DP-In your attempts to make mediation truly representative of the needs of the community, as you so fervently desire, can you tell me specifically who originated these community meetings and who was notified of them?
MG: All of the meetings were initiated by Federal Mediation Now, the coalition that worked to bring federal mediation to Minneapolis and that mobilized a small army of volunteers to educate the public and gather input on the community's list of demands. All of our meetings were open to the public and widely advertised.
To give you an example, in the two weeks prior to the community meeting in which community representatives were elected, we:
1) put out many thousands of flyers into neighborhoods in north and south Minneapolis including at community centers and churches/places of worship
2) ran public service announcements on KMOJ, KFAI and one other radio station (can't recall which one) as well as in most every community newspaper including papers read by Latinos, American Indians, Hmong, Somalis, African Americans and others
3) went on MPR and other media outlets to educate the public about mediation and the upcoming meeting
4) attended many community group meetings with flyers to invite participation, including key groups/leadership within the Somali and Latino communities
5) personally hand-delivered flyers to the Minneapolis Urban League and NAACP, followed up with personal phone calls to my contacts in those two organizations, including a reminder call to each the day before the meeting
In addition, the meeting was "advertised" on the front page of the Strib the day of the meeting. Admittedly, this was not our doing as we could not have afforded the tens of thousands of dollars to buy ad space in the Strib. They listed the meeting as a public service. (Bear in mind that ours was an all-volunteer grassroots coalition with no staff or funding. Flyers, meeting expenses, etc. were funded out of our pockets.)
Short of paying people to be there, I don't know what else we could have done to invite more participation. I think we did a very good job of it. At our two big meetings--one on the northside and one on the southside, the rooms were packed. A good number of volunteers who canvassed in the neighborhoods came from these meetings.
DP: You also mention that the overwhelming sentitment was "they (the "poverty pimps") don't represent us". Was this overwhelming sentiment expressed by the overwhelming majority of the community, or just the overwhelming majority of those notified that attended the "meetings".
Dennis, short of conducting expensive surveys, I don't know how in the world we would have measured the sentiment of the majority of the community. Frankly, I'm not interested in what most white folks have to say on the issue, since this is a question of who will represent the Black community. What we got was the sentiment of the hundreds of Black folks who cared about the issue enough to either show up at the two big community meetings, smaller neighborhood meetings, or who talked to us as we went door-to-door in the neighborhoods. But you need to know that these folks were passionate about their position--to the point of folks standing up and saying it over and over. Beyond the issues/demands to be raised, the most common concern was who would represent the community and folks were adamant that it not be the "poverty pimps" (their term) and they named the very people that Kinshasha put on the "community" team.
DP: I have yet to see any statistics supporting this that substantiate the claim that the "City" torpedoed the process. You see Michelle, where it may be fair for you to say that the "poverty pimps" don't represent the views you subscribe to, it is equally fair to say that your views aren't necessarily the ones subscribed to by all members of the community that feel oppressed. Do I believe there were games played in the process? Absolutely, and by BOTH sides. Do I believe mediation is a bad thing? Nope... I just would like to see a wider range of voices included in the process. It's the fair thing and the right thing to do. If I'm not mistaken, that's probably what Kinshasa was working towards.
MG: I do not know how to get you to understand this but I will try one more time:
Under DOJ CRS protocols and under the normal operating rules of mediation, the city should have had no say whatsoever in who represents the community. One side cannot pick who sits for the other side.
A well-advertised community meeting was held on November 16, 2002 and community representatives were democratically elected by the communities they would represent, i.e. Black representatives were elected by Black community members, etc. This is how the CRS recommended it be done and their recommendations were followed to the letter.
Kinshasha, a paid city employee and top level advisor to the mayor, should have had NO ROLE whatsoever in the process of SELECTING the so-called community team. I use the word SELECTING because the people she put on the second community team (after the city refused to negotiate with the first, democratically elected team) were not elected by anyone to represent them. Perhaps these people's egos would be bruised by having to endure a democratic process or perhaps their grandiose sense of entitlement makes them certain they should automatically be the ones to represent the community. Nonetheless, it is clear that since they get their funding (and by extension, their paychecks) from the city, the city had a stake in making sure they were on the team and making sure others weren't.
People around the country have expressed concern to us that the way the city administration hijacked federal mediation will become a template for other cities who want to undermine mediation. Sadly, their concerns are well founded.
Michelle Gross
Bryn Mawr
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
