Thread: Danbury, CT: City move 'racially motivated'

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City move 'racially motivated'
Common Councilwoman says race clouds Danbury dealings with Hispanic Center
By Eugene Driscoll Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/05/2008 10:43:50 AM EDT

DANBURY -- A Republican on the Common Council said race played a part in the council's decision not to restore about $25,000 in funding to the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury.

"I think it was all racially motivated," Jane Diggs said during Tuesday's Common Council meeting.

Diggs, who is black, also said members of her party used "secretive" and "underhanded" tactics in its dealings with the Hispanic Center.


Background

Last year, members of the Hispanic Center's board of directors asked the city to freeze funding for the nonprofit agency while it re-organized and searched for a new executive director.

Maria-Cinta Lowe -- an outspoken advocate who constantly clashed publicly with Mayor Mark Boughton over the mayor's crackdown on illegal immigrants living in the city -- left her position as executive director at the center amid the re-organization.

The Common Council, according to Diggs and fellow Republican Common Council member Robert Riley, promised to restore the funding once the Hispanic Center got its house in order.

In the past year, a new board of directors took over the Hispanic Center and a new director, Eva Colon, was brought on board.

Colon, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has repeatedly told members of the Common Council that the Hispanic Center is no longer interested in criticizing city government. Instead, it concentrates on helping immigrants assimilate into the community with programs such as English as a second language.

Promise broken?

However, during the debate leading up to a February Common Council vote to enroll city police in "ICE ACCESS," a program that trains officers in federal immigration law, the Hispanic Center's board of directors purchased an advertisement in The News-Times expressing concerns with the program.

That angered members of U.S. Citizens for Immigration Law Enforcement, a Danbury group that advocates for mass deportations of all illegal immigrants.

The controversial group -- one of its members wore a mask over his mouth during a 2005 immigrants rights' march down Main Street, telling reporters he did not want to catch disease from "the illegals" in the crowd -- was born in 2005 out of residents' frustration with the federal government's failure to secure U.S. borders.

Elise Marciano, a Danbury resident and the group's co-founder, sent a letter to the Common Council in March urging elected officials to withhold money from the Hispanic Center because it "publicly advocates against our government enforcing laws."

Hispanic Center officials said the advertisement was privately funded and was not purchased with taxpayer money.

Marciano's argument apparently held sway with Common Council President Joe Cavo, who, during a Common Council ad hoc committee meeting May 22, repeated Marciano's statement almost verbatim, according to minutes from the meeting.

Cavo's statement has raised concerns about First Amendment rights among some city residents.

"People are allowed to speak out about things. That is our right as citizens," said Eileen Cipolla, an accountant who supports the Hispanic Center. "I don't think they should be penalized because they didn't agree with a program the city of Danbury wanted to provide."

The May 22 ad hoc committee meeting was a fateful meeting for the Hispanic Center, as the committee recommended the city not fund it -- a recommendation followed by the Common Council on Tuesday with a 16-5 vote.


Fractured Republicans

The Hispanic Center saga caused Diggs, who represents the city's 7th Ward, to start reading a three-page prepared statement into the record at Tuesday's Common Council meeting -- a statement she did not finish after she was interrupted by Mayor Mark Boughton, who warned that she was venturing off the topic at hand.

Specifically, Diggs complained that the Common Council ad hoc committee meeting May 22 dealing with the Hispanic Center funding was deliberately not advertised -- a statement disputed by her fellow Republicans and the city's corporation counsel.

According to the state's Freedom of Information Act, an agency is required to send notice of its meeting at least one week before the meeting to any person who makes a written request.

Each agency is supposed to make its agenda available 24 hours before the meeting.

While several members of the Common Council said they did not know about the ad hoc meeting, members of Marciano's group attended it.

Diggs said fellow Republicans and City Clerk Jean Natale "included persons they wanted in this ad hoc meeting, including people who downplay the importance of diversity within the city."

Diggs said politicians chose who knew about the meeting and who didn't know about the meeting.

"This is the Common Council. It is not a club. You do not exclude me because I don't have the same views as you," Diggs said.


