The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly Monday voted to move ahead with the creation of a systemic racism review committee. <\/p>\n
The Assembly put the item on the Committee of the Whole’s agenda for a Monday, Aug. 24 meeting, where it will receive a public hearing.<\/p>\n
The proposal to create a committee followed calls from the community to review city policies for instances of racism, both subtle and overt, amid a larger, national anti-racist movement galvanized by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
The ordinance creating the committee<\/a> went through a round of amendments since the last time it was before the committee on July 26, Assembly member Rob Edwardson said. The ordinance was introduced and largely written by Edwardson with the help of the city attorney. At the meeting, Edwardson said some changes requested by other Assembly members or the public had been incorporated into the ordinance, but there was “no material change.”<\/p>\n The revised ordinance provided a definition of systemic racism that was fairly broad, Edwardson said, giving the committee wide latitude to identify instances of racism.<\/p>\n [Assembly considers Racism Review Committee<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n “There is somewhat of a definition of systemic racism, but it’s not so finely etched in there that it would exclude certain other definitions,” Edwardson said. “It allows the committee a lot of leeway to interpret systemic racism using a number of different examples or definitions.”<\/p>\n The only change made to the ordinance Monday was an amendment for a review of the committee after one year.<\/p>\n Some Assembly members expressed concern about the workload the committee was likely to create for already over-burdened city staff and suggested appropriating funds for additional staffing. The ordinance creating the committee currently appropriates no money, but it can be amended at the next meeting.<\/p>\n The Assembly was trying something new, Assembly member Michelle Bonnet Hale said, and it is unclear what exactly the outcomes the committee could lead to. <\/p>\n