Public workshops eyed for mid-winter

An advisory committee tasked with tackling social equity in the City of Sonora garnered more public engagement this week, and discussed further public education workshops tentatively set to be held after February.

“This is a good starting place,” said Megan Mills, who was viewing the Zoom meeting. “That’s my thought about this committee.”

The advisory committee gathered for its first hourlong meeting in September, and since then has focused mostly on the education of its members and the development of a focused message of intent.

Though the committee was missing three of its members on Monday — Sylvia Roberts, Nikki Coleman, and City Council

man Jim Garaventa — it appeared more members of the public were tuning in over Zoom than ever before to provide perspective on social equity and racism in Sonora.

“There are a lot of people who believe they are being discriminated against … that are not saying anything,” said community member Phil Nichols. [The committee] “has an opportunity to bring that out and give a voice to people who may not be speaking up.”

The members were still able to establish a quorum with members Darren Duez, Nathan Morales, Mercedes Tune and City Councilwoman Colette Such present.

The public workshop likely will be held on a Saturday to allow for members of the public who cannot participate in the bi-weekly advisory meetings to attend. It also likely will be held over Zoom if the COVID-19 pandemic has not dissipated by then and led by a professional facilitator from the East Coast, Such said.

“The reason we are having the workshop is we want to have a common language and basic concepts, so we are talking about the same thing,” said Tune. “The committee was formed to move toward racial equity. What that looks like, how we are going to do that, we are going to find that out.”

The function of the workshops will largely be educational and collaborative, though members of the advisory committee remain steeped in their own ongoing education about the role of the committee in combating racism in the community.

Such noted that the formation of the committee grew out of a July 6 City Council meeting where resolutions against racism were “appropriately” rejected and retooled.

Duez said he watched the meeting and noted Tune made a public statement that appeared to branch out into other issues: unemployment, homelessness and mental health. He said he hoped the social equity committee would then consider these issues as a factor in their discussions.

Other committee members said they hoped to table that conversation until later, after an agendized discussion about racial concepts in a Powerpoint presentation.

“I guess I’m useless,” Duez said in response. “I’m just going to sit here and be quiet.”

“I’m not silencing you,” Such replied. “I think it is addressed in the PowerPoint, however.”

At times, the advisory committee appeared to be at an impasse due to Duez’s frustration with the direction of the meetings and the group’s goals.

“It seems like everything is getting glossed over,” he said. “I’m not a glossed over person. I just don’t want to play the motions and go through the motions until the end and come up with a conclusion. This is typical politician crap.”

Such acknowledged that other systemic social issues intersected with racism in the community, though she urged patience when considering the topics.

“Why don’t you give us a chance to move forward and hold for a moment?” Tune asked. “We all want to start talking about more substantial things. We want to start a dialogue.”

Among the goals identified for the committee was the creation of a social equity resolution to present to the council, a review and possible update of a City Values Statement, a review and possible update of city policies on racial sensitivity, a review and possible racial sensitivity training for staff and council members, and dissemination of racial and diversity-sensitive material to the community.

“I’m not comfortable changing any city policy on anything,” Duez said. “I don’t think we should have any recommendation on that.”

The Powerpoint presentation also included a guided discussion from Tune about the public and private modes of racism and how they were represented in conversation within the community.

The group concluded the meeting after watching a short video about representation and ethnicity.

The next social equity committee meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Dec. 28.