When Mayor Narkewicz recently released the ‘Opinions on Downtown’ survey on his Facebook and Twitter accounts on April 11, he did not include the fact that it was produced by his Work Group on Panhandling. Since the release of the survey and its subsequent backlash, he has begun to publicly speak about his work group.
Narkewicz has stated that he formed the group in accordance with a recommendation made by a committee of four City Councilors, the Committee on Community Resources (CCR), in an economic report they issued in 2016. However, three of the four City Councilors on that committee have, since the inception of the Work Group on Panhandling in 2017, contested Narkewicz’ claim that they recommended he create a group to study panhandling. Most recently, Councilors Alisa Klein and Maureen Carney issued a public statement denouncing the group and its recent survey. Councilor Gina-Louise Sciarra also voiced her concerns about the focus of the group in a CCR meeting in 2017 and reiterated those concerns recently to The Shoestring.
Yet, as multiple city records and statements released by city officials will show, the concerns of the Councilors and their objections to the formation of the group are by no means new. And according to Klein, the group has never issued an official progress report to the Council, leaving the ‘Opinions on Downtown’ survey to be the first and only indication of the group’s activities. The Shoestring asked the Mayor if the group has ever issued any progress reports or updates to the CCR or City Council in general. He did not respond.
Though the Mayor has begun publicly commenting on the group only recently, it has existed since early 2017 and according to an email The Shoestring received from his office on April 7, it has met 10 times since it formed. It may have held a meeting since we received the Mayor’s email, but no one would know except members of the group. This is because the Mayor’s Work Group on Panhandling does not hold open meetings nor does it list the record of its meetings on the city calendar.
The Shoestring has been investigating the Mayor’s Work Group on Panhandling since late last year, when we learned about it at a City Council meeting. (Councilor Bidwell mentioned it offhandedly in a comment he made while opposing the Ordinance to Restrict Surveillance Cameras.) As we tried to find out more, co-editor Harrison Greene and I experienced a strange reluctance by city officials to share any information. Bidwell, a member of the group, assured us, during a town hall style meeting hosted by City Council President Ryan O’Donnell, that the group was doing good work but could not share any more than that. Peg Keller, the city’s Housing and Community Development Planner, (who we later found out is a member of the group and facilitates its meetings), lied to our faces in front of a room full of local social service professionals at a Next Step Collaborative meeting we attended at City Hall. When I asked her whether the group was working with the Chamber of Commerce (it is), she said that she had no idea what I was talking about and told me to, “talk to the Mayor about that.” The Shoestring reached out to Keller for comment on this event. We did not hear back.
In an attempt to shed light on a secretive group that will soon issue policy recommendations concerning a population that it defined and ‘studied’ without the inclusion of members of that population, I have compiled a history of the Mayor’s Work Group on Panhandling. In the place of transcripts, videos, and meeting minutes of the group, which don’t exist because as I will show, Mayor Narkewicz did not want them to, our sources include transcripts of Committee on Community Resources (CCR) meetings, CCR meeting notes as recorded by the city clerk, statements by city officials in past Gazette, Western Mass News, and MassLive articles, and statements The Shoestring was able to obtain by reaching out to city officials.
The first mention of a work group on panhandling can be traced back to The Gazette’s coverage of a report issued by the CCR in early 2017. The CCR is comprised of four members. In 2017, those members were Councilors Bidwell, Carney, Sciarra, and Klein.
The piece quotes Councilor Sciarra, a member of the CCR and one of the authors of the report. In the article, she stressed the report’s focus on services, “We were focused more on the needs of the individuals and how to better channel resources to them, and figure out if there’s work that can be done that will be compassionate and helpful.” Sciarra never mentions panhandling. Despite this fact, The Gazette published its headline claiming that a task force on panhandling was to be formed.
Klein inquired about whether or not the group’s meetings would be open to the public and stressed the need for transparency.
On May 17, 2017, in the following CCR meeting, Councilor Bidwell reported back on the group’s progress. He shared that something that everyone in the Mayor’s work group agrees on is that there are those who are deserving of compassion and those who are not. The members of the committee engaged in a long discussion about Mayor Narkewicz’s group. The Shoestring transcribed this meeting [watch the full exchange here].
During the discussion, Councilors Sciarra, Klein, and Carney all expressed their concern with the focus of the group. All three of them recommended that people who panhandle be given access to be members of the group.
* Ten months pass * During this time, there are no reports issued to the CCR, to the City Council as a whole, or to the public on the activity of the Mayor’s Work Group on Panhandling.
Two days later, on April 11, 2018, Mayor Narkewicz, the NPD, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Downtown Northampton Association began promoting a survey titled ‘Opinions on Downtown.” The same survey was called the “Online public survey on panhandling” on a city webpage about the Mayor’s Work Group. It was not communicated in any of the the social media promotions shared by these organizations, that the survey was created by the Mayor’s Work Group on Panhandling. (View the edit history of the NPD’s post to see its original omission of the group. The updated version of the post includes a link to the work group). Of the survey’s 40 questions, 20 asked about panhandling/panhandlers and it included a question that asked participants if they thought panhandling should be criminalized. The content of the survey created public outcry. In response, Mayor Narkewicz began to speak to the local press, responding to the criticisms of his group and the survey.
At some point since Carney and Klein’s statement, the text referring to the CCR recommendation has been removed from the work group’s webpage. The Shoestring asked the Mayor when the Work Group’s webpage was originally published. He did not respond.
In place of the criminalization of poverty, they endorsed restorative justice and reaffirmed their support of the “Vibrant Sidewalks” resolution passed in 2013 which envisioned sidewalks as spaces that could accommodate street vendors, day laborers, and people who panhandle.
He continues, offering to no longer reference the CCR’s report. He does not respond to the substance of their concerns, and instead suggests the work group could continue without Councilor Bidwell if the committee so desired.
The Shoestring asked Mayor Narkewicz what actions he has taken to address the concerns and recommendations first voiced by Councilors Klein, Carney, and Sciarra in early 2017. He did not respond.
Both Councilor Bidwell and Mayor Narkewicz have publicly stated that they are puzzled by the objections of City Councilors at this point in time. What is more puzzling, and even sinister, is their attempt to erase the historical objections, concerns, and recommendations of three City Councilors to the Work Group on Panhandling and to do so as if this secret group has been sharing its activities all this time. If our Mayor is willing to try to rewrite the history of city government in order to legitimize his actions, what can the public expect in response to their concerns?
According to the Mayor, his work group will be issuing policy recommendations in the form of a report sometime this summer.