Annapolis striving toward serving diversity of city residents

I am grateful when we have conversations about race in Annapolis and across America. Racism moved into our country’s culture and impacted groups of people seen as “different” or whose cultures were deemed suspect or whose religion was unknown or whose skin color was darker or who were determined to be unequal.

For African Americans, America’s march through history began with slavery, escalated to a Civil War, and moved painfully through segregation and a deadly civil rights struggle. We can’t be where we are today without acknowledging the sorrowful history that led us to this moment.

We cannot pretend or deny that racism doesn’t exist in today’s society, and we cannot change the past. What I believe we can do is work hard to ensure there is no room for intolerance, hate, bigotry or racial discrimination in city administration or in city life. What we can do is look forward.

What I, as mayor, try to do every day is attempt to pull this city and its priorities in a new direction, one that has a focus on inclusion and diversity.

And that is exactly what we are doing. Since taking office two years ago, we have increased inclusivity and diversity in city government. We have focused on diverse hiring in the mayor’s staff and city department heads. I have asked every level of city government to be proactive in enhancing diversity to bring diverse experiences and viewpoints to city management and operations.

Inclusivity must take race, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability and gender identity issues into consideration. Today, we have more diversity in senior positions in city government. We have added liaisons for LGBTQ Annapolitans. We are off to a good start, but we can — and will — do more.

We have hired a staff to work specifically on outreach in African American and Hispanic communities. These teams develop programs specific to workforce development, community engagement, addiction, academic enrichment for young people (including more than two dozen summer camps this year), academic re-engagement for adults seeking a fresh start, and support for residents who have come out of a period of incarceration, including job training and expungement.

The goal is equity of city services — the services that are helpful to people previously left out.

Because of pending litigation and as a matter of sound practice under the circumstances, our city attorney has advised me not to discuss publicly the claims that have been put forward in court filings involving allegations related to the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis and the city. I will honor that request.

There are, however, circumstances related to the subject matter of the lawsuit that are a matter of public record. Prior to the filing of the lawsuit, I submitted budget requests to establish a grant to pay for the costs, which are associated with the inspections and typically recovered through fees (a cost that was previously unfunded) and to pay for an additional inspector. Those requests required City Council approval.

With respect to the inspection of HACA properties, to date inspectors have completed inspections at two of the five public housing properties. Re-inspections will continue after HACA makes corrections. City inspectors will start the third public housing property this month and are on track to complete all inspections by the second quarter of 2020.

Newtowne 20 is slated for complete demolition and replacement beginning in 2020. I helped HACA find the financing pieces and lobbied hard for the late House Speaker Mike Busch to bring in the final $1 million to complete the package. Efforts continue to aid HACA in finding funding for similar future projects.

Additionally, we continue to move forward to solve transportation issues and connect residents to education, job training and employment.

We welcome all to the table, embracing different races, ethnicities, genders, abilities and ages. We continue to have conversations, no matter how difficult, about race and other barriers. We do not presently, nor will we in the future tolerate racism, hatred or bigotry.

This holiday season (and every day), I would rather see us embrace our differences and work together for a better Annapolis.