City Equity and Engagement Committee Meeting (January 17th, 2022) (Agenda)

This newly formed City Council Committee held their first meeting, and as one of their first actions, reviewed the Immediate Recommendation “Stop the Harm” from the Community Reparations Commission (CRC). The committee voted to recommend that it be taken up by the full City Council next.

While we appreciate the fact that the Asheville City Council appears poised to approve this recommendation this week (see below), we have major concerns about the precedent of sending Reparations recommendations through this committee. This seems like an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. The CRC already has a robust process for vetting their recommendations: Each potential recommendation gets presented at a full Commission meeting and then is reviewed and finalized over the course of the following month before being voted on. The next step should be a review and vote by the full City Council, not the additional hurdle of another committee process. City Council already does this more expedited process with issues it deems important, such as the recent response to the water crisis. We would suggest that actions by the CRC have inherent urgency and should move forward immediately.

Joint Meeting of the Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Commissioners to hear the results of the project conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) (Agenda, Full Report, Summary of Recommendations)

From the City’s announcement: “The purpose of this joint meeting is to hear the results of the project conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, including a comprehensive needs assessment and corresponding strategies and recommendations to improve our community response to unsheltered homelessness.”

We appreciate the fact that the NAEH report identifies the racial dimension of the homeless issue: “Black residents represent only 6 percent of Buncombe County, although they represent 10 percent of those living in poverty, and 24 percent of the people experiencing homelessness in the Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care population.” Overall, the plan proposed appears far-reaching and to show some promise. However, we have questions about how many of the 110 distinct recommendations presented will actually be implemented.

Buncombe County Commission Meeting – County appointments to the Community Reparations Commission (January 17th)

The County Commissioners appointed Dewayne McAfee to the Community Reparations Commission (CRC) and named Ronnie Copeland and Jesse Ray as alternates.

It’s important for vacancies on the CRC to be filled, but it’s also important that the process for doing so be as transparent as possible. Is there a nomination process? How does the County determine which candidates to consider for these posts, and what is the process for selecting the eventual appointees?

Asheville City Council Agenda – New Business A. Resolution authorizing the City Manager to develop a scope of work for an official audit in response to the Community Reparations Commission’s Immediate Recommendation to cease harm impacting the African American Community (Staff memo and resolution)

The Asheville City Council plans to vote on the Immediate Recommendation “Stop the Harm” that was unanimously passed by the Community Reparations Commission (CRC) at their December meeting.

We’re glad to see the City moving forward on this matter, and to do so without significant delay. We hope that this represents a new standard of urgency for Reparations Commission recommendations and that we’ll see similar responsiveness when proposals emerge from the Commission for returning land and money to Black communities.