Now We Have Worms That Don't Exist

I must say that I am very disappointed in this editorial.

I was at this meeting, and I will tell you that the editorial does not accurately reflect what happened there.  Read my post below for some details.  No one called the Mayor and Commission racist.  No reasonable person would believe the Commission voted to remove funds because they don't like black people.  No one has said that to me and no one said that at the meeting.  What is strange is that the news article that this editorial is based on specified that the prevailing sentiment was that no one was accusing the Mayor and Commission of racism.

Blake's article specifies that "The six commissioners who voted to cut the funding are not racists, but the decision was paternalistic, said moderator Janice Mathis, vice president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition."  Ms. Mathis said this in response  to the Mayor's belief that the "race card" had been played.  I thought that cleared it up well.

If the meeting HAD degraded into angry accusations of personal racism, I would agree with the editorial 100%!!!  That would have been a tired and not constructive dialogue.  But, again, that is not what happened.  One speaker said essentially, hey, we all make mistakes.  You guys made a mistake.  But it is nothing we can't fix and move forward with together.  It was a POSITIVE meeting.  Ms. Neely was not calling the Mayor a racist.  I have spoken with her on this topic on more than one occasion and my strong impression is that she is deeply concerned about the disparate treatment of the black community by our process.  But she has never expressed the opinion to me that she believes our elected officials are "racist."

So, for the umpteenth time, this is about PROCESS, PROCESS, PROCESS.  We violated the public trust, and people (even those who are not big fans of EADC or HCDC) are mad about it.

Finally, the editorial seems to imply that race is not something we should talk about because it might unrail OneAthens. This is very very wrong.  OneAthens will never get on the rails UNLESS we have a healthy dialogue about race.  

Rick Dunn put it to me very well.  He said this is like a marriage.  Sometimes you have to say things that are uncomfortable and deal with things you don't want to, but that is how a marriage maintains its trust.  And in the end, you know you love each other and want the same things.  You just have to work out the kinks so you can get there hand-in-hand as equal partners.

Shout-Out to Hillary

Just a quick link to Antidisingenuousmentarianism.

She needs to run for office.  She makes my point well.  She does it in one short paragraph.  I write a tome to say the same thing. Lesson in concise writing noted.

No Closing this Can of Worms

There was a community meeting held with the Mayor and Commission last night.

It is unfortunate that the article had to focus on the spat between the Mayor and Evelyn Neely, because that was not the focus of the meeting.  I understand, however, that Blake really had no choice but to center the story there.  

I hope people do not forget that the anger expressed last night is less about the actual cuts than about fair and open government.  In fact, more than one person expressed the opinion that the Commission should figure out what it wants from the organizations and if they cannot perform then they should not get the money.  However, there was much frustration from the community on what those expectations are.  And I would point out that we were asked that question directly and not a single one of us elected officials could provide an answer.  So it is certainly fair to ask - if we are not clear on what we want from these organizations, how can we justify attacking them for not meeting our expectations?

In any case, it bears repeating that many people there agree that these two organizations could stand improvement, but they feel betrayed by the secrecy involved.  They should feel that way.  Any reasonable people would.  My only beef with the meeting was that the format was not made clear, so I think the commissioners that voted to remove the funds justifiably felt surprised by the direct questions.

So What About Race?

The answer to this question fills many volumes written by people much smarter than me.  But race is important.  The fact that members of the community and Commission act so strongly against even discussing the issue is very telling to me.  It is a statistical fact that black citizens are sentenced very differently than white citizens when accused of the same crime.  The rate of actual prosecution of black citizens is higher than white citizens for the same crime.  If you discount students, the vast majority of the poor in our community are people of color.

So you can only draw two conclusions - either black folks are just incompetent and their culture just can't function as well as white folks (and they need to work harder, get a job, etc) or there is a disparate impact visited upon them by our institutions.  

