|
Last week, Toledo Mayor Paula
Hicks-Hudson used the kickoff rally for Lucas County
Commissioner Pete Gerken’s campaign to announce her own
plans to run for mayor in 2017.
Perhaps a calculated “flex”
intended for the ears of potential rival mayoral candidates,
it is, rather, the mayor’s strong-armed maneuvers, allegedly
taking place behind-the-scenes, that could ultimately
undermine her reelection efforts.
At the center of a political
tug-of-war, is control of the Toledo Board of Community
Relations (BCR), an independent organization. The BCR was
chartered by the city of Toledo to promote “favorable
interracial and intercultural relationships, coordinate
activities concerned with eliminating discrimination, and
receive, investigate, seek to mediate … serious and
legitimate complaints of discriminatory behavior,…” among
other functions.
Chapter 159 of the Toledo
Municipal Code also equips the BCR board with the authority
to hire or remove its executive director and appoint board
members by making recommendations to the mayor, subject to
confirmation by Toledo City Council.
And therein lies the rub.
The Hicks-Hudson
administration, according to more than one community
activist, has been meeting with BCR board members to
“convince them that since we are now in the strong mayor
form of government, city council confirmation is no longer
relevant and that the BCR board’s ability to hire and fire
is also no longer needed. Instead, the mayor plans to hire
or fire the BCR director and decide its agenda.”
Of course, this is not the
first time that an incumbent Toledo mayor has attempted to
take control of BCR or dilute its authority.
In 2010, the administration
of Mayor Mike Bell attempted to replace retiring BCR
executive director Juanita Greene with campaign supporter
Bill Stewart. Strongly rebuffed by both the BCR board and
city council, Bell relented by putting forth current BCR
director Linda Alvarado-Arce, who had been recommended to
him by the board.
Why an autonomous BCR?
Historically, as an
independent organization, the BCR has played a major role in
ensuring that the city’s personnel policies were fair. In
addition to coordinating events to foster positive community
relations such as Erase the Hate and the annual Martin
Luther King, Jr. unity celebration, BCR has been an “outside
voice” addressing alleged discriminatory practices such as
ensuring that women and people of color were fairly
represented in the Fire and other city Departments.
Most notably, BCR has
provided checks and balances to potential one-sided
governmental power by incorporating input and involvement
into the system by a very diverse group of citizens. The BCR
us now led by its first transgender board chairman and
represented by racially and culturally sensitive members
from diverse faith, color, ethnic, gender, handicap, age and
sexual categories.
Is the mayor’s reported
strategy a legitimate concentration of power in an era of
“Strong Mayor” governance? Or are the alleged changes a
quiet attempt to quash independent activity that threatens
her authority or that of other political elites?
It is always impossible to
judge motives.
However, some speculate that
this is merely an effort to mute the emerging influence of
the local LGBTQ movement, the Community Solidarity Response
Network (CSRN)/Black Lives Matter campaign, the clamor for a
Citizens Police Review Board with real power and other
grassroots efforts that provide voice for marginalized
groups.
Power grab or not, with
Hicks-Hudson’s support appearing to stagnate, it is
politically risky to replace citizens’ authority with
executive power and allowing the BCR to become a mere
extension of the mayor’s office.
While cementing power may
temporarily benefit those currently possessing it, the
extraction of power from the “people” does not create the
incentives needed for them to invest in the mayor’s
political future. Especially when the citizens are those
who are trying to become incorporated into our political
system but feel that they are being pushed or kept out.
The only solution to
inevitable political failure is to move towards more
inclusion and not less.
The mayor would do well to
drop any efforts to replace citizen authority with
unfettered executive power. To do otherwise, may bring with
it the painful political lesson of “when strength becomes
weakness.”
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
|
