Asheville Reparations commission calls for extension; awaits final decision in 'limbo'

ASHEVILLE - Reparations commission members are requesting an eight-month extension to their two-year timeline, which would prolong the process until December 2024.

The request garnered a cold reception from some Buncombe County Commissioners, who seemed to agree on a June extension, and a lack of consensus from Asheville City Council. A Dec. 12 council discussion ended without apparent resolution, although staff's recommendation was in line with the county's: Completion of the commission's charge by summer 2024.

City Manager Debra Campbell said Dec. 12 that there could be consideration of extending the time beyond that, if needed.

Mayor Esther Manheimer confirmed no decision was made at that night's City Council meeting, but told the Citizen Times they will "likely revisit the question at a later time."

'We need more time'

Reparations Commission Chair Dwight Mullen and Vice Chair Dewana Little made the case for an extension to council during its meeting.

Mullen is a retired political science and Africana studies professor at UNC Asheville. He founded the State of Black Asheville, a groundbreaking research project that began as a UNCA undergraduate research project.

“I would ask you to very seriously consider the value and depth of your experiences and the experiences of the commissioners as we ask for more time to do work that is vital for the life of this community, as well as the life of this city and county," Mullen said.

"What we are asking is not race specific. It is led by race, and it will benefit each community member ... But we need more time.”

The reasons were numerous, he said. Among them, is needed data and time to consider the "Stop the Harm" audit, among the first of the commission's recommendations. The audit results will be presented to the commission in February.

The Impact Focus Areas — workgroups of the commission targeting health, criminal justice, housing, education and economic development — are beginning to present recommendations to the full commission. Within that work, Mullen said, they are discussing intersections, redundancies and gaps. There are plans, too, for more extensive community engagement.

What they're doing doesn't have a timetable to act as precedent, Mullen said. "We don't know what we don't know."

The historic 25-member board is tasked with making short-, medium- and long-term recommendations to repair damage caused by public and private systemic racism. A resolution in support of reparations was first passed by Asheville City Council July 14, 2020. Asheville and Buncombe County are among the first locales in the country to undertake such an effort.

No timeline was established in the resolution. Members were appointed to the commission in March 2022. No term limits were included. Currently, the project is scheduled to "close out" by April 2024, according to staff, two years after it was seated.

In 'limbo'

As Rob Thomas, executive director of the Racial Justice Coalition, told the Citizen Times, the process was plagued with delays before it even began. He argued an extension was necessitated by the numerous external "hindrances" faced by the reparations commission.

Among these, Thomas said, were repeated delays in the application and decision-making process during commission member appointments.

“They gave themselves several extensions,” Thomas said of the city. “It’s like, how can you all see for yourself that wasn’t enough time to do what you needed to do, and you, again, created an imaginary timeline that should be amendable dependent on what the individuals who are most proximate to the situation identify as needed. Why would you not listen to that?”

Without a definitive answer on the timeline, said David Greenson, Government Accountability Organizer with the RJC, "it leaves them in limbo."

Tiffany De'Bellott, an alternate on the reparations commission, said the "hidden undertones of mistrust seem evident" coming from council and county commission.

“For the past two years, we’ve been working diligently to first do something that seems impossible. It is hard to come together as community members in a society and a space where we have been blocked and pushed away and not allowed to sit at the table," De'Bellott told council during public comment at the Dec. 12 City Council meeting, standing at the podium in council chambers. She told council, "we cannot do it alone."

Buncombe commission, Asheville council response

While Mullen and Little were there to advocate on the reparation commission's behalf to City Council, there was no one in attendance at the Nov. 21 briefing to County Commission, where the extension request was discussed.

Assistant County Manager DK Wesley said no one had been specifically invited to attend, but that the commission had been given ample opportunity to provide justification for its request, and declined.

"We do not believe an eight-month extension is warranted based on the project timeline," Wesley said. "But we do think, based on a couple of different factors, a two-month extension would be warranted." No action from the board was required.

County Manager Avril Pinder clarified under this recommendation extensive staff support at every meeting and IFA would decrease after June, but the equity office would remain involved. "We're hoping to move toward implementation of some of those recommendations, instead of studying the recommendations," she said.

Keith Young, former City Council member who wrote the city's historic initiative and now sits on the commission, told the Citizen Times Dec. 13 he was taken aback when staff asked for justification.

Draft minutes from the Nov. 6 meeting indicate a lengthy discussion, with some members asking why this particular item needed further justification when it had been voted on, 10-4, by the board at the prior meeting.

It wasn't without pushback from some reparations commission members who feared slowing down the work would lead to even more delays.

The request was initially introduced by Young in September to extend the timeline for two years. An amendment to that motion came Oct. 16, shortening it to eight months.

"The things that we value, we have patience for," Young said.

Like Mullen and Thomas, he reiterated barriers faced by the commission: Two project managers in two years, delayed data and lack of continuity among support staff — the county's first equity officer exited after less than a year, and the city's equity and inclusion director, Brenda Mills, is retiring in January.

A crucial reason for more time, he and others said, was needed community engagement, specifically within Black Asheville and Buncombe County.

People are looking to them, Young said. "If we don't do this correctly, it's going to have ripple effects."

Young was recently awarded a $130,000 fellowship by the Soros Foundation as part of a plan to help other cities start government-based reparations programs for Black residents as well as private programs that work in tandem.

"The commission does want to put out recommendations, and we do want to see progress in the work, but we do also want to make sure we center Black communities, Black bodies, the people who are really going to be involved," Young said.

While acknowledging there was no blueprint for the process, Vice Mayor Sandra Kilgore said she feared "dragging out" the process would lose people's attention.

Council member Sheneika Smith asked why the commission couldn't be paused while community engagement was ongoing and then, if need be, reconvene.

Manheimer acknowledged there is no other model to lean on.

At the Nov. 21 Buncombe County Commission briefing, Commissioner Al Whitesides took a more combative approach. In response to the extension request, he said he has spent time watching some of the meetings, and "if they can't justify it let's end it when it was supposed to end."

"It's a waste of time going forward," Whitesides said. "This is an insult to my ancestors to see what's going on."

He called for city and county staff and the respective boards to take over from here. "They've done a good job 'churning the sausage' so to speak," he said, "but now let's let the staff and chefs take over, and that's the commission and city council."

Of this statement, Thomas said he believes Whitesides does not have the "proper information" or understand the role he feels local government has played hindering the process. "They never relinquished control," he said.

RJC's Greenson acknowledged it's a "challenging, controversial process," and there are "many different voices in the Black community with different perspectives on it." You can respond in two ways, he said: deciding it's messy and walking away, or embracing the progress despite challenges.

"If you have the hubris to believe a local government that is majority white people decide for the Black community what to do, then that is the most asinine statement that I've ever heard in my life," Young said. "Who are you to represent all Black people? Who am I? Our community has to have its say. Out of all the people that sit in those positions, I would think he would know better."

"Value the fact that you have assembled these people together to do the work," he said to council and commission, "and that a majority of us understand, we need just a little bit more time."

Learn more

The Asheville and Buncombe County Community Reparations Commission holds its regular meetings on the third Monday of every month at 6 p.m. in the Banquet Hall of the Harrah's Cherokee Center. All meetings are open to the public. Its next meeting is Jan. 22. More information at: https://publicinput.com/avlreparations.

More: What is reparations? 17 months in, Asheville board is still struggling to define itself.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville Reparations members call for 8 month extension; What now?