Note that disparate impact does not require our leadership to be racist, just that the institutions favor people NOT of color. That is the point Ms. Neely was trying to make and that the Mayor missed.  No one thought SHE was personally someone who does not LIKE black people.

Also, it is unfortunate that we cannot discuss the racial bias of our institutions without people immediately accusing the black community of wanting to blame everyone but themselves.  The cycle of poverty exists because the culture is broken.  And I have always said that the path out of that cycle can only be navigated by the people living in poverty.  That is why empowerment is so vital.  Why power sharing is critical.  What those of us that do not have to face poverty every day have to do is clear the path for them - but we cannot drive the bus.  Our disadvantaged communities MUST take personal responsibility for their own fate.

What I heard last night was a complete willingness to do that, but a strong belief that we as a government are standing in their way rather than clearing the path.  

So What Now?

We need to do so many things.  But for now, I will just say one thing.  We need more meetings like the one last night, but with actual non-black people there too.  It is so easy for people not living in communities caught in the poverty cycle to over-simplify the anger in the black community and throw out the clique race card accusation.  So here is my challenge - rather than make the easy conclusions based on a single news story with an obvious angle, why don't we all begin the process of making TwoAthens OneAthens by having a real dialogue on why these frustrations are out there.  Both sides have a lot  to learn and a lot more in common than they realize.

I deeply regret the division that this has created on the Commission, but I see this dialogue as positive.  We are FINALLY having "the talk."  This has been festering since long before unification.  Unification itself was sold as a solution to disparate impact.  But now we cannot ignore the conversation.  We can be accused of playing the race card, sure, but that is just a reaction spawned by a deeper insecurity.  At the end of the day, this should not be about race, but about people.  As we used to say when I was in trenches in Little Rock fighting the same cause in a different way -

It's about Democracy.  

It's about People.

It's about Time.

Position - UPDATE, Flagpole on EADC, HCDC

The Flagpole has much more on the continuing debate on our severe funding cuts for these organizations.  Read here.

Calendar - CHANGE

The Legislative Review Meeting scheduled for this Tuesday, April 14, has been canceled.  Our next meeting will be next month.  Meanwhile, if you have any input on the Growing Sustainably report, please let me know.

Position - More Block Grant

A heads-up regarding my previous Position post:

I was on Tim Bryant's show this (April 11th) morning at 1340 WGAU to discuss our block grant funding decision. You can listen to it here.

There will be much written about it in this Tuesday's Flagpole, including op-ed pieces by me and Rick Dunn.

There is more by Blake Aued at the Banner Herald here.

Coverage so far by Flagpole here.

Some good thoughts that are counter to mine at JMAC's place.

My piece in Flagpole will outline a proposal to modify the M&C's decision and provide more accountability for the two organizations in question.

Calendar

Legislative Review Committee & Government Operations Committee

(The Commission has two standing committees.  One is the Legislative Review Committee and the other is the Government Operations Committee.  I chair LRC and Commissioner Girtz chairs GOC.  Each committee is comprised of half of the Commission.  My committee tackles issues relating to proposed legislation while GOC address internal government matters. We are a recommending body only - the full M&C must make the final call.)

Legislative Review Committee

Tuesday, April 15 at 6:30pm

City Hall Room 103 (in the basement)

Government Operations Committee

Tuesday, April 15 at 5:30pm

City Hall Room 103

Agenda for the LRC Meeting:

1) We will discuss a proposed text amendment to our mass grading ordinance. 

2) We will discuss ways to incorporate elements of the Growing Sustainably report presented to us by Athens Grow Green

Meeting Report (Work Session)

FYI: I hope you will excuse the format and briefness of these reports.  I will try to provide concise and quality information to you as often as I can to recap our meetings in the limited time I have.  That being said:

April Work Session:

(Work Sessions are primarily opportunities for staff to present, explain, and take input on upcoming items for Mayor and Commission consideration)

A. We met with our local delegation of Representatives and Senators.

B. City Hall Streetscape.  As some of you may know,  we recently purchased the Athens First Building next to City Hall.  That means the government owns the entire block.  This enables us to consolidate operations for one.  It also means we can re-envision the entire area of this central downtown area to make it pedestrian and public art friendly.  We were presented with two proposals, both of which greatly expand pedestrian comfort (wider walkways and more shade), and provide for the addition of public art.  We are at stage one right now. Staff and our consultants will take our input and develop a more detailed proposal.

