[Mpls] Federal Mediation

[ZippinZack]

I find it interesting that the fate of Federal Mediation is now in the hands of Jill Clark. Are we to understand that community representatives no longer have a say in what happens? A final determination on Federal Mediation should come from the community not a legal advisor. That's right people, Jill Clark and Jill Waite are legal advisors, they were never elected to represent the community. They were selected to be advisor and organizer, that's it. Now we are to believe that it is the Jills that have the say so and not the community. This is not true! But yet when I read the City Pages article I had the feeling that the article was leading the community of Minneapolis to believe that Federal Mediation is all about the Jills and the Chief. Take note of this, the entire group of the community representatives known as the CNT have not met as a group sense December 2002. A small fraction of the group calling themselves the "core group" has been running the show. I use the term show because that is just what it is, a show. When there was discussion of a $10,000 grant to cover research for the communities mediation team, I was taken back. I do understand that it cost money to do research, but it was my understanding that we had sufficient documentation to move mediation forward. Shortly after the questionable election of the CNT, Ron Edwards was selected to be the spokesperson. When did this change? Well, it has not changed because the group has not met as a whole to reverse the appointment. But there now seems to be several spokespersons. With all of the actions and reactions that have happened in the past 90 days regarding mediation, you would think that the group known as the CNT has met several times, but they have not. CNT members have attempted to call meetings, but the meetings that the community representatives wished to call never took place because the Jills would not permit it. As a matter of fact, it should also be noted that not all CNT members were elected at the R.Green meeting. We were told at that meeting that some members had been selected before the meeting. Selected by who? Where were these open community meetings held and on what date and time? I have yet to get an answer to that question. There was a time after the Chiefs postponement that Mediation was once again on track, it was shortly before the filing of the law suit. Everyone was ready to move forward, the police department, the community and the Federal Mediator. But for some reason the Jills along with those appointed before the community elections decided to file suit, why? I think that it is because this would have given all the power and control to the communities representatives. As we can see now, the suit has taken this away from the community, because mediation is now up to Jill Clark. So now we have a resolution from the city council that in fact gives the Jills just what they want. 1) The resolution calls for the suit to be dropped. OK, this should not be a problem, the suit is full of lies anyway. 2) The resolution calls for the appointment of another seat to be filled by a reputable organization. No problem here, Pauline Thomas has already offered a seat to the NAACP. 3) The resolution calls for the Federal Mediator to stamp approval on the community team. The mediator has always said that it is up to the community to select its team, so why wouldn't they sign off? So now the stage is set. Mediation is ready to move forward right? What about the Native American community. What about the other community members that have been bulldozed during this process. The right thing to do would be to call a city wide community meeting and attempt to satisfy everyone. But remember this will give control back to the community of their team, so it will probably not happen. So the show continues, everyone gets to argue their point of view of how Federal Mediation should proceed and none of the communities issues that will bring better community/police relations to Minneapolis will be heard. I say the issues are the important thing here, not who is at the table.

Zachary Metoyer
Central