Two weeks after adopting a townwide policy for responding to immigration enforcement actions in Southold, the Southold Town Board established a new permanent committee Tuesday evening charged with examining “the health, safety and welfare concerns associated with federal immigration policy and to examine and adivse the Town Board on “all proposed federal, state and local legislation.”
Pictured Above: Members of Southold Town’s Public Safety Task Force at a July 29 Town Board meeting.
The resolution, adopted unanimously Sept. 9, also disbands the volunteer Public Safety Task Force, which advised the town earlier this year on a policy for how town police will respond to outside law enforcement agencies acting within the town’s boundaries, after a series of chaotic immigration raids in Greenport over the course of the past year.
The first resolution, adopted Aug. 25, provided an overview for the public of town police’s new “outside agency policy” governing how Southold Police will interact with other agencies operating within the town, how police will communicate that information with town officials and how town officials and the new Public Safety Committee will review and respond after any incidents.
The new, 13-member volunteer Public Safety Committee would have a similar composition to the Task Force, with two representatives from the town’s Anti-Bias Task Force; two members of the town’s Police Advisory Committee; two members of the town Police Department, including the town’s School Resource Officer; the town’s Spanish-speaking Community Liaison; one representative from a school district; one elected official from the Village of Greenport; one community business leader; one representative of a house of worship and two town board liaisons, one from the Anti-Bias Task Force and one from the Police Advisory Committee, who would serve as co-chairs.
The committee would meet quarterly, and more often on an as-needed basis.
It would also work with the Police Department “to develop educational materials explaining (police) procedures, what residents can expect from the department during outside agency operations and how to report through 911 or police headquarters.”
It would also be charged with ensuring those materials would be distributed “with attention to language accessibility.”
The members of the committee have not yet been established, but Town Board members recommended at the Sept. 9 work session that the town send letters to people it would like to serve with a reply-by date of Oct. 15, with the committee expected to meet for the first time in November “regardless of whether we have a full complement” of members, said Town Supervisor Al Krupski.
The board also agreed to reach out to the town’s Economic Development Committee for help finding a business representative, and to a local clergy group for help finding a clergy member.
Board members stressed the urgency of getting the committee established as soon as possible, though committee members would in the long run be appointed for one-year terms at the Town Board’s annual organizational meeting in January.
“If we have an incident reported next week, I think this committee should exist,” said Councilwoman Anne Smith.
While it is unusual for Town Board liaisons to serve as chairs of town committees, board members said they believed this committee would be unique in that it was responsible for being a component of a chain of information from the Police Department through the Town Board to the Committee.
“They could still be non-voting members of the committee,” said Town Board Member Alexa Suess.
Board members also stressed the importance of making committee meetings open to the public, with agendas and minutes, and subject to open meetings laws requirements for transparency.
The lack of such transparency in the original Task Force has been the source of much public criticism.
“I would like to than everybody on the board who worked so hard on this, and everyone on the Public Safety Task Force for their input,” said Ms. Suess as the board unanimously voted to create the committee Tuesday evening.
Keep Independent News on the East End
The Beacon is able to provide all of our content online free of charge thanks to support from our readers. Be a vital part of keeping our community informed!
Advertisement
