Candida has been very helpful with her family. They go to lunch and dinner.
They always talk. If she had problems regarding her landlord, she helped
her. She made sure someone came to check the property and the
problem was resolved. She was very upset to hear on the news everything
she was hearing. She stated that Candida is a dear friend of hers and
never heard any kind of racial slurs from her. She stated that she is a
good person. She really helped the family when they moved here.
Ms. Phyllis Alexander, 109 Kingfisher Lane, stated good evening everyone.
She stated that she saw the suit, the description of the discrimination suit in
the paper this morning. So she thought she would stop by and offer her
comments and thoughts about this. Just because she reads something in
the paper, she is clear that she does not have the whole story. She only
have what she read, but what she does know is Tawanna is meticulous,
thoughtful, cautious, careful and she would not file a complaint that is
frivolous. She encouraged them to think about what are their next steps.
She stated that she hopes that they are thoughtful, considerate, thorough
because this is an opportunity to model to the city what you should do when
accused when there are allegations of discrimination. She stated that you
can double down. You can get defensive or you can decide to be curious
and thoughtful and really examine all of the points that are being made and
to really try to figure out how this city can be its best. She stated that she
hopes they are thoughtful about their next steps. She stated and lastly, she
was formerly the Director of the Human Relations Commission and she can
tell them for a fact that being nice has nothing to do with whether or not you
will behave in a way that is discriminatory.
Ms. Robin Riley-Casey, 217 N. Ott Street, stated that she is a previous
Human Relations Commissioner. Many of them that are sitting behind that
table was on the Human Relations when she was there. She stated Daryl
Hendricks, Cynthia Mota, Ce Ce Gerlach and at that time Tawanna has
always remained professional. In fact, she loves to be behind the scenes,
not in front. She is meticulous. She is organized. Many of the Ordinances
that had to do with LGBTQIA in the city of Allentown had to do with her
support and her amazing ability to get things done through all the
particulars of city government. She stated what she knows about Tawanna
as a professional, not personally is that she always maintained clear
boundaries between her role in the city of Allentown and her relationships
outside of that. She always cared for the city and this community in its
totality. Not whether you were Black, Brown, White, Asian, Latino, Queer,
Straight, Christian, Muslim. That is who she is. She stated that she
doesn't know all the facts at all, but what she does know is when a friend of
yours or a professional colleague calls for you to stand with them, don't tuck
your tail and run and stated that is what she does know. And, all the
niceness. We all thought everybody was nice up until the day of the
election. She had so many allies up until the day of the election. It is really
funny how it works out. What she can tell them, in terms of Tawanna
Whitehead she would stand with any member of this community regardless