In a surprise reversal during Monday night’s Town Council meeting, Ward 3 Councilman Ellsworth Tolliver withdrew his motion to support Ordinance 07-2020 to create a Chestertown Human Rights Commission.
“The only thing I have to say about it is that because the ordinance has gotten so far from what it was intended to be, I’d like to make a motion to withdraw it until a later time when it could be put together in the way it was first intended,” Ellsworth said.
A four-month effort by the Council, the ordinance was grounded in Tolliver’s September Resolution “Chestertown Unites Against Racism” and its “commitment to establish a human rights commission” to address racial injustice.
The initiative went through several rewrites to expand the definition of protected rights to include age, race, disability, religion and sexual orientation.
At that point, Tolliver voted against sending the ordinance to committee.
The next several weeks brought about agreement between Tolliver and the Council and the final version of the expanded ordinance was expected to pass during the December 7 meeting.
But that was not to be. Reviewing the ordinance over the last few weeks, Tolliver decided that it no longer represented the original intention.
The motion was withdrawn in a 3-1 and one abstention vote by the Council.
Further consideration of a Human Rights Commission remains to be seen. As Barbara Jorgenson pointed out in an email to the Spy and Council, the issue was not tabled as mentioned by Mayor Cerino— has been withdrawn.
After the vote, Cerino accepted public input.
Barbara Reeder called in urging the Council to withdraw the motion to pass the HRC. She said that it was counterproductive and the Town’s pledge to unite against racism doesn’t need to be supported by a human rights commission.
“It’s going to take the town working hand in hand in glove to work with the community of color and giving them a leadership role to identify meaningful, collaborative issues to further the original purpose of the Human Rights Commission.”
Reeder listed points she feels would serve the town better, including: increase the number of people of color on all boards and commissions; publish a history of the Chestertown African American Community; dedicate more in-town property for more affordable housing; establish and support minority owned businesses, and enroll town officials in a racial awareness program.
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Francoise Sullivan says
As a non-Chestertown resident I would like to see the Human Rights Commission be taken up by the County and include all of Kent County. Perhaps the silver lining in this delay will be a move in that direction.
Paula Reeder says
Councilman Tollivers motion to withdraw a Human Rights Commission Ordinance that whould have substituted a Commssion chartered to address all forms of discrimination affecting anyone who sets foot in Chestertown for one he had specifically designed to fight and redress racism was a courageous rejection of a Faustian bargain. To fulfill its pledge to unite Chestertown against racism, Town governement will need to collectively accept that racism and discrimination are not synonymous, that the principal victims of racism are people of color and that our community of color must enlisted to play a leading role in defining and implemmenting appropriately targeted and enduring remdial action.