Alum Maxine Bakeman welcomed fellow commissioners, including Nancy Hoffmann, Abdel Nuriddin and Marikay Abuzuaiter, to Bennett College.
UPDATE: Assistant City Manager Denise Turner Roth said the human relations department sent out a press release in July stating that the Aug. 3 meeting would be held at city council chambers at 11:45 a.m., adding that the department did not send out a second press release noting that the meeting time and location had been changed to 5:30 p.m. at Bennett College. She said in the past the city's practice has been to have each department independently publicize its committee meetings, but going forward all department press releases will go through the city's public affairs department and be sent to its global distribution list to maintain consistency.
Roth acknowledged that the error defeated the purpose of trying to encourage public attendance at the commission meetings.
"What I am concerned about is a perception, if there is one, that there was an effort to suppress information about the meeting," she said. "That's not the case."
ORIGINAL POST: Giving his final remarks as chair, Abdel Nuriddin told fellow members of the Greensboro Human Relations Commission tonight: “This body has become a very, very dynamic instrument.”
Several members have worked anxiously behind the scenes to ensure that a resolution opposing the reopening of the White Street Landfill was read aloud before city council.
That moment came last month just before a rump majority voted to reopen a limited section of the landfill following a court ruling that the city cannot negotiate a contract for un-permitted sections of the landfill without first holding a public hearing, researching the demographics of nearby residents and considering alternatives.
The task of reading the resolution, three pages in length fell to Nuriddin, as chair.
Mayor Bill Knight told Nuriddin he had three minutes to speak. Midway through the reading of the resolution, Knight told Nuriddin his time was almost up. Human Relations Commissioner Michael Roberto stood up in the meeting and protested: “This is a human relations report.” The chair also looked upset, and the mayor indicated that he could continue.
The 15 members of the commission are appointed by members of city council. Established in 1961 in response to demands by black citizens for equal treatment, the commission’s duties are outlined in the city’s code of ordinances.
The first three duties would seem to be directly relevant to the landfill controversy: “To study and make recommendations concerning problems n any or all fields of human relationship and encourage fair treatment and mutual understanding among all racial and ethnic groups in the city… To anticipate and discover those practices and customs most likely to create animosity and unrest among racial and ethnic groups and by consultation seek a solution as these problems arise or are anticipated… To make recommendations to the city council designed to promote goodwill and harmony among racial and ethnic groups in the city.”
It was unclear at the time why the resolution had not been given its own place on the agenda. Commission members who were anxious to avoid jeopardizing the resolution declined to explain even on background why it didn’t make the agenda.
The mayor interrupted again and asked Nuriddin how much longer the resolution would take.
“The Commission on Human Relations for the city of Greensboro, based on inconclusive health information related to the White Street Landfill, and based on health concerns and fears among residents living near the landfill, and based on shared perceptions about racial injustice by residents surrounding the landfill as well as other residents throughout the city, recommends that city council not reopen the White Street Landfill until there is further study to determine conclusively the health impact on its residents,” Nuriddin told the council.
“We believe that the impact of this decision is citywide and that disregard for he health and well-being of one neighborhood or community in our city weakens our entire city body,” Nuriddin concluded. “We are only as healthy, strong and united in a common purpose to make Greensboro the best that it can be as the aggregate of our individual neighborhoods.”
The gallery rang with applause, and but reaction from the dais was muted.
Then the mayor broke the silence.
“That’s about 12 minutes, I believe,” he said.
District 2 Councilman Jim Kee commended the commission for tackling some difficult issues. He is the city council liaison to the human relations commission, and also happens to represent the district that includes the landfill.
“I asked the mayor to put you guys on the agenda,” Kee said. “The mayor refused.”
Commissioner Maxine Bakeman noted that members of council had been given copies of the resolution before it was read, reasoning that it should not have come as a surprise to the mayor.
“In no way was the commission there to disrupt that meeting,” Roberto said.
