Letter to the Editor, Westport News
Date: December 21, 2005
"Out of Synch"
In his letter (Letter to the Editor, December 14, 2005), Daniel Katz takes issue with efforts by TEAM Westport to support Police Chief Al Fiore and Fire Chief Chris Ackley in their recruiting efforts to diversify their departments. He asks, “…why don't those who want all that diversity…leave Westport alone?”
Fortunately, we think, for Westport, his view is out of synch with that of the town's leadership. At least, that's the presumption behind the RTM's recent 29-3 approval of an ordinance making TEAM Westport an official town committee. That approval followed two years of TEAM sponsorship of events and dialogue to promote a more welcoming environment for people of all cultures, races, religions and sexual orientations.
That vote also recognized that, in many ways, we in Westport and Weston live in a “bubble”, a homogenous world in which diversity is not usually part of our awareness, concern or conversation. The "bubble" effect also allows us to assume that people of diverse backgrounds who don't live or work here aren't welcome here, either.
We pay a price for that: mistreating our neighbors and creating discomfort for them is simply unacceptable for most of us. In addition, our kids are growing up with a restricted view of social reality - unprepared to embrace and thrive in the diverse world outside Westport.
Ultimately it becomes increasingly difficult to build as large a candidate pool as we should for municipal jobs.
Those assessments lie behind the creation of TEAM Westport, begun by Diane Farrell and endorsed by Gordon Joseloff. Its mission is simple: to achieve and celebrate a more welcoming, multicultural Westport/Weston community.
Achieving our mission boils down to helping ensure that we as neighbors, co-religionists, business people and community volunteers do right by not thinking or acting out of partial information or commonly held misconceptions. It also means taking that extra step to include new residents of our communities in our daily lives, especially if their backgrounds are different from ours. When we do, we not only live our own lives more fully, more enjoyably and more richly but also provide a more realistic and useful upbringing for our children.
We are delighted Chiefs Fiore and Ackley have asked for TEAM Westport's help in diversifying their departments, and we are committed to working with them. Moreover, rather than "leave Westport alone," we, the town's leadership and a great many others are encouraged that continued work toward diversity and multiculturalism is the right direction for our community's future.
Harold Bailey
Chairman, TEAM Westport
Letter to the Editor, Westport News
Date: December 21, 2005
Tolerance And Diversity Are Worthy Goals
After I read Mr. Katz' letter disparaging Westport's efforts to recruit more minority police officers, I wondered about his grasp of history. Perhaps Mr. Katz has forgotten that Ivy League schools once had quotas on the number of Jews admitted, that certain towns - even in Fairfield County! - were quite overtly anti-Semitic, or that precisely the attitude that permeates his ugly diatribe is what led to the greatest disaster for Jews of this century, perhaps of all time.
His attitude is offensive to the Westport Police, to women (yes, some people who are minorities are also female, Mr. Katz), to Jews (and I'm one, too, Mr. Katz) and to the people elected by the majority in our town who, thank goodness, believe tolerance and diverfsity are worthy goals.
Jane H. Palmer
Westport
Letter to the Editor, Westport News
Date: December 14, 2005
Tempest In A Teapot?
Your Dec. 9 front page article on the Westport police recruiting of minorities is a textbook example of unnecessary hand wringing and the creation of a tempest in a teapot. Further, though the first paragraph bemoans the fact that the department is predominantly white and male, the balance of the piece surely allows the reader to kjnow that the push is for more minorities since women are not mentioned once in the meat of the article on how to attract blacks and Hispanics.
If Mr. Daniels of the town's "multiculturalism committee" (give me a break!) really wants to have an inclusive police squad, one that represents our community, lets go after some Jews to join the men in blue; they are woefully underrepresented and, though none may wish to apply for the job, I'm certain that if enough rocks were overturned and enough financial incentives given (as is suggested for the hiring of blacks and Hispanics) one or two might decide to join hoping, of course, that the department doesn't lower its recruiting standards to lasso them.
After the Police Department is pluralistic enough to represent the entire county, we can work on the Fire Department, the Board of Education, the Recreation Department, the DPW and, yes, the "multiculturalism committee" so all of our town departments and services have a profile unlike the town they serve.
