Summary (updated 11/3/25): The Community Reparations Commission formally dissolved on October 14th, and both Asheville and Buncombe County have said they will announce next steps at some future time. It looks increasingly likely that they will take no formal action on reparations, because of the likelihood that this would trigger damaging retribution from the federal government.

The Facts: Both the City of Asheville and the Buncombe County Commission passed Reparations Resolutions in 2020, calling for the formation of a Community Reparations Commission (CRC) that would make short, medium, and long-term recommendations for policy changes. The CRC was formed in 2022, and has concluded its work. The Chair and Co-Chair made a final presentation on the results of their work at a Buncombe County Commission Briefing on September 2nd and at a Asheville City Council Meeting on September 9th.

You can see the slides for the Buncombe County presentation here (the City version is almost identical and can be viewed here). The full report from the CRC here.

Update (9/8/25): The Asheville Watchdog reported that “the U.S. Department of Justice has sent a letter to Buncombe County threatening to investigate and take enforcement against the county if it approves recommendations from the Asheville-Buncombe Community Reparations Commission.” You can read about this letter here.

Update (10/13/25): The CRC was formally dissolved at the October 14th Asheville City Council Meeting.

Our Assessment (updated 11/3/25): Our conversations with local leaders have convinced us that no explicit action will be taken on the Reparations Recommendations by either the Asheville City Council or the Buncombe County Commission, because of the likelihood that this would trigger retribution from the federal government that would ultimately be harmful to the local Black community, among others. We have a range of opinions on whether this is the right course of action, but we agree that it makes no sense to continue pressuring them to center reparations when they are convinced that doing so would actually cause further harm. We hope that the reparations process can be resumed in the future, and that both the City and County demonstrate their commitment to remedying racial injustice in the policies they do pursue.

Our Original Assessment (updated 10/13/25): With the formal dissolution of the Community Reparations Commission on October 14th, we remain troubled that no public plan for next steps toward enacting reparations has been announced by either the Asheville City Council or the Buncombe County Commission.

The Asheville City Council received their presentation on September 9th, and there was no discussion of its content during the meeting. City staff have apparently been directed to “identify those recommendations that are within the City’s purview or area of responsibility,” but no timetable for that process has been announced. Buncombe County has yet to announce any follow-up steps to the work of the CRC.

We continue to have significant concerns about the way the Reparations Recommendations are being handled by our elected leaders. The City and County both made sweeping promises to repair harm when they initiated this process five years ago. Are they prepared to fulfill those promises? And if they aren’t, are they willing to take accountability for the ways this process hasn’t lived up to the promises made?

GAP Supporters have received replies from one member of City Council (Bo Hess) and one member of the Buncombe County Commission (Drew Ball). However, neither reply contained any indication of when a more full response from either government could be expected – and we haven’t heard from any of the other elected leaders.

(You can watch the 2022 candidate forum we referenced in our email, where City Council candidate Maggie Ullman and Mayoral candidates Esther Manheimer and Kim Roney all spoke about reparations, here.)

Prior Assessment (9/8/25): We were troubled that Buncombe County scheduled their Community Reparations Commission (CRC) presentation for an afternoon briefing where no public comment was allowed, rather than their formal meeting a few hours later, which was better attended and where public comment was possible. At the briefing, several County Commissioners asked questions about the CRC’s report, but there was no discussion of what steps Buncombe County planned to take, or even a rough timeline for when such plans might be announced.

The Asheville City Council will receive their presentation on September 9th, and we expect a similar outcome, but we hope we’re wrong. City Council Member Bo Hess, in response to outreach from a GAP supporter, said that City Council would be considering some of the 39 recommendations, those determined by staff to “fall within the city government’s purview.” He offered no indication on when that might happen, simply that he was “hopeful that this process will be completed in a timely manner.” It’s hard to know what “timely” might mean in this context, given that the City and County received these recommendations 15 months ago. (You can read Council Member Hess’ full response below.)

The predictable hostility of the federal Justice Department to the prospect of reparations obviously complicates the decision-making process for both governments, as there is the very real risk (referenced by Dr. Dwight Mullen in the Asheville Watchdog article) that reparations funding could be drained by lengthy legal battles. On the other hand, the legal teams from the City and County have been deeply engaged with this process from the start, anticipating these kinds of legal challenges and steering the CRC to draft recommendations that would hold up under just this kind of attack. We were often concerned that this legal analysis was excessively restrictive, giving the CRC too limited a scope to make recommendations that could truly be called “reparations.” But the CRC went along and followed the lead of the City and County attorneys, working within those conservative parameters. They did their part. Now we wonder: will the City and County do theirs?

More specifically: will the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commission take any kind of strong public action in relation to the reparations process they initiated? Will they publicly discuss and vote on the recommendations they asked for? If they think the time is wrong to take that step, because they don’t want to engage in a legal skirmish with the U.S. Department of Justice, will they make that announcement publicly and formally suspend action on reparations for a period of time?

These are not easy choices, but reparations were never going to be easy. Asheville and Buncombe County got national acclaim in 2020 for their bold promise to deliver reparations to local Black residents. Now the time has come for them to boldly announce what they plan to do to fulfill that promise. Take action? Postpone action? The most troubling thing they could do is allow the five-year process they initiated, and the recommendations they requested and set aside money for, to wither away quietly. If they do that, then this whole process won’t have repaired anything, and will in fact be yet another harm future City and County officials will have to atone for.

Things to do: We invited you to join us in reaching out to the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commission, asking them when they will be publicly taking action on the 39 recommendations presented to them in June 2024.

Report Back

Total GAP Supporter Actions Taken: 43

Recipients and Responses:

Asheville City Council

• Mayor Esther Manheimer: No response
• Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley: No response
• City Council Member Bo Hess: Responded. See Below.
• City Council Member Kim Roney: No response
• City Council Member Maggie Ullman: Responded. See Below.
• City Council Member Sage Turner: No response
• City Council Member Sheneika Smith: No response

Buncombe County Commission

• County Commission Chair Amanda Edwards: No response
• County Commissioner Al Whitesides: No response
• County Commissioner Drew Ball: Responded. See Below.
• County Commissioner Jennifer Horton: No response
• County Commissioner Martin Moore: No response
• County Commissioner Parker Sloane: No response
• County Commissioner Terri Wells: No response