C. Resurfacing Hawthorne, Cedar Shoals, and North Ave. I could talk technical details for pages (and would be happy to for anyone who wants to drop me an email or give me a call), but for now and very briefly, here is what Transportation and Public Works Director David Clark presented to us: 

Hawthorne, the most controversial of these streets due to a prior 3-laning, is in the most dire shape.  It was never really built properly, i.e. with an adequate road bed.  It will be reconstructed, making the painful rush hour there worse for a while.  However, at the end of the day, we will have a safer road with expanded lanes (at least under the proposal in front of us).

Cedar Shoals seems to be a perfect fit for 3-lanes.  As in 3 lanes will not negatively impact traffic flow but will enhance safety.  Commissioner Herod has been working to preserve the ability to beautify the road in the future with a tree and planting lined center median.  I support him in that effort, and this plan will indeed preserve that if and when we can figure out how to pay for it.  

North Ave is not, from a traffic engineering standpoint, a good candidate for 3-lanes so it will likely stay that way. Harry is very upset about that.  (That was sarcasm).

D. Wastewater Treatment Plants.  Um, can I borrow a few bucks, please?  Like, about 200 million of them?  That is our tab for much needed rebuilds of our wastewater treatment plants.  We were presented with some very pretty 3-D plans for these new facilities and Mr. Culpepper, our Finance Director, revealed our game plan for acquiring the necessary debt financing in a very uncertain bond market.  

E. Energy Conservation Plan. Finally, we received an update on our progress with energy conservation.  Central Services Director David Fluck (20% of our government staff and officials are named David).  We (the M&C) set a goal of 15% energy reduction.  We are looking at 4% and improving.  We have been running a % of biodiesel in our buses and some larger vehicles for a while.  We are working on replacing parking deck lights with 40% more efficient LEDs also. Of course, this is a small sampling of our efforts, but you should know we take our carbon footprint seriously.

And that all in just under 4.5 hours.

Calendar

Work Session

Tuesday, April 8 at 5:30pm

Planning Commission Conference Room

120 Dougherty Street

Agenda:

A. Local Legislative Delegation

B. Conceptual Plan for the City Hall Streetscape

C. Upcoming Roadway Resurfacing/Reconstruction Activity and Lane Configuration on Hawthorne Ave., Cedar Shoals Drive, and North Ave.

D. Projects to Upgrade the North Oconee, Middle Oconee, and Cedar Creek Reclamation Plants

E. Energy Conservation Plan

Position - Do the Ends Justify the Means?

ISSUE:

Many members of our community are reeling with shock and anger at a recent Commission decision.  At our April Voting Meeting, the Mayor and Commission voted to gut the East Athens Development Corporation and the Hancock Corridor Development Corporation by taking away $285,000 of Federal funding.   While this money does not represent the sole funding source for these two organizations, it does inflict a severe (and perhaps mortal) blow to their ability to stay open.  

Both organizations serve as community resources for low income citizens.  They provide many different services, primarily centered around getting people into home ownership.  However, they also help with neighborhood revitalization, income tax preparation, rental housing assistance, assistance with small business development, and commercial redevelopment opportunities in impoverished areas. 

The argument put forward in the prevailing motion by Commissioner Kinman was that neither of these organizations was being a good steward of these funds and that our community would be better served if we spent it elsewhere (especially considering  the housing credit crisis).  Five other commissioners agreed and the motion passed narrowly with a 6 to 4 vote.

