Fairfield Racial Equity Plan Is Main Goal For New Task Force

FAIRFIELD, CT — A group of Fairfield residents have been tasked with creating a Racial Equity Plan for the town.

Nine members were appointed Monday to Fairfield’s new Racial Equity and Justice Task Force. The formation of the task force was announced in June in the wake of protests in Fairfield and across the country, which were sparked by George Floyd’s death in the custody of Minneapolis police. Fairfield’s Board of Selectmen over the last month unanimously approved the creation, co-chairs and members of the task force.

“I’ve had a lot of amazing conversations with Fairfield residents and it’s been a really excellent show of bipartisan commitment,” said Gina Ludlow, who is co-chairing the task force with Selectwoman Nancy Lefkowitz, at the board’s Sept. 14 meeting.

Ludlow is an educator who has been involved with the Fairfield Warde Voices for Equity and co-chaired the Identity and Education Conference at Fairfield University.

“I hope that together we can, with all voices represented at the table, move forward in a way that helps Fairfield just solidify the commitment to equity,” she said.

Local officials faced criticism and scrutiny at a June forum on race and law enforcement, during which the idea for the task force was made public. The mission of the task force is to find racial inequalities and injustices in town operations, and, using data and interviews, to provide the board with proposals to minimize or eliminate those injustices. The task force is charged with presenting its Racial Equity Plan to selectmen by the end of January 2022.

“It’s my hope that the town continues to have policies and improves policies to make sure that everybody is equally represented,” Selectman Tom Flynn said Sept. 14.

Flynn said he looked forward to seeing “solid recommendations that are actionable” from the task force.

“It’s going to be important work and I know you will rise to the challenge,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick told Ludlow and Lefkowitz at a board meeting Sept. 21.

Lefkowitz said the town had dozens of applicants from which to choose the task force members.

“Where we were all aligned, unilaterally, is the need for this kind of task force,” Lefkowitz said Monday. “… Unless we have complete community buy in, this task force won’t be able to be effective in its work.”

The task force, whose membership Kupchick described as a "diverse cross-section of people," is made up of four Democrats, three Republicans and two unaffiliated members. Its members are: Steven Bogan, Douglas Bunnell, Inni Dhingra, Karen Lynch, Sonja Narcisse, Alexandra Ocampo, Tameisha Powell-Dunmore, Jason Sherrod and Sandra Tallman.