rights are top issues, and I'm going to continue to focus and work on those with my good friend, Councillor Culpepper, Councillor Orrell, and all my colleagues here as well. Mr. Chair, thank you very much.

Thank you, Councillor. I want to emphasize that today's hearing is not the end of this conversation. It's really the beginning of the work to rebuild the Human Rights Commission. The council did secure $200,000 in fiscal year 27 budget to continue the commission. And now we have an opportunity to make sure that when it becomes active again, we're not simply recreating what existed before. That we use this moment to build a stronger, more accessible, more effective commission that residents can turn to when they experience discrimination. And one that has the tools necessary. to meaningfully protect civil and human rights in Boston. We received feedback today and the testimony that we received will help us continue working on the ordinance, including this proposed complaint and investigation process and enforcement authority. We want to have hearing procedures and that's the adjudicatory component that we were talking about earlier that doesn't exist right now. And we want to develop a relationship with MCAD and other agencies and resources necessary for this commission to carry out these responsibilities effectively. My goal is to take what we heard today and translate it into a stronger ordinance and a clear path forward for rebuilding this commission. I look forward to continue to work with you and my colleagues, the administration, our panelists, civil rights advocate, and community members to get this right and ensure that Boston has a human rights commission capable of serving residents for years to come. Thank you again to everyone who participated today. And this hearing on docket 1, 2, 3, 7 is now adjourned. Thank you.