Why is it that some folks who choose to live here think it is their duty to make Westport like every place they left? There are so many cities with diversity in all municipal departments; why don't those who want all that diversity go to one of those cities and leave Westport alone?
Daniel Katz
Westport
Police Recruiting of Minority Applicants Found Inadequate
Date: December 9, 2005
Source: Westport News
by Frank Luongo
Without a change in its recruiting and hiring practices, the Westport Police Department is not likely to change the fact that its personnel profile is predominantly white and male.
Steven Daniels, a member of TEAM Westport, the town's multiculturalism committee, made that assessment in a telephone interview last week about his efforts to help find more minority applicants for openings in the police department.
Police Chief Al Fiore and Daniels have been working on the diversity issue and agree that more diversity would be desirable for the town police force.
"We are looking for some assistance from TEAM Westport to get the message out to the community that we are looking for more minority applicants to take the test," Fiore said in a telephone interview last week.
He said that there are no obstacles standing in the way of qualified minority applicants being hired. "What we are doing is trying to get people to take the test. After that, the openings are offered first to those with the highest scores."
Daniels agrees that steps need to be taken to bring more minority candidates into the applicant pool, but he says that is not enough.
He described this as a "tough way to diversify. The Police Department is not going to be integrated by simply going from top to bottom on scores in making job offers."
This would be especially true, if the town were to continue relying primarily, as he said it does now, on the posting of job openings in newspapers for applicants.
The competition for qualified minority candidates has to be met with new ways of recruiting and offering incentives, according to Daniels.
The fact that Westport is not very diverse to begin with does not provide the presence of a strong base of support for finding candidates, according to Daniels. Given the cost of housing in Westport, he speculated that some kind of housing allowance might be necessary for the recruiting effort.
He said that he is not advocating a quota system of any kind for the hiring policies of the Police Department, but that different recruiting and hiring models should be explored.
"TEAM members might be able to help with a survey of the practices of other police departments that have made a commitment to hiring minorities," Daniels said.
The director of the Westport Personnel Department, Thomas Hamilton, confirmed that its role in the recruiting process has lately been focused on advertising outside the area for police applicants.
"We work with the department in a partnership for recruiting. In the past we have had outside consultants help, and at one time we had a teacher at a community college helping with identifying potential candidates," Hamilton said.
He said that the current police force is made up of 57 full-time union affiliated officers and seven, non-union officers in supervisory positions.
Of the total 64 full-time professional members of the department, Hamilton said there are six females, one of whom is also Hispanic, and one male Hispanic. The balance of the department, he said, is made up of majority-group male officers.
TEAM Wins RTM Vote As Official Town Committee
Date: August 10, 2005
Source: Westport News (CT)
By KIRK LANG
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - Despite minor opposition, TEAM Westport was made an official town committee by the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) last week.
The ordinance codifying TEAM Westport's existence was approved by a 29-3 vote. Helmuth Krause, Judith Starr and Michael Gilbertie cast the nay votes.
Krause had concerns about the proposal and asked an array of questions. At one point, RTM member Ann Sheffer told him the committee, which has been around since 2003, works on establishing programs to make people more culturally aware.
"Do we need a committee for that?" he asked.
Sheffer countered by saying TEAM Westport becoming an official committee "says something about what this town cares about."
The objective of TEAM Westport, according to an RTM Special Ordinance Committee checklist, is to establish an advisory committee to bring together diverse members of the Westport/Weston community to learn from one another, analyze issues, evaluate options and recommend specific actions to achieve, extend and celebrate a more welcoming, multi-cultural Westport/Weston community.
"I'd like to have a definition of multi-culturalism," said Krause.
Harold Bailey Jr., chairman of TEAM Westport, noted that multiculturalism can represent almost any kind of culture or sub-culture, but he noted that TEAM Westport focuses on: "Race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation."
Krause shot back: "Is four multi?" Not long after, he asked, "Suppose at one point we achieve multiculturalism in town, what happens to the committee?"
"There will always be a need for this," said Sheffer.
Krause said he considers Westport a very welcoming town.
"Personally, I don't need a committee," he said. "I feel very welcome."
