Former chair’s resignation exposes dispute over Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force mission

The resignation of Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force chairman Mark McLaughlin and a longtime member’s near-resignation have exposed a widening dispute over whether the town-appointed body is still being allowed to do the proactive education and outreach work many members see as central to its mission.

McLaughlin, who was appointed chairman in September 2023 as part of a Town Board overhaul of the task force, said he resigned last month because restrictions placed on the group left it unable to respond meaningfully to bias-related concerns in the community.

Longtime member Connie Lassandro, who last Monday said she had decided to resign for similar reasons, on Thursday afternoon said she’d changed her mind after discussions with Town Board member and task force liaison Denise Merrifield and fellow task force member Marjorie Acevedo. Lassandro said she agreed to remain on the task force for now, so long as its mission is not altered and it continues to engage in education, outreach and prevention work.

Conflicting views of the task force’s role

At the center of the dispute is a basic question: Is the Anti-Bias Task Force supposed to work proactively to address prejudice through public programs, outreach and education, or should it act only in a more limited, reactive role when specific complaints arise?

McLaughlin and several current and former members interviewed by RiverheadLOCAL said Merrifield has steered the group toward the latter approach, narrowing its role and discouraging members from addressing issues they believe fall squarely within its mission.

Merrifield, in an emailed statement to RiverheadLOCAL said the task force has had “a positive influence on the community” during the short time she has served as liaison.

“My role as liaison is supportive and any direction they wish to pursue must be agreed upon by the members as a committee,” Merrifield wrote. “Any changes to their mission, once agreed upon by them, would then be brought to the Town Board for approval.”

She added that if some members are uncertain about the committee’s mission, “that is for them to discuss amongst themselves.”

But McLaughlin and others say the problem is not confusion among members so much as a fundamental disagreement over what the task force is permitted to do.

McLaughlin said last week he was told by Merrifield to remain silent when he raised concerns from residents and volunteer firefighters about federal immigration enforcement activity in the community.

“The committee was never even given the opportunity to vote on how to respond,” he wrote. “At a time when our community was asking for guidance and support, we were effectively silenced.”

McLaughlin also said that when he asked whether the task force could again support an LGBTQ stage at a local event, Merrifield told him, “We do not support that,” without committee discussion or a vote.

“That moment made it clear that decisions were being made unilaterally, without inclusion, dialogue, or respect for the purpose of the committee,” he wrote.

McLaughlin said the task force “was meant to be a space for inclusion, advocacy, and action,” but instead had become “a place where voices are stifled, concerns are blocked before discussion, and those trying to do the work are discouraged.”

Several task force members echoed parts of that account.

Salim Massoud, a current member, said he, McLaughlin and others believed the task force should be proactive and should “take the initiative” through events and public engagement, as it had in the past.

“And the thing with Denise was, I remember, she was very adamant,” Massoud said. “She didn’t think we should be proactive. She thought we should be reactive.”

Roberto Ramos, another longtime member, said issues he raised about the Latino community experiencing profiling by law enforcement and federal agents were summarily dismissed. 

“And the councilwoman said that’s not true, because they’re not profiling anybody,” Ramos said. 

Anything that has to do with ICE or federal agencies is not to be addressed by the task force, even if residents come to the group to express harassment and fear. “We’re not to discuss anything to do with immigration. We’re not supposed to talk about ICE, period,” Ramos said.

Ramos also said members were told the task force should not take part in certain LGBTQ-related events because those activities were said not to fall within its mission.

“We’ve done it in the past, but now we’re prohibited from being part of those events. We’re not supposed to take sides. We’re supposed to be neutral,” Ramos said.  “We should hear complaints when people come to us and refer them to police or other organizations.”

Lassandro, who has been involved with the task force since it was reconstituted in 2015, said the group once focused heavily on education, workshops, forums and anti-bias training.

“We were ambassadors for the town,” she said in a March 23 interview. “We tried to educate. We had forums, we had workshops, we had anti-bias training.”

She said that is no longer the direction she saw the task force taking and that this was why she initially decided to leave.

After speaking with Merrifield and Acevedo, however, Lassandro said she decided to stay on, conditioned on the task force continuing to follow its mission, particularly in the areas of education, outreach and prevention.

