money Iowa City Truth and Reconciliation Commission submits new budget, asking $584,700 for a facilitator
The Iowa City Truth and Reconciliation has spent months reworking its proposal to hire a group to help reckon with racism and social injustice in the city's past.
With a 6-0 vote Thursday after a tense 2½-hour meeting, the TRC is again asking Kearns & West to be its facilitator. While the strategic communications firm is the same one the Iowa City Council rejected a proposal from in September, and the budget to hire them is more than twice the original cost, the proposal has been reworked to include well-known national and local groups with experience working with other TRCs.
The cost is $584,700 to hire Kearns & West for a 12-month period, in partnership with national nonprofit ThinkPeace, and Iowa City-based Astig Planning, Banjo Knits Empowerment and the Mediation Services of Eastern Iowa. That coalition would act together as the TRCs facilitator. But the TRC is also in talks with three American Indian professionals who they say will help conduct methods aimed at reconciliation to help maintain respect for Indigenous cultural practices.
When the City Council originally rejected Kearns & West, the cost of its services without these additional groups would have been $197,907.
Kearns & West Director Larry Schooler said he thinks the new proposal is stronger because of a mix of national and international truth and reconciliation experience, but also local "thought leadership" that he said allows for a deeper understanding of Iowa City.
"This is a team for truth and reconciliation, our core values. It is more than just another project, it is our passion project," he said. "We have a team that very much wants to see their hometown and region thrive through the work of the TRC."
Facilitator team breaks down proposal
The TRC has been working toward a new facilitator proposal largely under the direction of Vice Chair Amel Ali.
When City Councilors rejected the first Kearns & West proposal on a 4-3 vote, some took issue the firm being from outside of Iowa City and asked the TRC to seek local groups. Mayor Bruce Teague at the time voiced his opinion that the city should scrap the current form of the TRC and find a new way forward.
If the City Council approves the new facilitator team, the TRC could begin getting to the meat of what it was originally charged to do, which early tumult on the commission largely delayed.
The mission statement of the nine-member commission states its job is to bear witness to the truth of racial injustice in Iowa City and to carry out restorative justice, through the collection of testimony and public hearings. This would include a recommendation to the council of a plan for dedicating and/or renaming public spaces and/or rights of way in honor of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The city dedicated $1 million to issues relating to the Black Lives Matter movement, which has gone unused except for a decision Tuesday to spend $25,000 to expand the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant program.
The goal is to have Kearns & West focus on TRC meetings, have ThinkPeace focus on fact-finding and truth-telling events and have Iowa City residents V Fixmer-Oraiz with Astig Planning, Angie Jordan with Banjo Knits Empowerment and Annie Tucker with the Mediation Services of Eastern Iowa focus on healing events and assisting elsewhere.
The members of the TRC will define the roles in a strategic planning process after the facilitator team is brought on. They would participate in the events in addition to their monthly meetings.
The budget for the new proposal is broken down into five major areas:
$143,360 for the development of the strategic plan, work plan, research and project management.
$74,850 for the design of the fact-finding, truth-telling and reconciliation processes.
$161,467 for the execution of these processes, which includes four large in-person events, eight smaller smaller circle events split between virtual and in-person, and Diversity Markets.
$181,098 for the TRC meetings, which includes cutting down the meetings to once per month and providing travel costs to all members of the facilitation team to allow them to be at each meeting in-person.
$23,925 for the compilation of a final report, which will include all TRC work, testimony given and the recommendations.
Schooler said the large events could look anything like a bazaar to a public meeting. A unique aspect of the proposal is having Jordan implement the South District's Diversity Markets into the overall plan.
Schooler said that, while this is more than double the cost of the September proposal, it is more complex and includes more people on the team. He said Kearns & West will usually have at least two people present at meetings and events.
"We're bringing the kitchen sink for you all," he said.
Schooler said it is critical to understand the $584,700 figure is preliminary and could change. He later described it as a "ceiling" for what the final cost could be.
When asked by City Councilor Laura Bergus about why Kearns & West wants to bring their expertise to Iowa City, Schooler responded that the city is unique for taking a proactive approach to creating a TRC, rather than waiting for tragedy to strike.
"The other commissions have often been born out of a level of horror and tragedy that is unthinkable to me," he said.
He gave as examples Ferguson, Missouri and Greensboro, North Carolina, where Truth and Reconciliation Commissions followed the death of Michael Brown at the hands of police in 2014 and the killing of five people who were protesting the Klu Klux Klan in 1979.
More: 'Bring joy from within': Iowa City neighborhood group raising money for entertainment at its events
TRC Commissioners brush off cost of proposal
TRC Chair Mohamed Traore said that, while the cost of this facilitator is high, the addition of the new members, inflation and the longer timeline afforded to the TRC when Iowa City decided to extend it to at least June 2023 justifies the expense.
"That essentially gives us the opportunity to do more work and address more people with our work, so we're expecting that that would mean a higher dollar amount," Traore said.
Traore said the longer the wait, the less the TRC can help people who are being impacted by inflation and who see acts of racism happening in the community. He referenced how people are saying "choice words" to students in Iowa City schools, making them never want to attend that school ever again.
"We have a lot of problems around here, everyone knows that, or at least everyone in this room does, I hope," he said.
TRC Commissioner Chastity Dillard said that, while she is shocked the cost was so high, she is supportive of the proposal. She suggested showing people a more detailed and itemized version of the budget would be helpful.
Two TRC commissioners, Kevo Rivera and Sikowis Nobiss, were absent from Thursday's meeting. Commissioner Eric Harris left the meeting after initially saying he would vote no on the proposal and voicing frustrations with the outcome of the effort in Johnson County to allocate direct payments to excluded workers.
Schooler said he is hopeful the City Council will get to vote on the proposal as soon as its next meeting on May 17.
George Shillcock is the Press-Citizen's local government and development reporter covering Iowa City and Johnson County. He can be reached at GShillcock@press-citizen.com and on Twitter @ShillcockGeorge
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City TRC returns to City Council with new $500K budget proposal
