April 27, 2022 By Carol Britton Meyer
The Select Board interviewed a number of qualified candidates for positions on the newly-established 13-member Human Rights Commission, naming seven on Tuesday night.
"We've been blown away by the exceptional support and interest shown by residents for this initiative and are excited about moving this forward," Select Board Chair Joseph Fisher said. "The first step is to accept the recommendations [for members from the Hingham Police Department, the School Committee, and other town entities.]
The Commission represents the town's commitment to supporting the ability of all individuals in town "to enjoy the free and equal exercise of their rights and privileges as secured by the Constitution and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and of the United States and to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Town of Hingham."
The Select Board voted in February to approve the Hingham Unity Council-proposed initiative. Board member Liz Klein worked on this effort in cooperation with HUC members Courtney Orwig, Katie Sutton, and Andrew Turner, Town Administrator Tom Mayo, and Town Counsel John Coughlin.
"This is an important step as we create a welcoming and inclusive community and is very much aligned with the community vision outlined in the Master Plan as well as the recommended action to create a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee," Klein said at that time.
The board approved the following recommendations for appointment to the Commission:
Hingham Police Lieutenant John Marquardt, recommended by Police Chief David Jones; Tim Miller-Dempsey, School Committee; Sara Smithson, Council on Aging; Stephanie Gertz, Commission on Disabilities; Ruth Bennett, Housing Authority; Stephen Leary, Recreation Commission; Ava Lydotes, a Hingham High School student recommended by the School Committee; with an Affordable Housing Trust recommendation still to come, along with the remaining five members to be appointed by the Select Board.
The initiative -- which will not require town funding -- stems from the fact that over the past years, the HUC has heard directly and indirectly of incidents of bias in Hingham; studied the need for, and potential structure of, a Human Rights Commission in Hingham; and met with representatives of Human Rights Commissions through the state to learn about their experiences and initiatives.