This article by Jordan Cuddemi was published by the Valley News on Sept. 3
HARTFORD — The Selectboard on Tuesday night said it will let voters decide whether to adopt a formal ordinance that governs communication between town employees, including police officers, and federal immigration authorities.
The board’s decision to put the topic to the voters marked another turning point on the immigration issue, which has been the subject of intense public debate in Hartford since June.
While the initial vote Tuesday night to put the issue before residents rather than having the board make a sweeping change was unanimous, there was disagreement among board members over what exactly voters would cast ballots on.
The article that will be put before voters at Town Meeting on March 3 will read: “Shall the Town of Hartford advise the Selectboard to adopt the Welcoming Hartford Ordinance, dated September 3rd, 2019.”
That version of the ordinance does not include legal language — known as a savings clause — that some town officials, including Town Manager Brannon Godfrey, said was necessary.
Godfrey and others have said without the clause, the town’s employees, including police, run the risk of violating federal law and the town’s federal funding could be at risk.
Immigration rights activists, meanwhile, had urged the board to adopt an ordinance — or amendments to the town’s existing Fair and Impartial Policing policy — without the saving clause, which they said would only serve to weaken the document. The goal has been to further limit or forbid communication between local police and federal authorities about a person’s immigration status.
The motion to present the ordinance to voters without the savings clause — which was made by board member Jameson Davis — passed 5-2. Board members Dennis Brown and Dick Grassi voted in opposition.
Wednesday’s Selectboard vote was preceded by some of the same controversy that has characterized other public meetings on the topic.
At the outset of the meeting, Brown and resident Lannie Collins asked Chairman Simon Dennis to resign over how he has handled the controversial topic.
Brown said Dennis has shown a “clear bias” in support of increased protections for undocumented immigrants in town, so much that it has impacted his ability to effectively run the board.
He said Dennis at times hasn’t followed Selectboard procedures and protocols and has favored advocates on one side of the issue.
“I feel that you have lost your ability to be neutral,” Brown said. “As a result, I am requesting that you step down as our chair.”
Dennis declined to step aside, and he briefly addressed his colleague.
“I am not intending to step down as chair at this juncture,” Dennis said, adding that he takes Brown’s comments “seriously.”
Similarly to Brown, Collins, who recently posted to the Listserv about a public record’s request he made with the town, asked Dennis and Board Member Kim Souza to resign or recuse themselves from the topic going forward.
Collins, who sought email correspondence between Godfrey, Dennis and other members of the Selectboard, said he found “an extreme amount of bias by certain individuals” on the board — specifically Dennis — contained within at least two emails. (Souza was copied on one of the emails.) Dennis continued to run the meeting throughout the evening.
Scores of people advocating for increased protections for undocumented immigrants in Hartford have voiced their opinions over the course of several months, hoping the board would either adopt the amendments to the town’s existing Fair and Impartial Policing policy as drafted by Migrant Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont or a copy of the ordinance without a savings clause.
Last month, Border Patrol agents announced the arrest of 18 people in the Lebanon area who didn’t have immigration documentation that allowed them to enter or remain in the United States.
Following news of the arrests, more than 100 activists rallied in downtown Hartford, with more than two dozen getting arrested after they blocked traffic for nearly two hours at the intersection of routes 5 and 14 in White River Junction and refused to disperse.
Only a fraction of the advocates who have attended several of the meetings — including that rally — turned out on Tuesday night.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Hartford immigration policing issue going to voters.