The commission is tasked by the council with addressing some of the stickiest of racial issues in a city that is notoriously divided along racial lines. Some might prefer that the commission conduct its studies and then let matters die in quiet obscurity, and the messages brought back to council by the citizen body have not always been embraced.
“This is not the first controversial issue taken up by the commission,” Human Relations Director Anthony Wade said. “Two years ago, you took up the Klan-Nazi killings. The city council signed off on a statement of regret for those killings. The following year, your complaint review committee expanded. This latest stand by this commission is part of a history.”
One hurdle in getting the resolution passed and read cropped up when Wade cautioned the commission during a meeting in May to proceed carefully because he had been handed a memo from the city attorney’s office only an hour earlier. He told the commissioners he did not have a copy of the memo with him and asked them to come by his office to review it in person because he did not feel comfortable releasing it without express permission from the city attorney.
The memo, written by Associate General Counsel Jamiah Waterman, was released within 24 hours. It said that human relations commission did not have the authority to investigate the city over its handling of the landfill, but did not address whether the commission was within its rights to make recommendations.
“That was a rather confusing statement, I believe,” Commissioner Marikay Abuzuaiter said in an interview [today]. “I brought up the fact that if there was a legal memo that would affect our running the meeting that we should have prior knowledge of it. I got the memo and read it as saying the human relations commission could not investigate or make a complaint against the city. I understand that…. There is nothing in there that says you cannot make a resolution and bring it before the council.
“It may have been sent to Dr. Wade at 4 p.m.,” she added. “I didn’t feel that we should stop the meeting because of it.”
While the tension between the council and the human relations commission is not new, the relationship appears to have become increasingly rocky over the past two years, as commissioners appointed by the previous council continued to serve and the new council charted a more conservative course.
Commissioner Marikay Abuzuaiter nearly lost her seat a year ago.
She said she received a letter from the mayor indicating she was no longer on the commission at the time. She requested a meeting with him, and she recounted that the mayor said he had been told that she had resigned. Abuzuaiter and Roberto went to council in July 2010 to lobby for her continued service on the commission. At the end of the meeting, at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins reappointed her. Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, who had appointed someone to fill the seat the previous month, complained about meeting procedures that night.
Rakestraw, who favors reopening the landfill, and Abuzuaiter are onetime political competitors. Rakestraw edged out Abuzuaiter by only 623 votes to secure one of the three at-large seats on council in the 2007 municipal election. Two years ago, Rakestraw opted to run in District 4 instead.
The commission remains fertile ground for political aspirations. Abuzuaiter is making her third bid for an at-large seat this year. Nancy Hoffmann, who was seated as the commission’s new chair tonight is one of two challengers vying for Rakestraw’s seat representing District 4. And Wayne Abraham, a former commission chair, is running at large.
Hoffmann’s campaign theme plays on a sense that the current majority on council has fallen short on inclusion and sensitivity. Her website declares, “I will respect the citizens and return their voice to council discussions.”
Abraham has spoken out against the landfill on a number of occasions, and his website plainly states his position in an issues bullet: “Dump the White Street dump.”
Meanwhile, members of the human relations commission have struggled to make their work more relevant and accessible to citizens, but the board remains a somewhat obscure outpost in Greensboro’s civic scene.
Tonight’s meeting was held at the Global Learning Center on the campus of Bennett College as part of the commission’s effort to bring its meeting out into the community. It took place at 5:30 p.m. instead of the normal time of 11:45 a.m. so that people would have an opportunity to attend after work. Wade said staff intended that the meeting be publicized by the city.
Yet no press release was sent out by the city’s public affairs office or posted on the city’s website. The audience for the meeting consisted of Kee, former Councilwoman Goldie Wells, two other residents and a reporter.
“One thing we were striving to do is have meetings out in the community,” Abuzuaiter said. “It seems like every step of the way it’s been difficult. It’s been frustrating that sometimes the information doesn’t get out in a timely manner. I believe more citizens would come if they knew about it.”
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