Gilbertie told the Westport News the reason for his nay vote was not because he was against the concept of TEAM Westport, but rather the fact that the committee was becoming official through an ordinance.
"An ordinance is like a law," said Gilbertie, who added there are many other advisory committees in town that didn't come into being through an ordinance. (RTM Deputy Moderator Alice Shelton said that other committees established by ordinance include the Arts Advisory Committee, the Architectural Review Board and the International Hospitality Committee.)
Gilbertie continued, "Although the committee is of an advisory nature, I see problems down the road, where the committee might advise a certain thing and the officials decline, this could become a very divisive problem."
TEAM Westport was originally formed back in 2003. In February 2003, First Selectwoman Diane Goss Farrell convened a Taskforce on Diversity comprised of Westport and Weston residents. The taskforce was focused on issues of racial, ethnic and religious diversity. At the conclusion of the taskforce in 2003, its participants unanimously recommended that an ongoing town committee be established to "bring together diverse members of the Westport/ Weston community to learn from one another, analyze issues, evaluate options and recommend specific actions to achieve and celebrate a more welcoming, multicultural Westport/Weston community," according to material provided by the Town Clerk's Office.
Farrell accepted all of the taskforce's recommendations and established TEAM Westport as a town committee in June 2003. The request before the RTM a week ago Tuesday was to establish the TEAM Westport Committee by ordinance as a recognized town committee. At the moment, the committee, serves at the prerogative of the first selectman.
Bailey said he was surprised at the length of the discussion prior to the vote. However, he was very pleased by the overwhelming margin of positive votes.
© Westport News 2005
Official Status Boosts TEAM Spirit
Date: August 10, 2005
Source: Westport News (CT)
By FRANK LUONGO
Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - TEAM Westport Chairman Harold Bailey, Jr. is planning to move forward on a number of goals now that the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) has given the group the status of an official town committee.
Bailey does not think of TEAM, which stands for Together Effectively Achieving Multiculturalism, as an advocacy group, either politically or ideologically, but more as a facilitator and adviser for efforts in the Westport/ Weston area to create a more welcoming, multicultural community.
As an example of the approach, Bailey cited a recent meeting of TEAM with Westport Fire Chief Christopher Ackley that dealt with efforts at finding ways to recruit more firefighters from minority backgrounds.
"We want to help the department find people capable of passing their exams," Bailey said, mentioning programs at Norwalk Community College that could be tapped for this purpose.
He is taking a similar approach to the school districts in the area, which have a mandate from the state to reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation in the schools.
In a review of hiring practices for the 2004-05 school year, Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon reported to the state that the district interviewed 25 minority candidates for certified positions, offered jobs to three and ended up employing one out of the total 72 certified staff positions that the school system filled.
With similar results for the same period, state figures show that the Weston School District interviewed 27 minority educators, offered jobs to three and employed two out of a total 38 in certified staff hiring.
At several meetings of TEAM in the course of the more than two years that it has functioned as an adviser to First Selectwoman Diane Goss Farrell, its members have explored ways to help area school systems recruit more minority teachers and administrators.
Bailey said in a telephone interview last week that the RTM vote last Tuesday would also give new impetus to the establishing of an auxiliary group to help TEAM raise funds and arrange programs.
"This will help give us legitimacy in asking for volunteers," Bailey said about the new group that he expects would apply for 501(c)3 status under the federal tax code to be eligible as a not-for-profit organization for receiving contributions on a tax-free and tax-exempt basis.
Bailey hopes that the new group would handle the logistics of public programs like TEAM's involvement in a dockside reception and tour of the Freedom Schooner Amistad, the replica of the 18th-century slave ship that visited Stamford in June of 2004 under the auspices of the Stamford Center for the Arts.
"We've had to piggy-back on events that other groups are sponsoring," Bailey said, indicating that the new support group would enable TEAM to originate and manage more of its own programs.
In the future, Bailey said that TEAM's "Who's Your Neighbor" program, which invites Westport residents to learn more about diverse groups in the community, would function under the sanction of the committee, but be pulled together by the new support group.
"We are interested in finding and providing training for more individuals to become group leaders for diversity discussions," Bailey said.
© Westport News 2005
060415