By Gretchen Webster
Philip Gallo has resigned from TEAM Westport, the town committee that promotes multiculturalism and diversity, after a heated meeting Thursday when Gallo said he believes the time for championing DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) is over.
“What do people think about using DEI when half the country hates it?” he said.
“I don’t think half the country hates it,” responded Harold Bailey, chair of TEAM. “It’s still the position of record with the town with respect to our values. I see no reason to change it … What we’re talking about is belonging, respect and equity.”
Gallo, however, continued to disagree. “A lot of people view that it doesn’t bring us together. It tears us apart,” Gallo said of DEI, asking TEAM to change its mission statement: “Together Effectively Achieving Multiculturalism.” “Equity is a term that not everyone agrees with,” Gallo said. “It’s a bit of a broken-down rag.”
First Selectman Kevin Christie, who attended the meeting, said, “I appreciate everyone’s commitment to this committee … I want to make sure that everyone in town feels that they belong. This is one committee that is discharged to do that.”
The mission of TEAM “is in our charter,” he continued. “Four years ago our Board of Selectmen passed a statement that included our values. It was passed unanimously.”
Other TEAM members including Catherine Lewis, said that the purpose of TEAM from the beginning has been to fight inequity. “The whole idea when this committee was formed was to actually address inequalities in town – so that is the mission of the board,” she said.
Bailey said that if the committee wanted to change its mission, they could vote to make such a recommendation to the town sometime in the future, but that the discussion needed to be tabled then for other business to be discussed.
The meeting continued with Superintendent of School Thomas Scarice saying that he wanted to mention another way in which diversity is respected in Westport schools, in addition to TEAM’s projects and goals. “One of our most diverse groups is students with special needs,” he said as he announced a new program where students with special needs would be participating in a Pop-up refreshment stand in Town Hall. The school program is working with the Sweet P bakery, founded by Westporters Andrea and Bill Pecoriello, which employs those with special needs in their bakery.
Anger resurfaces
Later in the TEAM meeting, however, Gallo’s disagreements with the values of TEAM surfaced again, and were supported by Camilo Riano, a former candidate for the Board of Education who was in the audience at Thursday’s TEAM meeting.
Gallo said that he had been called “a fascist” by protestors against President Donald Trump at a protest on Westport’s Ruth Steinkraus Cohen bridge. He wanted to know why the name callers were not arrested. “I gave them a thumbs down and they called me a fascist. I was proud to be called that in that context,” Gallo said.
Deputy Police Chief David Wolf, another town official attending the TEAM meeting, told Gallo that calling him a fascist was not a violation subject to arrest. “In the eyes of the law it’s not arrestable. In the eyes of the law that’s not hate speech,” he said.
At that point, Riano, who was attending the meeting as a member of the public, began the discussion again about changing the mission of TEAM, adding that the makeup of the group’s members should also be changed.
“We Republicans don’t feel welcome on the TEAM committee,” Riano said. “We should reconsider and think about it … to bring more inclusiveness to this group. – This group leans left.”
“There is a feeling that viewpoint diversity is not welcome here,” Gallo agreed.
Defending TEAM’s mission was Sal Liccione, a former RTM member also attending the meeting. “You were appointed by Republicans,” he said, referring to former First Selectman Jennifer Tooker’s appointment of Gallo and Andy Frankel to TEAM. “You were welcomed on TEAM. I am very disconcerted that you think DEI means nothing.”
In 2022, Rialo and resident Zack Alcyone, charged that the makeup of TEAM Westport violated the town’s charter because there were not enough Republicans – members of “a minority party” on the board. After considering the request, Tooker said that going forward no more than 50 percent of TEAM’s appointed members can be from a single political party, and that all residents of the committee must be electors in Westport.
The opinions of Gallo and Frankel have caused divisiveness at TEAM meetings in the past. At a March meeting this year, both men disagreed with the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” program which is used in the Westport schools to fight racism, antisemitism and other inequities. The program “is creating a snitch culture,” Gallo said at that meeting.
Gallo gave Bailey his resignation from TEAM on Thursday after the meeting.
Also after the meeting, Bailey spoke to Westport Journal, summing up what had happened there.
“Do I believe we ought to go re-look at the mission? I think our mission is completely valid, of course. I believe we ought to do what we are doing, without people who don’t believe in what we’re doing,” he said. “They’re free to do that – but it just doesn’t make sense to throw sand in the gears because they don’t believe in it,” he said.
He said there are a variety of boards and committees in town with a variety of goals for people to consider joining. It doesn’t make sense for residents to join town organizations where they oppose the mission of the group.
“I am willing to conduct a meeting where they can make their 15-minute pitch and then we’ll take a vote and see how many members of our committee believe that. I just want to put it to rest and then we can move on,” he said.
Gretchen Webster
Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.
Wow. You go, Harold. The world, and I guess even Westport, needs you!
Bravo to Team Westport Chair Harold Bailey for standing up to such an affront. Freedom starts at home, and that means Westport, too. Our beloved town is not exempt from the challenges to individual liberties. It’s Democracy if you can keep it.
TEAM Westport and DEI are not tearing us apart … those opposed to it are.
It’s sorrowful that something based on love and inclusivity should be viewed negatively.
Mr. Gallo has a right to his opinions, of course … but his statement “Equity is a term not everyone agrees with” is precisely why DEI is necessary.
There are those who wish for the continuation of straight white male supremacy. I get that. They’re afraid, and fear is a powerful emotion.
But DEI doesn’t ask for anyone to be queer or to change the color of their skin or to belong to any particular faith or political party.
It just asks that those in the minority be allowed to live freely and equally – without hate.
It’s such a simple concept.
India, you are correct about DEI being a simple concept. Unfortunately, your definition is completely incorrect. The diversity part demands that merit in hiring, promotions, etc be tossed in favor of representation by various groups based on their race,ethnicity or sexual preference rather than their abilities. The equity part demands that the outcome be guaranteed for all, not that each person be given an equal chance to compete. And the inclusivity part, once again,mandates an outcome that in the real world cannot be ensured. Here is the simple part….give everyone a fair chance to compete and don’t punish people who excel. Encourage everyone to do the best that they can do and they may surprise you by not needing your well meaning but misguided “help” at all.