In Pembroke, the Select Board’s formation of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee has been the source of contentious debate.
It was standing-room only at the library last night as attendees discussed a vote to potentially dissolve the committee.
“I don’t think anyone here tonight is against a DEI committee. What we’re here to discuss is whether or not it’s a government committee, or a private committee. That’s why we’re here,” said Michelle Burt. “Honestly, I don’t really care either way. I want to tell you why I’m here – I’m here because I went to Town Meeting in the fall straight from work. I had a cookie for supper from Carol Dodge, and I was there until 10 o’clock at night. I voted, it doesn’t matter which way I voted. I’m here tonight because I’m upset the Selectmen overturned our vote at Town Meeting.”
On a non-binding article at the October 2021 Town Meeting, 196 people voted against the committee, 173 voted in favor.
The Select Board for the town of about 18,000 people appointed the committee the next night.
Debbie VanRiper, a 32-year resident of town, spoke in support of the committee.
“Do you want Pembroke to be in the news as the town that the Select Board voted to disband the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee five months after it started? You say you don’t want Pembroke known for being racist and unwelcoming,” said VanRiper. “What do you think the perception will be? What will be in the media, and what the hell are we afraid of? How can we not want to look at ourselves?”
After more than an hour-and-a-half of debate, the Select Board voted, 3-2 to dissolve the committee.
Steve Ciciotti, Dan Trabucco, and Tracy Marino voted to dissolve. John Brown and Becky Coletta were opposed.
Marino supported the committee when it was founded. She cast her vote “with great regret.” She was concerned that the committee would not be productive given the situation.
“I’m 100 percent behind the purpose for the committee. I think that the town could use the positivity that the committee could bring,” Marino said to WATD. “I just think that unfortunately, it was not going to work as a government entity.”
She said she has a good relationship with the committee, and believes it still can work.
“I appreciate the work that the group has done. I feel badly that this is how it ended,” said Marino. “They all worked very hard for the last few months, and really putting themselves out there. This was not a pretty committee to put yourselves out there for. I just want to thank the members of that committee, and let’s just move forward.”
Ciciotti said during the meeting that he felt the goals of the committee could be accomplished as a private entity. His concern was the role of government in overseeing the committee.
Brown said he approached it from a public service point of view, and how state law guided him as an elected official.
“The reason why I wanted this committee seated was because communication is key for anything that we do,” said Brown.
He was in support of Ciciotti joining the committee for a contrasting point of view.
“Seeing the way the board was represented at the time, and the Chair [Jessica Bradley Rushing] was really focused on getting this on, for whatever reason she wanted to in the first place. My concern was that I wanted us to communicate, but have the oversight on this committee to see what they’re doing,” said Brown. “So they can be above the board, so they can go through Mass General Law, and let us understand what’s going on.”
Members of the committee said they would build upon what they’ve worked on so far.
Carly Levy was the chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
“I think most importantly, we built some really solid relationships that I didn’t have before. I now know folks from the library, the school, and the fire department. There’s nothing to say that we couldn’t continue doing some of this work together,” SAI I plan to show up at the Select Board meetings and put my comments into the record and start to think about what that could look like. There’s lots of work happening on the South Shore – South Shore unity councils, things like that, that I think we could really do some of the work with, and partner with.”
They hope for more community input as to what they would like to see in the future.
Pembroke Select Board Photo Credit: Lenny Rowe