MY POSITION:

It was a 6-4 vote.  I voted vehemently against it.  Could these organizations use their funds better?  There is no doubt that we had an obligation to ask that very question and make an informed decision.  In fact, members of the Commission have been privately asking that question since I began my term.  But never did we express these concerns to either organization.  We did not conference with Keith McNeely (Director of the Department of Human and Economic Development), who largely oversees the funding of these organizations.  There was absolutely no warning, no community dialogue. 

Neither organization had notice to defend themselves.  None of the Commissioners involved asked our County staff for any figures or numbers.  In fact, the Manager was not aware of this plan to strip funding until it happened on the floor of the Commission that night, AFTER all public comment on the issue had been heard.  This is an unprecedented action and one that violates the public trust and confidence in the openness of our government.  This was a plan that was hatched in secret outside of the public purview and with no notice to any of the affected parties.

The Commission should act in secret ONLY in emergency situations, or where required by privacy laws.  To be fair, we collaborate on issues privately all the time, as any working body does.  But the public always has the opportunity to be on the same page, and to be aware of appropriate means to comment and participate in the democratic process.  In this case, we all KNEW that HED, staff, and these organizations fully expected to receive this funding as they always do, since no one revealed to them that secret discussions were being conducted to take it away. 

This was far from an emergency situation, as we see this same funding year after year.  We literally had years of opportunity to express ay displeasure with these organizations and demand changes.  We did not.  But even worse than that is the empowerment issues involved here.  There is very little in our government power structure that citizens living in impoverished neighborhoods feel any real ownership of. These two organizations were really the only exceptions to that.  It is one thing to fund an organization that works hard to help other people in need. It is quite another to support an organization run by those same citizens to help themselves.  The Commission just dismantled that opportunity.

Understand, I fully supported a diligent inquiry into these organizations, and I certainly believe that some major changes are necessary.  But we just threw the baby out with the bath water, and we hid our intentions from the public.  I need to take some responsibility for this.  The Mayor contacted me 3 days before the meeting to tell me about this.  I told her that I sympathized with her desire to see more effective work at these organizations but that I thought the secret process involved was wrong. I communicated this to Commissioner  Kinman as well and urged her to adopt another process (outlined below).  I did not go to the organizations with the information.  I never believed a majority of the Commission would support it.  I was wrong.

The fair and democratic thing to do would have been to engage the public in dialogue about these organizations and speak to their boards.  We should have set goals and benchmarks for them to meet, in addition to other reforms we thought necessary.  These organizations, and the public, would have had notice and we would have had an opportunity to get our facts straight.  If during the next round of block grant funding either organization failed to improve, it would then be appropriate to consider pulling much or all of their funding.

Let me be clear about the motives of the 6 commissioners I voted against.  Their intentions were noble.  They ALL care very deeply about our community and want to see these funds spent wisely.  Alice Kinman is one of the kindest, most compassionate, and most intelligent individuals that this community has been lucky enough to have serve it.  But in this case, the ends DO NOT justify the means. Transparency in government is essential.  I hope we do not forget that again.

THE RESULTS:

The black community, despite the unprecedented good work of OneAthens, largely feels excluded from the local political process and thinks that there is a disconnect between the Mayor and Commission and their neighborhoods.  Is this fair?  I think there is some truth and some exaggeration, as in most things.  But I strongly believe that this vote reinforces that public perception.  We have left a hole in our community and demonstrated a failure to listen.  We have lost trust in our government.  For now, most affected by this are in shock.  They feel ambushed and deserted, and are trying to figure out what to do. 

Let me say this about the ABH article.  I do not for a second believe that "the middle-class white Five Points elite that runs this government doesn't understand what it's like to live in poverty, and doesn't understand what it's like to be empowered."  My point is that I believe that is what many in this community believe about us, and that this decision perpetuates that belief.  However, until we begin to concede real power to the impoverished community itself rather than take it away, we will find ourselves moving closer and closer to this being a reality rather than a dramatization.