Several black City Council members are still not satisfied with Council President Bill Bishop’s decision to not rearrange two key committees to include more minority representation and they continue to boycott their assignments.
Council members Reggie Brown, Warren Jones and Denise Lee met with Bishop on Tuesday for an update about whether the Council’s Rules and Finance committees would be adjusted to include two minority representatives.
Currently, both include one black member, with Jones serving on Rules and Council member Johnny Gaffney serving on Finance.
In June, Bishop met with Lee, Jones, Gaffney and Council member Kimberly Daniels to discuss his appointments.
At the meeting, the black Council members sought increased representation on the two committees and also requested a minority Council member be appointed to chair a committee.
In response to Bishop’s initial appointments, four of the five black Council members issued resignation letters from their committee assignments. Gaffney did not.
Bishop has not accepted their resignations and Lee said Tuesday that she reissued her resignation request last week.
Bishop split the Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety Committee into two committees and appointed Daniels to lead Public Health and Safety.
Brown and Lee said the request for increased representation on the Rules and Finance committees remains and they were not notified by Bishop of any resolution.
Bishop told the group Tuesday that his stance on the makeup of his assignments remains unchanged.
“The committee structures are set and they are not changing,” Bishop said Tuesday. “The committees are doing their work, they are doing their business and I see no reason to change any of that.”
He said the one caveat was that Council member Richard Clark, who was not appointed to any committee, will be placed on two committees to ease the workload of other Council members who were placed on three committees.
Clark is listed as being on the Recreation and Community Development Committee.
Bishop said he wanted to work with everyone, but that he would not accept the resignations and that it was the members’ decision whether they would participate in committees. By accepting the resignations, he would put additional work on other Council members and did not want to do so, he said.
Brown said that, in the current committee makeup, he could not vote for the proposed budget that will be presented to Council next month due to the lack of minority influence and that the request for change wasn’t about race but about priorities.
“It can’t be comprised of far right or far left,” he said, referring to political parties.
Bishop responded by saying the “political bent” of a particular committee makeup is the prerogative of the Council president. Brown said that doesn’t make it right or fair and doesn’t represent the “entire body of the city.”
“It doesn’t make it right, it doesn’t make it wrong, it makes it what it is,” Bishop said. “It is always going to be that way.”
Bishop said he makes no apologies for the political bent of any committee.
After Bishop left for another meeting, Lee, Jones and Brown continued to discuss their position.
Brown suggested action to change how Council’s leadership structure is established each year and Lee said she was frustrated and described what she believes is a lack of inclusion and communication.
Jones told his colleagues he did not want it to be perceived as a racial issue.
“There seems to be a disconnect, not only with Mr. Bishop but a number of our colleagues who don’t view us as equals or with the ability to be in a leadership role,” Jones said. “I think it’s important that we need to set the tone that we needed to be included in the process.”
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