NEW YORK, -- An Anti-Discrimination Center ("ADC") report issued today, exactly six months after Westchester entered into a historic federal court Settlement Order to resolve a lawsuit brought by ADC, finds that Westchester is brazenly refusing to comply with critical elements of those obligations. The Settlement Order was entered on August 10, 2009, following court rulings that had found that Westchester had "utterly failed" to meet its "affirmatively furthering fair housing" ("AFFH") obligations throughout a six-year period, and that every single certification that Westchester had made during that period to the federal government asserting that the County had or would meet those obligations was "false or fraudulent." Under the Settlement Order, a crucial early step required of Westchester was the submission of an "Implementation Plan" for the achievement of the Settlement Order's desegregation goals. The Implementation Plan was supposed to be detailed and specific in setting forth the actions and activities necessary to ensure Settlement Order success. ADC has found that the documents recently submitted to the Monitor overseeing compliance "constitute neither planning nor implementation. The documents ignore or contradict several fundamental principles and requirements of the Settlement Order, and are clearly designed to maintain the status quo to the maximum extent possible." Among the key findings of the report: ADC's report concludes that Westchester's submission is deliberately vague and evasive: "How much more doesWestchester's submission tell us about the specifics of what the County is actually going to do than we knew prior to the submission?" the report asks. The answer, ADC finds, is "not much." Craig Gurian, ADC's Executive Director, stated: "It is essential that the Monitor stand up for the integrity of the Settlement Order and, pursuant to his Settlement Order authority, reject Westchester's entirely inadequate submission. Failing to do so would guarantee the failure of the Settlement Order in Westchester and would irreparably harm the credibility of 'affirmatively furthering fair housing' steps that HUD may be considering taking nationwide." The full text of the report is available at: http://www.antibiaslaw.com/prescription. SOURCE Anti-Discrimination Center RELATED LINKS
http://www.antibiaslaw.com/prescription