[A] House committee is taking up a bill this week that would create a panel to fight against systemic racism and promote inclusivity in state government.
As written, S.281, which passed the Senate in March, would create a five-member panel and a Chief Civil Rights Officer — a position within the executive branch that would operate independently of the governor’s cabinet.
Under the legislation, the Chief Civil Rights Officer would work to oversee a “comprehensive organizational review to identify systemic racism” in state government, manage the collection of race-based Vermont data and help lawmakers, agencies and the judiciary develop performance targets.
The panel would appoint the chief officer and help put proposed reforms in place.
The House Committee on Government Operations, where the bill now resides, has been taking testimony on the legislation this week and will continue to discuss it in the coming days.
Many who testified have asked that the names of the proposed Chief Civil Rights Officer and the Civil Rights Panel be changed.
Curtiss Reed Jr., executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, who testified before the committee, said the title of Chief Civil Rights Officer should be changed to “Chief Mitigation Officer. “
“When we think about civil rights we’re thinking about the individual as opposed to the collective,” Reed said. “We want to really speak to what this individual and what this panel will do, which is mitigation of systemic racism and racial disparities.”
Reed added that he’d to like to see a provision in the bill instructing the panel to identify the efforts the state is already taking to eliminate or address systemic racism in Vermont.
“Oftentimes we spend our time totally focused on what’s wrong to the extent that we lose sight of what’s right,” he told the committee. “We want to accentuate the positive going into this work.”
He said that the Vermont State Police have already taken steps to address racial disparities with their Fair and Impartial Policing Committee, a body that provides troopers with training, establishes outreach to minority communities, and improves recruitment and hiring practices.
Another department Reed highlighted was the Department of Transportation, which he said has also made strides in its recruitment and workplace training policies.
Mark Hughes, the co-founder of Justice for All, a group focused on addressing racial inequities who helped draft S.281, said there’s still work to be done on the legislation.
He pointed to another bill, H.868, which he also aided in drafting, and said it does a better job defining the duties and responsibilities of a body tasked with mitigating systemic racism.
“When you look at S.281 it is much further away from what it is that what we were trying to get done than H.868 is,” Hughes said in interview.
The House bill would create a commission to take on the issue and more clearly outlines how the body would develop education and training efforts for state employees and others, Hughes said.
Under the legislation, the commission would create a training program for government agencies, public schools and the general public “regarding the nature and scope of systemic racism and the institutionalized nature of race-based bias.”
“I think the best approach would be to look to H.868 for original intent,” Hughes said.
The House bill also include provisions that would require the state to collect and distribute data about police use of force during traffic stops and require law enforcement agencies to adopt a use-of-force, de-escalation and cross-cultural awareness policy.
Rep. Maida Townsend, D-South Burlington, said it’s too soon to know when the House Committee on Government Operations, which she chairs, will vote on the Senate bill.
But she said she expects the committee will take some sort of action on the bill this session.
