The commission requested the city manager’s office provide a full investigation reports of 12 cases of sustained allegations of officer misconduct and full investigation reports of 17 hate crimes that took place in the prior fiscal year.
WORCESTER—After a back and forth with City Manager Eric Batista about what the priorities of the Human Rights Commission should be, the commission voted Monday to prioritize working on fair policing, the restructuring of the Executive Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and fair housing and homelessness.
Commissioners ranked their votes on what they wanted to prioritize, with fair policing scoring the highest number of points from the commissioners, followed by the restructuring of the Executive Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and then fair housing and homelessness.
While the commission was deciding on what to prioritize for the coming year, it was in communication with Batista regarding a request from the commission for documents related to the police department, according to Commission Chairperson Ellen Shemitz.
The commission requested the city manager’s office provide a full investigation reports of 12 cases of sustained allegations of officer misconduct, a full investigation reports of 17 hate crimes that took place in the prior fiscal year, and that a representative from the city solicitor’s office come to the commission to discuss 12 civil rights cases involving the police department that were settled between fiscal 2019 and 2023, according to Shemitz.
The request was sent to the city manager on Oct. 17 and Shemitz said three days later in a meeting with Batista he told them he was not approving their request for the information and that he wanted the commission to turn its attention away from the police department and toward the DEI office restructuring.
In a Nov. 30 memo that was shared with the commission as well as the public, Batista stated that he takes police accountability very seriously and has fostered a strong working relationship between the commission and the Worcester Police Department.
It is his responsibility as city manager to communicate a focused vision for all city boards and commissions, including the HRC, Batista said in the memo, highlighting that he’s been consistent about his priority to restructure the Executive Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
While he said he stands by directing the commission to focus on the DEI office restructuring, he said in the spirit of transparency the city will publish the bureau of of Professional Standards public records requested on the city website and his office will give the commission the statistics and demographics from the hate crime reports requested “so that they may deliberate solely on that matter.”
During Monday’s meeting Victor Perez, Interim Executive Director of the Human Rights and Accessibility Office and the administration’s liaison to the commission, recounted a meeting he had with Batista discussing the documents the commission requested.
“The manager reiterated that there is the currently pending (Department of Justice) investigation…there is also the ongoing internal racial equity audit,” Perez said. “So in the midst of those two pending initiatives, the manager felt it would be redundant and therefore unnecessary to have the HRC look at some of the…overlapping data relevant to police misconduct and relevant investigations and outcomes.”
Perez went on to say that Batista does not intend to deny the requested information.
“Rather he asked that this not be the Human Rights Commission’s focus right now,” Perez said. “He articulated that this was not about hiding the ball, so to speak, which he hoped was evidenced by the fact that…he is publishing all of the relevant information being requested.”
After Perez spoke, Shemitz specified that she does not believe the commission is receiving all of the information it requested, and that some of what they requested was internal documents that were not public records and would need to be reviewed by the commission in executive session, while Batista specified he was sharing public records and statistics.
According to Perez, Batista is open to the commission and police department collaborating after the DOJ investigation and racial equity audits are completed and said he encouraged the commission’s involvement in the review of internal police department policies.
The DOJ launched its investigation into the department in November 2022 and said the civil investigation will assess whether the department engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force or engages in discriminatory policing based on racism or sex. In January, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau released a report saying the average pattern or practice investigation takes an average of two years to show findings.
In his memo, Batista said his near-term goals for the commission are for it to make recommendations on the creation of a Worcester Equal Employment Opportunities Policy and a revision of the Affirmative Action Policy, pay equity for city employees, the creation of education materials on topics including fair housing and workplace harassment prevention and to assist the division of investigations in the establishment of a formal reporting process for grievances from the public.
“The manager said that he understands that some of the commissioners believe…these roles might belong exclusively to (Human Resources),” Perez said Monday. “He’s not asking HRC to take over for HR, he’s asking the HRC to work with HR.”
The commissioners then discussed what they think their priorities should be.
“In aligning (our priorities) we need to make sure that ultimately what we’re doing is serving our mission…and that mission really is to ensure the equal protection and prevention of discrimination against all the residents,” Shemitz said.
Shemitz advised her fellow commissioners to make an independent judgment, but also advised them to understand what the city manager’s priorities are because if the commission’s priorities don’t align with the city manager’s it’s going to be hard to advance them.
Some of the commissioners seemed confused about what the city manager wanted the commission to do.
“Even though there’s a memo, people still have questions regarding what (the) Human Rights Commission should be doing,” Commissioner Jacqueline Yang said. “And I think if the city manager came, or someone to represent him, to tell us exactly what it looks like, because reading this doesn’t tell me anything and it just sounds like he’s confused himself.”
Batista was not in attendance at Monday’s meeting, but has quarterly meetings with the chair and vice chair of the commission and Perez is meant to act as his administration’s liaison.
Commissioners asked Perez what the current status of the educational materials and where the office stands in terms of creating a formal reporting process.
Perez said a lot of the cases his office, the Human Rights and Accessibility Office, is currently getting are through the city’s 311 line, and his office will sit down and talk to whomever made the report so they can gather information, assess if a follow up is appropriate and determine possible solutions.
Perez is currently the only investigator in the office and said they’re looking to have another investigator hired in the near future and are having discussions with the city manager’s office about what a formal reporting process could look like.
Based on Perez’s comments, Shemitz made a motion to recommend that a high priority be placed on hiring a Director of the Human Rights and Accessibility Office and another investigator so that work to achieve the city manager’s priorities can move forward. The motion passed unanimously.
Ultimately, more commissioners voted in favor of prioritizing fair policing over the restructuring of the DEI office, but both earned enough votes to be prioritized by the commission.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
