WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — One of the co-authors of an equity resolution passed by town meeting in 2020 met last week with the Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee to talk about the resolution's implementation in its first two years.

 

Huff Templeton drafted Article 37 on the 2020 annual town meeting warrant along with then-Mount Greylock Regional School students Tashi and Krishin Rai.

 

The DIRE Committee invited Templeton to sit down with the panel to talk about the article and, specifically, the quarterly reports it requires of all town "boards, committees, and agencies."

 

Article 37, drafted and passed at around the time the DIRE Committee itself was coming into being, required that those reports be shared with the then-unnamed committee and the community at large "to address progress towards the … goals" outlined in the article.

 

"We wanted to try to have something more tangible we could work with," Templeton said. "I know some of the criticisms of the article were that it was intangible, but the nature of this work is intangible. This, I think, is a more tangible form of an intangible topic, which is: How do we make our town more welcoming to [Black, indigenous, people of color], traditionally marginalized people, and what steps can we take?"

 

Templeton said his professional background in management led him to pursue a path that outlined deliverables that could be measured over time, helping the town continue its work on equity and inclusion in the long term.

 

He noted that Article 37, at the time, had buy-in from the sitting town manager and two of the elected boards, the Select Board and Planning Board, which is called out by name in the article's second paragraph.

 

The reports, which are spelled out in the sixth and concluding paragraph, ought to include information on four main points, Templeton said.

 

"The questions are laid out," he said. "Point 1 says, critically reexamine and create policies. Point 2 is about housing, which doesn't apply to every committee. Point 3 is about how to get more community input; that one applies to every committee. Point 4 is [equity] training. The report doesn't have to include all the previous training done, just the training since the last report."

 

Templeton said that Article 37 was intended to address town government.

 

"Article 37 says people who work for the town or have a public office in the town have a higher level of responsibility," he said. "This has nothing to do with the average citizen. We're not trying to force training on average citizens. We're saying that if you're going to be part of the town government, you need to represent what this [article] embodies, which is a welcoming disposition."

 

In recent weeks, the DIRE Committee has discussed how it should evaluate the reports it receives.

 

According to a spreadsheet on the committee's page of the town's website, DIRE has received eight reports as of its Jan. 3 meeting; the Select Board was scheduled Monday to consider its third Article 37 report, which would make nine in all.

 

As a rule, the DIRE Committee has not discussed the previous reports in a committee meeting or taken action on them.

 

On Tuesday, it finalized a plan to create a "task force" of up to three members of the committee and invited members of the community to analyze the reports and report back on findings.

 

Of continued concern to the DIRE Committee is the number of town boards and committees that have not complied with Article 37.

 

There are 16 town-specific boards and committees listed on the DIRE Committee's tracking spreadsheet (it also includes a few regional entities over which town meeting has no authority, like the Mount Greylock Regional School District). Of those 16, just four have submitted reports to date, according to the spreadsheet: the Select Board, Affordable Housing Trust Board, Finance Committee and Milne Library Trustees.

 

"I think one of the things at play here is Article 37, and the way it was presented, had a baseline assumption that there would be a broad number of groups and committees involved in the work of reflecting on progress toward diversity and reflecting on possible structural racism in their own work," DIRE Committee member Andrew Art said. "I think there's a disconnect among various committees … who don't see their responsibility involving anything Article 37 speaks to.

 

"Should DIRE try to engage with different committees about why this work is within their scope?"

 

Templeton answered that the DIRE Committee should do just that and recommended it start by reaching out to the chairs of various committees to encourage their respective bodies to comply with the resolution.

 

"If we don't act like it's important and you guys don't act like it's important, it's not going to happen," Templeton said. "Quarterly means quarterly. I don't know how else to say that.

 

"At the time, the town manager [Jason Hoch] committed resources to get it done for all of his departments. If it didn't get in the budget, it needs to get in the budget for next year. These are commitments that were made, and we need to hold people to their commitments. Just because committee chairs change or the members of these committees change, it's no excuse.

 

"Government should run with some continuity."

 

Templeton said that outreach to various boards does not need to be adversarial, and added that the goal is not to embarrass committees that have not engaged in training but instead direct them to sources for training, like Multicultural BRIDGE (Berkshire Resources for Integration of Diverse Groups through Education) in Lee.

 

"There are tools you can use to put pressure on all of us and keep us all accountable," Templeton said. "It isn't about power here. It's about needing information from people. We can't do this without everyone mentioned in here doing it."