LEBANON — A newly formed task force is brainstorming ways to continue supporting vulnerable community members, including immigrants, after a change in state law forced the City Council to repeal a policy that prohibited city employees from cooperating with immigration enforcement activity.
Residents will have the chance to weigh in Tuesday on what path the recently-formed Welcoming Lebanon Task Force should take moving forward.
Potential options include passing a resolution that states the city’s commitment to inclusiveness for all residents; adopting a revised ordinance that adheres to state law; creating a standing subcommittee of the city’s DEI Commission; adjusting the charge of the task force; or recommending administrative policy changes to the city manager’s office or police department.
The Welcoming Lebanon Ordinance originally passed by voters in 2020 prohibited municipal law enforcement, employees and volunteers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
The City Council voted 8-1 in November to repeal the policy after a state law change made such rules illegal and subjected municipalities to steep fines if they were left in place.
Hanover repealed a similar policy in December.
At the time, Assistant Mayor Devin Wilkie recommended that if the council repealed the policy, they should create a task force to put something new in place.
The City Council established a Welcoming Lebanon Task Force in January to recommend ways to update city policies and practices around “inclusiveness, equity and support for all residents, including immigrant and other vulnerable members of the community,” according to the resolution establishing the committee.
The group started meeting in late April, and members are tasked with submitting final recommendations to the City Council by the end of September.
The group will hold a public input session Tuesday night to hear residents’ ideas on how the task force might move forward while staying within the confines of state law.
“The task force really wants to ensure that what it’s doing is consistent with the will and desires of the public,” Wilkie said in a Wednesday interview.
A resolution that serves as a “reaffirmation of our values as a community would be worthwhile,” Wilkie said, but any kind of ordinance that guides city policy would have to be crafted very carefully to avoid serving as a “symbolic message.”
“We don’t want to water it down,” Wilkie said. “At this point, I don’t think there’s an ordinance that we could pass that would have the same force as the previous one. But to the extent that we would pass a new ordinance we would want to ensure that it is something that members of the community find helpful.”
Another part of the effort, Wilkie said, should focus on community engagement and spreading information.
“There’s been a lot of talk about what the city can do, what’s under our control,” Wilkie said. “And while there is a lot that the state limits us on, one of the things that I think we have an opportunity to do more successfully is just inform the public, let people know what resources we have.”
Residents can provide feedback and suggestions to the committee at a Tuesday meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 at City Hall. Feedback can also be submitted by phone to (603)448-4220 x1 or by email to manager@lebanonnh.gov with “Welcoming Task Force” in the subject line.