Her decision to remain does not resolve the broader disagreement. Instead, it underscores the stakes of the dispute: whether the task force will continue doing the kind of work that defined it for much of the past decade.

Town documents reflect tension over independence and oversight

The task force’s own governing documents reflect that tension.

A resolution adopted by the Town Board in 2015 to re-establish the task force following a period of inactivity, set forth the purpose of the task force: “to assist this government in identifying issues related to prejudice or bias…”

The resolution also said the task force would serve in an advisory capacity to the Town Board, to make “recommendations as to the direction the Town can take in combating bias and improve social conditions for all and further a proactive means to eradicate various forms of social oppression.” 

A Town Board resolution adopted in 2021 requires the task force to submit in writing all recommendations for events, programs, co-sponsored activities, publications, announcements, policies and funding requests to the Town Board for review and approval before taking action —including events or programs to be co-sponsored with other departments, schools or government agencies. 

That dual structure — a body charged with broad anti-bias work but subject to Town Board oversight — has been a source of tension before.

The task force was overhauled by the Town Board in 2023, when several members were removed and new members, including McLaughlin, were appointed. At the time, Town Board members, led by Ken Rothwell, at the time the board’s liaison to the task force,  said it lacked diversity and needed restructuring. 

Though he said his criticism was not political, Rothwell complained that “The people [task force members] who come to our meetings are all Caucasian women in the Democratic Party,” Rothwell said. “Political views or opinions have nothing to do with it,” he said.

The overhaul came after months of Town Board criticism of task force activities, including book donations to school libraries and programs some board members viewed as too political or ideological.

Butterfly Effect episode highlights broader concerns

Members said the same underlying tension surfaced again in the task force’s handling of racist online attacks targeting the Butterfly Effect Project.

Merrifield said the task force supported the children involved, helped coordinate a review by Riverhead police, the Suffolk County Police Department Hate Crimes Unit and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, and later held a public educational session at the Butterfly Effect office about hate crimes and how to report them.

Butterfly Effect Project founder and executive director Tijuana Fulford described the experience very differently.

Fulford, who attended a task force meeting after the incident, said she felt disrespected by Merrifield and disappointed by the silence of task force members, including McLaughlin, who was then still its chairperson.

“The first thing out of her mouth should have been I’m so sorry that this happened to you,” Fulford said. “She did not allow me the freedom to express my grief, my hurt or my concerns”. Instead, she said, the councilwoman reprimanded her.

“I was told maybe I didn’t know how to complain properly, maybe I didn’t understand the law, maybe we should have a workshop to teach us how to complain,” Fulford said in a phone interview last week. 

McLaughlin said in an interview that he believed Merrifield was upset that Fulford “went to the press” about the incident after it happened.

“I was not heard. I was not validated,” Fulford said. 

She added that Riverhead Police Detective Rich Freeborn and Police Chief Ed Frost were helpful throughout the ordeal. 

But as for the Anti-Bias Task Force, “It was a learning experience,” Fulford said. “The Anti-Bias Task Force is nothing. I learned that a smiling face is sometimes also an evil face,” she said. “When someone doesn’t even want to hear you tell your story, they just want to tell you what is wrong.” Fulford said she felt the councilwoman just “wanted to tear me down.”

RiverheadLOCAL emailed Merrifield a follow-up question Thursday afternoon asking for her response to Fulford’s account. Merrifield did not reply.

Supervisor Jerry Halpin, who took office in January, said in a phone conversation Wednesday that he had not been aware of Lassandro’s resignation threat and was not yet sufficiently familiar with the matter to comment in detail. He said he intended to review the task force’s bylaws and history and speak with Merrifield before responding further.

Halpin said he still believes the Anti-Bias Task Force is important to the town.

For now, the task force remains in a state of uncertainty.

Harley Abrams, a member who previously served as Temple Israel’s liaison to the group before later becoming a voting member, said he believes there is genuine ambiguity about the task force’s role.

“I’m not 100% sure what the anti-bias task force is supposed to be and not supposed to be doing,” Abrams said.

That uncertainty, though, is exactly what troubles McLaughlin and others who say the mission is not supposed to be a mystery. They argue the problem is not that the task force lacks a purpose, but that it is being constrained from carrying it out.

Whether the task force can continue to carry out that broader mission remains at the center of the dispute.