Natale responds

Natale said Diggs is "entitled to her opinion" and denied working in conjunction with Marciano's group.

Several Democrats on the Common Council also said they were not notified of the ad hoc meeting, which they usually receive through an e-mail from Natale or see on the home page of the city's Web site.

However, Natale said the meeting notice was posted on the third floor of City Hall, in addition to being posted outside City Hall four days prior to the meeting. Natale said the meeting was also listed on an inside page on the city's Web site, a statement with which Diggs does not agree.

Diggs says she checks the home page of the Web site every day and that the notice of the ad hoc meeting never appeared on the front page under "today's meetings."

The ad hoc meeting was not included in a courtesy e-mail Natale sends to notify elected officials of Common Council meetings coming up in City Hall. That is because the meeting was organized after Natale's e-mail was sent, the city clerk said.

"All the council people that were (at the May 22 ad hoc meeting) obviously did their homework and got to the meeting," Natale said.

Meanwhile, Marciano said the political activity of the Hispanic Center's previous regime was violating rules that govern nonprofit groups.

"Put one thing down: We are not racists," Marciano said.

Regarding how she knew about last month's ad hoc meeting while several Common Council members did not, Marciano said:

"All I did was call Jean Natale and ask her when the meeting was being scheduled. She told me. I told my people, 'It's going to be on that day. If you can make it, be there.'"


Different standard?

In an interview Wednesday morning, Diggs said the Hispanic Center was held to a different standard than the myriad of other nonprofit agencies to which the city donates money.

The Association of Religious Communities (ARC) also purchased a "statement of concern" about the ICE ACCESS program that was published in The News-Times.

However, Diggs said the Common Council chose to give money to ARC again, albeit not as much as the nonprofit agency requested.

The difference? The Hispanic Center helps people of color, Diggs said. She said there is a "small, core group" of Danbury residents "who are still living in the '60s."

"My comment is that we need to get ourselves acclimated to the changing demographics of our city," Diggs said.

Democrat Duane Perkins, the only African-American on the Common Council, also had problems with the ad hoc process.

When asked if he agreed with Diggs' comments about the council, Perkins, who is running for a seat in the state Senate, said:

"She is a woman of strong conviction, and I'm sure she believes that to be true. It concerned me that the process upset people on both sides of the dais."

Cavo said the decision about Hispanic Center funds had nothing to do with race; rather, the Hispanic Center did not receive funding because of:

ä The center's history of butting heads with city officials.

ä The city's search for ways to save money in a bad economy.

ä The impression that the center would be fine without a contribution from Danbury taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Diggs said she doesn't regret her comment and hopes it opens a dialogue in Danbury. She is now "ready to move on."

"I'm a product of the '60s. I'm a product of segregated schools. I won't compromise my integrity by going along with this one," she said.

Jean Hislop, a Danbury resident who advocates for immigrant rights, said May's ad hoc meeting was "obviously" kept secret.

"If we knew about it, we would have brought people out to support the Hispanic Center," she said. "We would have been there. How is it that members of the Common Council didn't know about the meeting, but Elise Marciano and her group did?"

Hislop also does not buy the argument that the Common Council refused the funding because of the Hispanic Center's alleged political activity.

"How can they be using taxpayer money to advocate against Danbury when the Common Council cut their funding last year?" Hislop said. "Agencies are being intimidated and there is a racist, anti-immigrant agenda operating within City Hall."

http://www.newstimes.com/ci_9486295

..how about just not funding it because the City shouldn't be funding any ethno-centric group? That is, the City shouldn't be giving funds to a group based on the ethnicity of the clients it serves.

legalatina, amen. That says it all. I know for a fact that if someone started an "Anglo Center" and wanted city, county, state or federal funds to promote it's "Anglo" agenda, there would be a huge "NO" and outcry from all sorts of other ethno groups, so what makes their situations different?

We are in the land of the free, but so long as we fund racially divisive groups with taxpayers money, then I as a taxpayer am not free, but a captive to government forced ethnicity programs, to which I will never benefit from.

Danbury has been having problems with illegal aliens for awhile now. I believe that a few years ago the mayor wanted to deputize state troopers to help with immigration matters. Not sure what the result was.