Residents question human services cutbacks

By Matthew McLaughlin

City residents voiced concerns last week about cuts to the city’s human services commission in next year’s budget.

The city plans to combine three commissions: the multi-cultural, human rights, and women’s commissions. Melissa McWhinney, a Somerville resident and former director of the Human Rights commission, said the cuts will create “beleaguered departments” and diminish their ability to serve the community.

“I don’t think that it will work,” McWhinney said. “The voices of these commissions will be silenced. The essential work they do will be compromised by diminished staff.”

McWhinney, who is also an advocacy director at the Community Action Agency of Somerville, said that as of this Tuesday, the four commissions will no longer be separate entities. Two individuals will now handle the job that four used to manage.

“There is going to be one person handling two or four positions,” she said.

City spokeswoman Lesley Delaney Hawkins said the changes came after Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone evaluated the commission’s structures and efficiency. She said the new plan will combine the three departments under an executive director and assistant director. One job will be lost but there will be a net increase of $12,000 in salary for the commission jobs, she said. “Cumulatively there will be more salary and more hours worked in the commissions.”

The Human Rights Commission was established in 1993 after an incident at Somerville High School when a Haitian man was attacked while using a portable toilet. Since then the commission has been responsible for investigating human rights violations. But due to budget cuts, the group no longer has a full time investigator. With a budget of only $12,000, the commission is forced to prioritize possible human rights violations, said Cesear Urrunaga, a co-chair on the Human Rights Commission.

“The lack of a full time investigator has and will continue to hinder us,” he said.

McWhinney said that while the commissions have overlapping issues, investigating possible violations sets the Human Rights Commission apart and should not be downgraded.

“I think some of the success of our [welcoming] community can be attributed to the Human Rights Commission, but this is no time to weaken it,” she said.

The Somerville Commission for Women will also be merged with the other departments. The commission is responsible for ensuring equal status for women in Somerville. McWhinney said each department will be diluted with the merger.

“I’m worried that in the city budget there will be a lot of things that look good on paper but don’t do much,” she said.

The fiscal budget for the year has been set, but McWhinney said she hopes the commissions are restored next year. Until then, she fears vital departments that help residents will be diminished.

Comments

[Good idea, Mayor]

This is the best idea the Mayor ever had, let's hope this sort of thing continues. Why on earth do we need a 'multi-cultural' or 'women's' commission in the first place? To appease people like McWhinney and make them feel good? These are the sorts of things that are dividing the people of this country. While I'm not sure there's truly a need, I can understand ONE commission dedicated to the Human Rights of ALL. When we start breaking everyone into groups we're merely pandering and dividing and it's counter-productive to all. I'd like to see a report on what exactly these commissions do and what they have done in the past 3 years. People like McWhinney prove to be very divisive to the community as a whole, and I say that from direct experience.

[JPM]

I am flabbergasted that any of these "commissions" are being funded by taxpayer money. If a person is attacked, like the Haitian man at the High School, then that sould be investigated by the police and the DA's office. I am not sure what a Human Rights Commission adds to that. It is simply feel-good PDS type bunk that wastes taxpayers money.

[JPM]

This is what communities should spend taxpayers' money on:
1. Education
2. Public Works
3. Police, Fire and Emergency Services
4. Public transport network
5. Trash collection
6. Roads and traffic

All these commissions should Not be funded by public money.

[Somerville n00b]

Hi all, I'm not sure why we even need a commission for Human Rights. There are plenty of national organization for this. People concerned with human right violations should join and support such organizations.

[Right on]

The comments above are so true. Touchy-feely, feel-good, let's spend more tax dollars.....
To JPM: you are right, and in fact, I believe that the law states quite clearly how the government should function, and you have hit the nail on the head. Our local, state, and national governments have hijacked the tax system and decided they can use it to fund all kinds of other programs, and they have not often been challenged on it. Making people feel good is not the job of the government.

[JPM]

With all due respect the author Matt, the title of the article would make one believe that the average Somerville resident is opposed to the plans to combine three commissions.

In fact I think you would find that the average Somerville resident has no idea that the multi-cultural, human rights, and women’s commissions even exist.

In fact the only person questioning the new police is McWhinney, who is a former chair of one of the commissions, can hardly be said to be a neutral observer.

When times are hard we have to tighten our belts. It is a shame that we are funding any of this nonsense.

[if you only]

If you folks who don't want to pay attention to human rights issues only knew what discrimination feels like, your tune would be very different. Discrimination is a huge issue in Somerville and it generally is affecting those who don't have the resources to fight it or even name it, alone. We don't hear about it because it's something that doesn't get a voice unless advocates step in.

Consider our grandmas and grandpas, who are offered that little annual senior picnic- but no dignity or opportunity whatsoever to guide this small minded, arrogant administration so that it learns how to be less patronizing, more real. Yep, that's our Somerville, and if there's noone to care, that's what gets perpetrated. If you're lucky to live a long life, you won't be immune to that idiocy- won't you want an advocate (like a local human rights commissioner) to protect you when YOUR voice is ignored?

Consider my blind neighbor who can't get down any city street with ordinary ease, despite the fact that he'd way rather listen to his iPod than be on constant alert. That's our Somerville- noone can tell us to fix our sidewalks unless we want to, right?!

Consider intelligent middle-aged people who live in poverty as a result of being turned away from job opportunities and housing opportunities because of their accents. Yep, that's our Somerville- we'd rather make fun of what we're not familiar with, than interact and learn about it.

Consider you, if you in any way fall outside "the norm." When discrimination occurs, it is a sudden event that comes out of nowhere and turns a life upside down. When it happens, there is usually nowhere to turn.

Why do we need a women's commission? Here's one idea- take a look at the disparity in pay and jobs within the City of Somerville's rolls. Many department heads with nary a whit of knowledge about their department's services are raking it in, while the staff who have a clue about how to plan for and provide services are doing all the work- and getting half the salary. Check out who really does the work, and wonder, along with me, how long they should tolerate that culture of unequal distribution of wages and respect. That's our Somerville.

if the city is run to actually serve humans rather than just create spin and PR, then a local human rights commission would not be so busy. Sounds like these commissions are very busy hearing from residents, but have been given no administrative supports. It sounded like what Melissa McWhinney and the other human rights commissioners were asking for is that the city invest in an Investigator that's knowledgeable- so that when discrimination strikes, there's some local skill to deal with it, or recommend, at least, that it be dealt with fairly at the State level. And that the city invest in supportive administrative staff to help the volunteer commissioners be advocates for the whole community.

Hey, and how come the disabilities commission is always left out- don't "those people" count? What's going on with that?

[Somerville n00b]

My take on this is that, if a group of people really cares about a certain issue, they get together, form a more or less formal group and find ways of funding it. Either by donations, or by raising some money. Or just by providing their time and services for free for the cause they believe in.

[My Two Cents]

To: 'If you only',
Obviously the Discrimination Commission is not very effective, based on your comments. If they were, these situations would have been resolved long ago. Again, illegal activity is handled through the court system. Anything else (how people 'feel') cannot be legislated despite the valiant efforts of our resident moonbats.

[Ron Newman]

A few questions about this story:

If these commissions have been merged, what is the name of the newly-merged body?

The article says that four commissions have been merged, but names only three: women's, multicultural, and human rights. What is the fourth one?

Does the merged commission retain all of the members of all of the old commissions that it is replacing?