As a new member of the Mpls. Civil Rights Commission and list member, I feel I should elaborate somewhat on what happened at the Sept. 23 mtg. where the Commission voted in favor of a resolution supporting federal mediation. (I read the digest version so I sometimes am a little behind on my reading of postings.) A bit of background, 14 of the 21 members (myself included) are new appointees as of this summer. Over the past few years, the Civil Rights Commission has not been as active as it could be on a number of issues. In large part, this was due to a high number of vacancies on the Commission. (For whatever reason, no appointments were made in the last couple of years prior to this summer.) Most of us who joined the Commission, I believe, came with a desire to raise the Commission's profile to provide leadership on civil rights issues affecting Minneapolis. It's an exciting time for the Commission and I have been impressed with the level of interest and engagement of my colleagues. At our last meeting, Ron Edwards spoke during the public comment period asking for our position on federal mediation, particularly in light of the passage of Councilman Lilligren's resolution. One member of the Commission offered a resolution expressing support for federal mediation with this support to be communicated to the Council and the Mayor. Although this was not on the agenda for business at the meeting, we spent nearly an hour hashing out the various positions and trying to determine whether this was an appropriate time for us to act. In the end, in my opinion, it became clear that, while there are many questions about how federal mediation would actually be implemented (and I speak as one who has favored and used mediation in my own law practice), there was a need for the Commission to exert some leadership and try to move the process along in any way it could. Hence, the 17-0-2 vote in favor of the resolution. I don't know whether you could call our action as part of a "ground swell of support" for federal mediation. However, I think it was important for the Commission to stake out some ground in this debate, particularly given the importance of the issue and the on-going civilian review reorganization. Whether this will have any effect on the Council and Mayor, I do not know. But, my impression from the discussion is that there is a clear need to get a process in place to begin to repair relationships between various constituencies in this city, both in the North Side and elsewhere, and the police. My hope is that the Council works swiftly to do so and that the Commission's action urges them along. Steve Marchese Hale Ward 11 Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com |
