By Robert Haugh
The City is looking to fill three appointments to a newly created Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Interested residents must apply by Friday, November 13.
The Task Force will consist of seven members. It was created as part of an effort by Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Police Chief Pat Nikolai announced last June.
In September, the Council made four appointments: Darius Brown, Neil Datar, Andrew Knaack, Dianna Zamora-Marroquin.
Here’s their four point plan:
According to the City’s website for the Task Force, the committee members are volunteers and are appointed by the Santa Clara City Council. The frequency and timing of committee meetings will be determined once all vacant committee seats have been filled.
Application packets must be delivered by email to clerk@santaclaraca.gov. Or it can be submitted in-person to the City Clerk’s Office by 5 p.m. on November 13, 2020.
Interviews will take place at 5 p.m. during the week of November 30, 2020.
@SC Resident – Thanks for your kind words. I would prefer for the young people put in charge of this effort to understand that this is their operation. They have been appointed as a committee and they should fully take the reins that have been handed to them. It is up to them to direct their effort – They need not be led; indeed they should lead. They have the power to ask the City to release Police records to them. If necessary they are empowered to make “good trouble.” For example, if you check the very end of this last week’s video, from Monday, November 9, when the Task Force reaches Agenda item #6, which is to discuss email sent to them, you’ll learn that -apparently- they have not read any email. Instead, City staff inform them that there is a lot of well meaning but “irrelevant” verbiage. I’m sure that email sent to a committee entitled as vaguely as “Task force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” contains off-topic thoughts (remember this is supposed to be about City policing – perhaps that should have been in the task force title?), but the email is sent to THEM, not to City staff, and they should BE ABLE to read it without having to ask.
Do you know what would be more effective than running around with a recording-microphone pointed at citizens? Looking at data. For example, going through arrest records to see whether known patterns of harassment are present. In Los Angeles the LA Times and the City of L.A. have been working on this issue for a couple of years. I’ll grant you that the City of Santa Clara is not L.A. (how’s that for understatement?), but their methodology of looking at actual data is leading to actual results rather than being aimed at producing pats on L.A. authorities’ backs. You might want to read this L.A. Times report to learn more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-24/racial-disparities-in-lapd-stops-fueled-by-failed-crime-fighting-strategy-audit-finds
Sounds like you’d be a good person to be on this committee! Not being sarcastic or snarky – I really mean it! Get on the committee, propose and push for that directive, and make it happen!