Pittsfield Councilors Requested, Not Required, to Take Cultural Competency Training
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — City councilors will go through cultural competency and implicit bias training — if they want.
The council unanimously approved a petition from Councilors Helen Moon, Donna Todd Rivers, Youth Alive Executive Director Shirley Edgerton, and local NAACP branch President Dennis Powell requesting that all councilors go through the training aimed to help interact effectively with people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Moon felt that councilors should be given "another tool in our toolbox" for best serving all constituents in the city.
The city's demographics have been growing more diverse and the Pittsfield has been sending all of its employees through the training. Moon and Rivers had both taken trainings at some points in their careers and felt it provides a huge benefit.
"They helped me communicate effectively through barriers of language and culture," River said, adding that the training had made her not only a better human being but also a better councilor.
Edgerton provides four-hour seminars in the schools already and it has been a big push in recent years in the School Department.
Mayor Linda Tyer recently ramped up her efforts to do the same on the city side and said some 200 employees have taken the course. Tyer said the administration has made it a requirement of all employees.
The seminars focus on making participants aware of their own individual bias and reactions to people of another culture, discusses attitude, knowledge, and skills, and the implicit bias piece teaches about "automatic, unintentional, deeply engrained [sic], universal, and able to influence behavior," according to the petition.
While the vote was unanimous, some councilors voiced concern over whether or not they will be forced to take it every year. Moon said her intention was to make it a requirement and have it done annually but the petition only reads that councilors are requested to take a training.
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Simonelli questioned whether the City Council has the right to impose such requirements on elected officials.
"I don't think you can legislate what a city councilor can and cannot do," Simonelli said.
Simonelli said even if it is required, there are no consequences. It's not like the legislative body can have a councilor removed from the seat.
"How you interact with your constituents is what depends on whether you get re-elected or not," Simonelli said. "If you are treating people poorly or not in a respectful manner, then you shouldn't get re-elected."
Council Vice President John Krol said he'd support the petition because it doesn't have a requirement and the training is useful, he said. He added that just because someone is elected to the government position doesn't mean the councilor is "culturally competent."
Moon added that not all of the residents in the city vote and they have to be represented as well.
Councilor at Large Melissa Mazzeo said she understands the value of taking the training and looks forward to taking it herself. But she feels requiring others to do so is out of her bailiwick.
"I don't like to sit here and delegate and dictate what people should do," Mazzeo said.
The issue was also addressed during the open microphone session with residents Terry Kinnas and Alexander Blumin opposing it altogether. Kinnas called it an effort to limit the diversity of thought among the council and said it would be "awful" and potential ethics violation to require it. Blumin called it "Democratic Party training" and declared it unconstitutional.
"You cannot impose your beliefs on my beliefs," Blumin said.
The council's conversation would later dovetail into whether appointed officials would be required to do so as well. Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi said those board members are volunteers and it is already difficult enough for someone to find the time to devote to the seats.
The conversation continued for a lengthy period of time Tuesday with councilors sharing their own personal stories, interactions, and experiences in the training.
But as a whole, the group struggled to get past the idea of whether the training would be a requirement.
"Most of us agree it is good training. It is a request. I don't see anywhere where it says required. I think we should move on," At Large Councilor Earl Persip said at one point, urging the council for a vote.
Rivers then amended the petition to remove the "yearly" aspect of it in hopes to reach a consensus vote, to which nearly all of the councilors agreed with only Moon and Krol in opposition. The petition requesting the councilors take the courses then passed easily.
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