Monterey officials up racial equity efforts
City manager presents resolution aimed at making sure City Hall is focused on ensuring racial justice.
MONTEREY >> Monterey elected officials and the city manager made impassioned cases Tuesday for a resolution promising a dedication to making City Hall, including the police, focused on ensuring racial justice in all of City Hall.
City Manager Hans Uslar presented a resolution that he emphasized is just a starting point toward making sure the city of Monterey is doing its utmost to ensure that racial justice, diversity and equity become a part of the city’s fabric.
“The senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers has been a global wake-up call on the institutional and systemic racism that continues to exist in our nation,” Uslar said in his report to the City Council Tuesday evening. “T he Monterey community firmly stands against racism, bigotry, violence and discrimination.”
The resolution passed 4-0 with Councilman Ed Smith not in attendance.
In the resolution itself, which comprised a long series of incidents involving the use of excessive and unnecessary deadly force by police, Uslar listed three pursuits the city should embrace. The first point is to denounce the actions and inactions of police officers which resulted in the loss of so many Black lives and for the city to ensure that those tragedies do not happen in Monterey.
The second is to have Uslar and Police Chief Dave Hober return by the end of the year with a presentation to the council on the police department’s use of fair and impartial policing policies. Third is to have Uslar develop and present a comprehensive plan that incorporates policies, procedures and priorities that address racial equity, inclusivity, and diversity among the city’s boards and commissions.
“We aspire to be a fair society and now is the time to fill those aspirations and transform them into actual practices,” Uslar said.
Councilman Alan Haffa, who along with Councilman Tyler Williamson recently held a virtual town hall meeting to discuss racial equity, said he appreciated the police chief and the city must make sure the department put the rights of all citizens first.
“It’s not just police,” Haffa said. “We have a history of systemic discrimination that we need to address as a people.”
Councilman Dan A lbert said he is proud the city is not overlooking the change that is happening in the nation, state and city of Monterey.
“This is the right course of action to examine our own policies and practices,” he said.
Williamson said that as the single person of color on the council, people often look to him to solve problems concerning diversity and inclusion.
“T he weight of that is heav y,” he said. “And I don’t always have answers.”
He called for having more data and details ref lecting the histor y of Monterey concerning Native Americans and recognize the city has low-wage workers who drive the hospitality industry and in turn, drive the local economy.
“I think it is a missed opportunity to not include something in the resolution about housing and how the lack of affordable housing affects communities of color,” he said.
W hile the resolution specifically cited issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion, Williamson said he would have liked to see language that addressed ethnicities, nationalities, gender identity, religious beliefs, and citizens’ physical and mental abilities.
Haffa suggested adding two additional points about how high housing costs “perpetuates racial and social inequities” and have the city’s Museum and Cultural Arts Commission examine the local history “to ensure that the diversity of the people who have contributed to our city are represented.”
Both additions were incorporated into the final resolution.
Monterey Mayor Clyde Roberson also tipped his hat to the police department for “being the model of community policing,” but also acknowledged that there are huge hurdles communities need to overcome.
“We tell out graduates that the world is theirs and all they have to do is work hard and they can achieve anything they want,” Roberson said. “It’s a nice sentiment but frankly it’s not true. Going forward we have to fulfill the promise we are giving our young people.”
The mayor noted that communities of color are often hit harder by inequities than the broader population.
People of color often live in environmentally damaged areas, and he cited how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting the disadvantaged at a much higher rate.
“That’ s simply not right,” he said.