LYNN — City Council President Darren Cyr has canceled months-long racial-justice conversations between community groups and councilors, citing confidentiality breaches and a sharp exchange between Lynn’s only Black councilor and a community group leader.
“This past weekend, I was heartbroken by a social media post by a member of our monthly meetings that addressed the precise topics that have been discussed at our monthly meetings in the Council Chambers,” Cyr wrote in a letter he sent on Tuesday to meeting participants.
Launched in July, the meetings grew out of the national outrage over George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis on May 25 and the protests that followed. During a half-dozen discussions, the conversations started to focus on community advocates’ interest in creating an unarmed crisis response team, reactivating the city Human Rights Commission, and discussing how Lynn police could be equipped with body cameras.
Cyr’s breach-of-confidence claim drew different perspectives from participants in the meetings. But what is not at issue is that City Councilor-at-large Buzzy Barton and Nicole McClain, a Black woman who is North Shore Juneteenth Association president, exchanged words last Saturday at a Swampscott protest held to support Lynn women who claimed they were subjected to racial insults in Swampscott on July 28.
“I was just getting ready to leave when she asked what is my agenda as a Black man? I said, ‘If it’s a good idea, I’ll lead the charge,'” said Barton.
Barton said he thought McClain’s question reflected poorly on his family’s commitment to racial justice, in particular, his late mother, Virginia Barton’s, work in the civil rights movement.
“I have no idea why she confronted me after all my family has done. I’ve been fighting the fight all my life,” Barton said.
McClain described her exchange with Barton as a “one-on-one conversation” and said her intent was not to “hurt his public persona.
“I was trying to unpack my personal view. For me, it’s a personal issue as a Black woman,” McClain said.
Cyr did not name Barton or McClain in his letter, but said one of the posts he read last weekend sought to “disparage a member of the Lynn City Council.
“I will go on record to state that this elected official and his family have done more for the advancement of racial justice, harmony and reform here in the City of Lynn than any family that I know and I am proud to call this City Councilor and his family my friends,” Cyr wrote in the letter.
Cyr specifically names Adriana Paz in the letter and states that the Lynn resident and president of the racial-justice organization Prevent the Cycle agreed that subjects discussed in the meetings should be off limits to social media.
“I asked them not to put on Facebook what we discussed in a semi-private setting,” said Cyr.
Paz on Thursday offered a different interpretation of the social media discussion and said there was no agreement to not discuss meeting topics.
“I think his main concern was talking negatively about what was talked about in the meeting,” Paz said.
Prevent the Cycle helped initiate the conversations with councilors, including Barton and Ward 6 Councilor Fred Hogan, along with other organizations, including Essex County Community Organization, Lynn United for Change and Diverse People United.
Anthony Coleman has participated in the meetings and said he does not share Cyr’s view on limiting social media commentary about meeting topics. He believes the meetings need to be moved into a public forum.
“This is how people share information. We’re representing the community as a whole. How do we have a semi-private conversation?” he asked.
But Darrell Murkison, a participant in the meetings, said “it seems confidentially was compromised.
“I think Darren makes valid points. I don’t know who did it. I plan to give him (Cyr) a call,” Murkison said.
Murkison has worked on local racial justice challenges for three decades, including through work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Lynn chapter. He said the conversations between community advocates and councilors were “moving at a snail’s pace.
“But they were moving in the right direction. Different groups are involved and people have different approaches,” he said.
Paz said the meetings were generating progress, including plans to bring in experts on how to form local crisis response teams. Cyr, in his letter, noted that a public hearing is planned to review a petition encompassing racial justice improvements and police reform suggestions.
“I walked out of the last meeting thinking we had made tremendous strides,” he said.
Hogan, Paz and Murkison plan to speak with Cyr and ask him to resume the racial justice conversations.
“These meetings are absolutely important to moving things forward,” Hogan said.