WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — In just the fourth meeting of its existence and just five days after explosive allegations against the town's Police Department came to light, the Diversity, Inclusion, Race and Equity Committee on Monday passed its first resolutions.

 

One measure calls on the town to re-evaluate and revise the way it tells its own history in light of the historic presence and forced removal of indigenous people.

 

The second resolution demands that the town hold an independent, third-party investigation to look at the allegations raised in a federal lawsuit filed by Sgt. Scott McGowan.

 

The first resolution was an extension of the discussion the committee held at its Aug. 10 meeting. The second stems from a legal action that sent shock waves through the community just three days after that Aug. 10 session.

 

In a three-hour meeting that coincided with an emergency executive session of the Select Board to discuss the town's response to that lawsuit, the DIRE Committee passed a resolution calling on the Select Board to commission an independent inquiry after consulting with the DIRE Committee about who to hire to do that inquiry.

 

The DIRE Committee further recommended that the Select Board make a public statement identifying what investigative actions already have taken place regarding the allegations in McGowan's complaint and identify who conducted those investigations.

 

The four-page resolution also includes a recommendation that the town immediately "extend whistleblower, anti-retaliation and anti-harassment protections" to McGowan and any other town employees "who may come forward with additional allegations."

 

The resolution was drafted by the DIRE Committee's Town Policies and Procedures working group, which includes the only member of the panel who has been a practicing attorney, Andrew Art.

 

In introducing the resolution, Art cautioned his colleagues and community members who might contribute during the public comment portion of the meeting that the allegations in McGowan's complaint are just that, allegations.

 

"The complaint we're going to be talking about is one side of an adversarial process," Art said. "I would like to be careful and cautious that we're referring to things as allegations, notwithstanding the seriousness of what's been alleged."

 

The resolution, passed 7-0 at Monday's meeting, emphasized that seriousness.

 

"The DIRE advisory committee finds that the Complaint makes serious and substantial allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment, multiple workplace acts of discrimination and intolerance on the basis of race and/or religion, and other acts of inequity by employees of the Town of Williamstown," the second paragraph reads in part.

 

Art said that while the DIRE Committee should not get involved directly in the lawsuit, it should address the structural issues raised by the allegations in McGowan's complaint.

 

"One of the thoughts behind calling for an independent investigation is that there's often times a desire to settle litigated claims, and I think a settlement of litigated claims won't necessarily produce a factual record of what happened, which will be important for the DIRE Committee in making recommendations to the Select Board," Art said.

 

When the committee opened the floor to public comments, the discussion Monday yielded several ideas for amendments that ultimately were adopted into the final resolution, including the idea that the DIRE Committee should advise the Select Board on the selection of an independent investigator.

 

It also yielded some suggestions that the committee ultimately set aside: that the resolution include a call for a civilian review board for the Williamstown Police Department and that it remove a recommendation that the Select Board consider whether town employees be placed on administrative leave while the independent investigation takes place.

 

Committee members said they were sympathetic to the idea of a civilian review board and had contemplated "from day one" that the DIRE Committee's work might yield such a proposal. But no one on the committee expressed a desire to see a review board as part of the resolution on the table Monday.

 

"Communities have resisted police oversight committees around this country," Aruna D'Souza said. "I would hate for our request for information and transparency [about McGowan's allegations] to get caught up in a larger debate about what a civilian review board might look like.

 

"I do think there's a wisdom in keeping those two things separate -- both as [Art] said, to get it exactly right, but also not to allow the request for a citizen review board to give people an excuse not to give us this basic information about these investigations by an independent investigator. … In this moment of urgency, this is the right resolution that we can then use as a basis for doing that other work. The civilian review board, or some model like that, is definitely on all of our minds."

 

The resolution's reference to an administrative leave for town employees generated the most debate among committee members.

 

In the end, the DIRE Committee approved the original draft, which, Paragraph 5, says the committee "recommends that the Select Board review Town of Williamstown and Williamstown Police Department policies and procedures, and determine whether under such procedures it is appropriate to place employees on administrative leave during the pendency of an independent investigation."

 

D'Souza suggested that the committee go further, "put teeth" in Paragraph 5 and amend the resolution to recommend that the Select Board place the town manager and police chief on administrative leave while the investigation is taking place.

 

"Given the seriousness of the allegations and given the fact that … this isn't some random thing where the allegations are coming so out of left field that it's unbelievable," D'Souza said. "This is an allegation that surrounds the question of reporting and whether the town manager reported this, when he reported this, whether he took appropriate action, all of those things.

 

"Administrative leave is paid leave. It's not that terribly punitive, but it does recognize the fact that we shouldn't be allowing someone who is in a police oversight to continue in a job where they were in violation of labor laws, which is what ignoring harassment complaints does."

 

D'Souza noted that the DIRE Committee has no authority to carry out its recommendations, but it does have an obligation to push the Select Board to make principled decisions.

 

Bilal Ansari said he thought it could be problematic to throw town hall into disarray in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic by temporarily removing the town manager. Art and Chair Mohammed Memfis said they were uncomfortable recommending such a step at this time.

 

"I don't think our committee has a record of the facts yet," Art said. "What we have now is a complaint document that makes allegations that are very disturbing, but we don't have any facts."

 

D'Souza said the Select Board cannot be trusted to determine whether leave is warranted, in part because it is not known whether the Select Board was part of a decision not to investigate McGowan's allegations in the past.

 

But D'Souza agreed to withdraw the motion to amend the resolution with the understanding that the DIRE Committee could revisit the issue as information comes to light.

 

The DIRE Committee is scheduled to consider its response to whatever statement comes out of Monday's Select Board meeting.