BCAT News

Comments made by some members of the Burlington Select Board in response to a presentation given by the town’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee chair caused backlash both in public comments and online in the days since Monday night’s meeting.

The presentation was delivered by Dr. Barbara Jean Addison Reid, chair of the committee, who has 45 years of experience working in Human Resources and DEI at Harvard, Tufts, Bentley and Lesley Universities. She said it was the first report created for the board’s review.

It is a 14-page document with various suggestions for the board and other players in town to act upon, including gathering data on demographics in town and among town employees, creating diversity score cards for town employees, have employees perform self evaluations in terms of DEI and have department heads perform employee evaluations on similar metrics. It also included definitions of race and diversity, the goals and philosophies of the committee, US Census data comparing diversity in Burlington to Boston and the state, a history of racial progress in the country and strategies on how to move forward, among other information. The document contains a lot of information and can be found here (starting on page 34).

Members of the board did not have any issues with the goal of the committee or the report but a few did have issues with how it was presented. Member Bob Hogan, who was particularly forceful in this regard, said the report was less a framework of how to move forward and more of an academic paper.

“Quite frankly I think there are easier ways to say some of the things you have here,” he said. “I looked up a few words that you used. Now I’m a smart guy, I have a Bachelor’s degree, but I looked the words up and it didn’t make sense in some cases, like ‘enclosure’. I looked at the definitions and I didn’t know how to plug them back in. I think we need to get back to basic English and not try to impress everybody with how smart we all are.”

He continued:

“You use a lot of words but what we want to say is that anybody who lives, works or visits here needs to be protected,” he said. “We don’t need to get convoluted and hoity toity. Just say what we want and we have to take care of people and make sure everyone is treated properly. I think we can cut down on this and have a point in the future where we can start gathering and collecting all this once everybody is ramped up on the education of what we’re talking about.”

Other members of the board expressed similar concerns about the depth of the report and the wide range of the suggestions contained within it. Member Mike Runyan pointed to the proposal of having town employees do self assessments and said that would be something that would be part of contract negotiations, which are up this summer.

“I think it’s unreasonable to think that Mr. Sagarino can negotiate all these union contracts in the next three months, particularly with asking every employee to fill out a self evaluation and have it be part of their permanent record, that’s just not going to happen,” he said. “But I’m sure there are some things we can do and make some strides, just not all of it.”

Other members also questioned the need to follow all the recommendations put forward by the committee. In a comment that would also be later questioned Member Joe Morandi asked why such detail would need to be the focus of examination.

“Personally I would like to find out what’s wrong with what we have?” he asked. “Where is the downside, why is this all coming in front of us now? If people are just nice to people that’s the bottom line. I don’t understand a lot of this stuff probably because I’m an old school guy and my father always taught me to treat others the way you want to be treated. I always treat people with respect and have been treated with respect. I don’t understand a lot of this, I’m not against it, don’t misunderstand me, I’m just trying to figure it all out.”

Perhaps the biggest catalyst of the controversy came from the following exchange.

“I could ask the Select Board – why did you create the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee?” Dr. Addison Reid asked.

“That’s not the right question, that’s almost insulting,” Member Hogan responded. “We want to get to the crux of whatever problem may exist. What you came to us with is an academic thesis that a lot of us want to work with but it’s just too much stuff. You need to tune this down if you want it to move successfully through the community side, the business side. There’s just a lot of stuff you want people to drop everything they’re doing to wrap their heads around.”

The meeting soon moved on with assurances from Chair Jim Tigges that the board was interested in the subject and that despite there being multiple perspectives from different entities everyone was interested in moving in the same direction of diversity, equity and inclusion. However, there were comments at the end of the meeting from people who felt the conversation did not advance the cause or was conducted with the level of respect they felt appropriate.

“I had not watched one of these meetings in years but tuned in for the affordable housing presentation,” resident and Town Meeting member Joanne Frustacie said, who added she went to Town Hall to express her views. “What followed was something that made me feel very embarrassed. I’m going to ask if there is a way you have decided how to treat residents. Do you have a dignity or respect clause about how people should be treated?”

Frustaci added she thought the tone of the exchange was inappropriate and wished other members had spoken up.

“I thought that the way this lady was spoken to was really hostile and antagonistic,” she said. “I not only heard things that I was surprised to hear from people but I also didn’t hear anyone else speak up. There’s a see something, say something fundamental around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion so you’re supposed to speak up when you see someone treated in a way you don’t think is right.”

“I can’t be silent either,” Town Meeting member and 2021 Select Board candidate Shari Ellis added. “What I heard tonight, I was horrified and embarrassed. This board represents this town so for this board to sit here and say that this town is fine when this woman and her fellow committee members have put together a lot of information. Maybe it’s too much for you to digest all at once but you could just say that in a better tone. The tone of this meeting was embarrassing to me as a resident of this town and I hope all of you consider that in your future actions.”

“It’s really unfortunate that I’m jumping on this call as I’ve been receiving text messages left and right about the behavior that has been delivered by people in a position of power to someone they have selected to serve them and provide them information in an area where they might not be as comfortable or as educated in” put in Martha Duffield, President of Burlington Against Racism.

Select Board member Hogan spoke with BNEWS in the days after the meeting and said he feels regret about how the conversation proceeded and his part in it. However, he confirmed his belief that the report was not the action-oriented plan that he was hoping to see.

“I expected something different, more in line with being a roadmap for us, how do we actually put into motion and start the process of educating the staff, the contractors, the elected officials, whoever will be the benfectator,” he said. “I didn’t get any of that in this and that disappointed me. My 12 years [on the board] are over and I was hoping to get something I could vote on to show my support – I voted to create this committee. I didn’t get that and I’m disappointed. Doing things in government naturally takes longer and when you wait for something like this and you don’t get it it just takes longer.”

Hogan also said he was unhappy with how he handled himself during the meeting especially since after 40 years in public service, including his time on the Board of Health, as the town’s Veterans Service Director and on the Select Board he doesn’t remember having such an exchange with anyone.

“I was disappointed, I picked a bad day to have a bad day,” he said. “I couldn’t have had a worse day to not be in control and as a public servant you can’t lose control. It’s always been important to me to present myself in a way that this doesn’t happen and in my last two meetings I wasn’t able to do it. I feel bad that it happened. None of us should do that or be put through that. But I was not happy and for whatever reason I just wasn’t able to hold it in. In 40 years I never did that. I hate bullies and I probably showed the worst side of me and I hope I’m not judged by the worst moment I’ve had in public life.”

The presentation of the report was an update and there was no vote taken to adopt it nor was there the expectation for any vote to be taken. The issue will be part of future meetings.