City Council Takes 'Step Forward' on Race Relations; for Critics, Not Far Enough

So the council is moving on race relations in Iowa City, but is it moving with enough urgency?

That was the question up for debate as the Iowa City City Council unanimously approved a bevy of recommendations from an Ad Hoc committee on race relations aimed at improving the interaction between the city's police and transit departments and its growing minority population.

The diversity committee was created last August by the council after controversies as far ranging as the enforcement of behavior of young, primarily African American students at the Old Capitol Town Center to the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida last year, which spurred a large rally on race on the Pedestrian Mall.

The recommendations include a number of initiatives geared at doing outreach to the minority community as well as the creation of a new position focusing on human rights and equality that would advise the City Manager Tom Markus. According to Markus, who gave a presentation on the committee's recommendations, the full list of changes would be posted online so the public could watch the progress being made by the city, and periodic and annual reporting would by city staff to the council.

Gregg Hennigan of the Gazette has a good summary of the recommendations at the bottom of this article.

Although the recommendations passed unanimously, during the worksession on the subject city council member Jim Throgmorton took aim at what seemed to him to be a lack of understanding particularly on the part of the police department to affect real change to regain the trust of the minority community.
He noted that many of the recommendations adopted by the police included the language that the police will "continue to do" things they had already done. He said that it was his understanding that the Ad Hoc committee was calling for more drastic change.

"If I understand the committee rightly, that's not what the Ad Hoc committee wanted, that's not wanted the committee wanted, and I don't think that's what we should want." Throgmorton said. "I think we need to be a lot clearer about what we're proposing to change."

Other critics agreed with Throgmorton's assessment:

From the aforementioned Gazette article:

Dorothy Whiston, who is a member of two organizations that examine race issues, said she thought the diversity committee was calling for a significant culture change in the Police Department.

“And I didn’t see that kind of urgency and the real shift in direction they were asking for in the response” from the city, she said.

"All of this, I think is about trust, and I think about trust building," Markus said. "It's one thing to serve on committees, it's an entirely different thing to build the relationships in the community."

Other city councilors spoke in favor of the recommendations as a foundation for future change.

My reaction to this report, is in the context of where we started and where we need to go," said Council Member Susan Mims. "I see this as a very positive first step but only a first step.

We need to keep an eye on this very carefully to improve things in our community not just in reality but in perception."

Council member Rick Dobyns said his level of scrutiny will increase over the following months to see what the follow through is by the city and police department.