The Town of Southold and the Anti-Bias Task Force will hold its third Synergy forum in Mattituck on April 6 to continue the conversation that began at the first Synergy meeting last April.
Synergy Mattituck, an “open and respectful conversation between police and members of the community” will be moderated by James W. Banks, a college professor and chair of Southampton’s anti-bias task force, who has led both the April 2016 forum in Peconic and the January 2017 forum in Greenport.
Southold Anti-Bias Task Force co-chair Sonia Spar hopes that the Mattituck location — at the town’s human resource center on Pacific Street, within walking distance of bus stops and residential neighborhoods — will encourage attendance by those who may not have a car. Mattituck has faced its own bias issues, with several incidents occurring since the election, she said.
“Many people came to us after the first two forums to say how much these kinds of forums are needed to have conversations,” said Spar. “There were people having a conversation and everyone was talking in a very respectful and civil way and people were disagreeing on certain issues, but doing it with respect.”
Spar encourages non-English speakers to attend; she will be helping with translation.
“We need to understand that people communicate and understand better in their native language,” she said.
The organizers are working on a list of guests, which will include Southold Town Chief of Police Martin Flatley and town officials. They also hope to have visuals available, she said.
