Where does racial equity fit in local policy making? Charlotte considers framework
Charlotte City Council is considering implementing official language to use an “equity lens” approach to adopting policy.
On Oct. 24, council members are expected to vote on adopting an “equity in government” framework, which would require the council to consider racial and other inequities to ensure policy is inclusive.
Frederico Rios, assistant director of Charlotte’s Office of Equity, Mobility and Immigrant Integration, presented the framework to the council Monday night. Rios said said the decision is a step in the right direction to right the wrongs of historic racist policy, including Jim Crow laws and urban renewal that destroyed Brooklyn, Charlotte’s largest Black neighborhood.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to legislative historic policy language that created challenges that we are still facing today,” Councilwoman LaWana Mayfield said. “It is through legislative and policy language that we have the ability to attempt to address some of these issues, and we are that policy making body.”
The policy would:
▪ use six guiding questions for the council and its committees to consider before adopting policies, such as “Will this produce disparities?”
▪ review current council policies that could be changed to produce more equitable outcomes.
▪ develop equity indicators through data collection.
▪ publish an equity dashboard.
Rios described the framework as something that could grow with the council and could be amended in the future.
Rios said a recent example of policy examined through a racial equity lens is one adopted in June that will make it easier for residents to get speed bumps on their streets. The policy removes a rule that only allowed property owners, not renters, to petition for traffic calming policies.
Republican council members hesitant
Ed Driggs and Tariq Bokhari, the only two Republicans on Council, expressed hesitation about moving the policy forward.
Driggs said he thought the policy could be more inclusive and noted how the framework specifically mentions African Americans and not other races or ethnic groups.
“We are a member of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity,” Rios said. “Their direction states that the cornerstone of all equity work is based on racism to the history in this country specific to the subordination of African Americans.”
Bokhari said the council already leads most discussions with an equity lens and that he didn’t think the framework had enough structure.
“There’s an opportunity to make something here that enables us to ask the tough dialogues, and maybe we get to something really, really important, but that’s going to be more than what you see here,” Bokhari said.
The remainder of the Council in attendance was optimistic and eager to move it forward. Council members James “Smuggie” Mitchell and Malcolm Graham were not in attendance Monday night.
The Mayor’s Equity Initiative
The discussion comes almost a year after the city of Charlotte launched a $250 million Mayor’s Equity Initiative.
Mayor Vi Lyles tapped the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council, made up of prominent chief executives, to tackle issues such as education and economic mobility to create a corporate response to decades of laws and policies that created disadvantages for Black residents and other people of color.
The initiative launched in November 2021, on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University is the largest investment in Charlotte history and is intended to address racial disparities.
About $80 million in the $250 million campaign comes from public funds from the city of Charlotte ($72 million) and library system ($8 million). The remaining funds were raised from private philanthropy, including many of Charlotte’s largest businesses.
The money went to JCSU, the city’s Corridors of Opportunity program and the Center for Digital Equity housed at Queens University.
“The weight of this responsibility of knowing the history and living through the history has long been carried by many of our residents that are Black and brown, by the many grassroots organizations, and often by local government,” Lyles said when the initiative was launched. “In my opinion, to address systemic inequity, corporate America has to be at the table.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
