Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Engagement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Northampton commission sets tasks on outreach, interviews and Juneteenth funding; administrative assistant posting underway
Summary
Members agreed to continue work on community interviews and surveys, to locate existing contact lists, to prepare outreach documentation (spreadsheet of venues and response counts), and to consider using commission funds (current balance $16,002.35) to support youth Juneteenth activities while clarifying legal parameters for accepting external funds.
The Northampton Reparations Study Commission assigned tasks to resume community engagement work and discussed short-term support for Juneteenth and youth programming while an administrative assistant is hired.
Commissioners said the next phase of continued study — surveys and interviews — was contingent on administrative support but should not be stalled. "We could give ourselves till the next meeting to see where we are with the admin assistant and then starting up the interviews after that," Commissioner Renika Montgomery Tamakloe said, noting she has been trying to locate previous interview lists from earlier commission work.
Commissioner Kit Perry and others urged clear documentation of outreach methods and results so future commissioners can build on the record. Perry suggested a public spreadsheet tracking where outreach occurred (digital outreach, posters, laundromat, public housing), response counts and other non‑identifying metrics. "I don't need to know people's personal ... just maybe numbers," Perry said, recommending that outreach entries be public records but scrubbed of private data.
On Juneteenth, Perry reported the youth subcommittee has been working on outreach, artists and a website; commissioners discussed using existing commission funds to support the youth effort and exploring grants. The chair reported the commission's remaining unrestricted balance as $16,002.35 and recommended adding a budget line and legal guidance so the commission can accept external public and private funds. Commissioners agreed to include discussion of legal parameters with City Solicitor Sewall at the next meeting.
What was decided: Renika agreed to work on draft language for the H.1753 recommendation and to pull together existing contact lists; the chair and Commissioner Newman offered to resurface prior lists and to contact academic groups and former chairs for archival materials. The commission agreed to place budget, staffing and open‑meeting/subcommittee rules on the February agenda and to circulate the administrative‑assistant job posting to commissioners once HR confirms the link.
Next procedural step: Draft language and outreach lists to be circulated before the February meeting; solicitor Sewall will be asked to advise on open meeting law, public records, conflict of interest and rules for subcommittees and accepting external funds.
