| Observer-Dispatch
A few weeks after members of Rome’s Common Council held a work session with members of the NAACP, lawmakers are forming an ad hoc committee to address citywide diversity issues.
Helping to level the playing field will be a goal of the committee, said Council President Stephanie Viscelli.
“The purpose of that committee will be to work with the NAACP and other organizations to ensure that that all members of our community have equal access and representation by the Common Council,” Viscelli said in an emailed statement.
Viscelli said council members Frank Anderson, Riccardo Dursi Jr. and John Sparace will serve on the committee.
“This Diversity Ad Hoc Committee is different than others, because it deals with emotions, perceptions, and many other intangibles that are not easily measured,” Anderson said in an emailed statement. “Here we are not dealing with facts and figures, but rather we will be assessing where the community is at the present time, and where we need to be in the future.”
Rome NAACP President Jacqueline Nelson said she hopes it helps make people feel more unified.
“I am happy that the Common Council appears to be stepping up,” Nelson said.
The Rome NAACP is also in the process of creating a focus group to help develop improved policing protocols in the city, Nelson said.
In June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order – along with a package of police reforms – that requires local governments and police forces to enact their own reforms by April 1 to continue to receive state funding.
The order requires the groups to come up with plans to address use of force, crowd management, community policing and bias awareness training. It also includes deescalation training and practices, community-based outreach and a citizen complaint disposition procedure.
Cuomo said the goal of the reforms was to restore trust.
“What police department do you want? Because you’re paying for it,” Cuomo told reporters in June, adding, “The police are public servants. They do what the community wants them to do.”
Nelson said the focus group is in the discussion phase, with plans for a meeting with Rome Police Chief Kevin Beach.
Information from a Gannett New York article was included in this report.
