A few days after village trustees renewed the highly controversial Flock license surveillance cameras, Oak Park political activists gathered for their monthly conversation. Much of the dialogue centered on the surveillance decision and other village decisions — including, of course, more head-scratching and anger around leaf-bagging.
A leading community member, in summing up the evening, noted, “We can’t have increasingly un-democratic processes in our town as the broader country slides toward fascism.” At the heart of that perspective, I believe, is a widening gap between Oak Park trustees’ professed values and their actions around democratic governance, transparency, and racial equity.
The three examples I share here are emblematic of the growing disconnect between needs expressed by the community, often eloquently articulated by citizen commissions, and decision-making by most of our elected leaders.
On April 9, as multiple ceasefire supporters readied to make passionate, heartfelt pleas to place the Oak Park ceasefire resolution (1) on the agenda for a future meeting, President Vicki Scaman, before any public statements were made, proclaimed that trustees had already unanimously agreed to not support or even discuss the resolution. The democratic dialogue at a future board meeting that all had expected, shockingly, was blocked from consideration. It seems the board violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Trustees had an important dialogue and agreement in private and, despite persistent requests since then for an open discussion and debate, that is where it remains.
The Flock decision on June 4 widened the accountability gap with village decision-makers, further undermining transparent government and their commitment to racial equity in two ways: The village administration refused to include in the agenda the Citizen Police Oversight Committee (COPC) 11-page report (2) proposing cancellation of license surveillance. CPOC is the community body tasked with studying this issue, and yet its data and value-rich report was not included in the board packet for background to their vote. Among other things, this report showed that, despite police not conducting one license-generated stop for the last four months, the data revealed striking racial disparities, including unacceptable error rates.
Sadly, we also learned that evening that Village Manager Kevin Jackson had re-written an equity impact description developed by the village’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director Danielle Walker. Jackson’s revisions became a one-paragraph document, innocuous and devoid of any reference to the compelling data, analysis, and CPOC’s overall recommendation to cancel Flock license surveillance.
There are immediate ways for the village manager and trustees to narrow the growing gap between their professed values, and the action, accountability, and transparency that village democracy demands.
First, trustees should institutionalize and codify, now and for future boards and administrators, a full racial-equity policy and procedures, an end game set forth last year by consultants from the Great Cities Institute (3) and proposed by Represent Oak Park African-American trustee candidates Anthony Clark, Chibuike Enyia, and Juanta Griffin in the last board election.
Second, they should postpone any major decisions on public safety, housing, or a rebuild of our village hall that does not include transparent community engagement using the racial-equity assessment protocol presented to trustees in June of 2022. Most importantly this process must include authentic participation of community members harmed by historic inequities.
Third, trustees should publish the results of last winter’s racial-equity survey originally scheduled for this past March. If the number of respondents is lacking, reopen the survey, and extend the process as the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (MMC) did to ensure wider participation in the housing survey.
Fourth, as the MMC proposed with the housing report in March (4), the village must take “immediate action” by conducting a racial-equity assessment of housing programs, an affirmation trustees made in approving the Climate Ready Oak Park sustainability plan on Aug. 1, 2022. Trustees have set the table to make the idea of racial equity come to life — now they must act with resolve to close the gap between their professed ideals and actions.
Finally, the board needs to make an affirmative commitment to carry out all future deliberations in an open and transparent manner and to utilize citizen commissions and committee recommendations in its deliberations. Such a commitment will be a step forward in restoring confidence in the processes of this and future boards.
Sources:
1. Oak Park Ceasefire Resolution to Save Lives, www.change.org/OakParkCeasefireResolution
2. CPOC memorandum recommending cancelation of Flock, https://drive.google.com
3. Great Cities Institute racial equity development proposal, https://oak-park.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.
4. MMC Final Housing Plan, https://oak-park.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.
John Duffy is a member of Diversity Oak Park, which advocates for economic and racial diversity in housing and has called on the village to codify a racial-equity policy and enforcement procedures.