Ferguson Township makes history with first all-female board of supervisors
History was made in Ferguson Township on Monday. The meeting marked the first time in the township’s 220-year history it had an all-female board of supervisors, and is thought to be the first all-female board in the county.
Supervisors Tierra Williams and Hilary Caldwell won the 2021 local municipal election and were sworn in alongside incumbent Supervisor Lisa Strickland on Monday. The first female president judge of the Centre County Court of Common Pleas, Pamela Ruest, led the swearing-in ceremony for the historic board.
Williams, Caldwell and Strickland will serve alongside supervisors Laura Dinnini and Patricia Stevens.
Caldwell said she is grateful for the opportunity to serve with “such a diversity of lived experience on the board.”
“The fact that we are all female identifying is I think, you know, it’s a huge step. It’s a huge step for progress in the township and it always reminds me of something that Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, about ‘When will there be enough women on the (Supreme Court)? When there are nine.’ and that’s kind of how I’m thinking about this moment right now. It’s like, alright, let’s take this opportunity and truly make the most of it and show the other municipalities what progress looks like,” Caldwell said.
Williams, who is also the township’s first Black supervisor, said that while the first all-female board is an anomaly, it shouldn’t be because “women can do these jobs just as men.”
“... Because it’s an all female board and the times that we’re in and the call for diversity, I think that it’s really important for us to show that we’re able to handle the business just like men, just like a mixed board. And we’re going to bring the same level of professionalism and drive it with tenacity just like anyone else,” Williams said.
Williams said she had a lot of feelings “bubbling up inside” and that she was excited, honored and anxious to start her term on the board and to start implementing what she’s been advocating for. She said her platform was based off of transparency with mental health practices, affordable housing and equitable living, as well as accountability with police officers, elected officials in the government.
“...I’m really excited to see how I, as well as the other supervisors, are going to work together to get the community more involved, to get the officers more involved with the community, to get local government more involved with community, so we really can be together and not just a figurehead for the community — but actually be a voice for them,” Williams said.
Caldwell echoed the importance of community participation in local government.
“If we’re looking for an accessible and fair and truly representative government, we need to engage with the community. So something that I’ll be really interested in doing is figuring out what are different ways and different modes of communication that we can have with our residents to make sure that all voices are being heard and represented as fairly as possible,” Caldwell said.
The board is expected to have a busy 2022, with a potential plastic bag ban in the works and the implementation of the township’s controversial stormwater fee.
