Iowa City Truth and Reconciliation Commission facilitators approved to guide restorative justice work

A three-year battle for local justice took a step forward Tuesday, though an important leader simultaneously announced their departure.

The Iowa City Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission now have access to multiple facilitators to assist their efforts for restorative justice following a long city council meeting Tuesday.

Despite the encouraging outcome, the appearance did shed light on the difficulties the commission has faced since its inception three years ago.

The TRC was formed in 2020 to reckon with racial justice in Iowa City and to carry out restorative justice as well. The commission is required to include a recommendation to city council based on their findings. The TRC was charged with fact-finding of discrimination and racial injustice, truth-telling for people to share their stories and reconciliation.

But local partners paused efforts on a facilitator, largely citing the budget as a concern.

The TRC has sought a facilitator to guide their work previously, dating back to 2021 when Iowa City Council voted not to approve communications firm Kearns & West as the new TRC facilitator. A new proposal arose last year — one that came with a $580,000 price tag — which included local partners in addition to Kearns & West.

The TRC proposed both local and national consultants assist them in their work, including Kearns & West, national nonprofit Think Peace, healing partners — comprised of Astig Planning, Meditation Services of Eastern Iowa and Banjo Knits Empowerment — and three native partners — which are the individuals Manape LaMere, Terry Medina and Donnielle Wanatee, according to the contract. The cost of these contracts total $402,721.20 while the structure is not typical, City Attorney Eric Goers said.

He said there usually is an agreement with a single consultant, one that is ultimately responsible for the work to be completed.

Iowa City Council voted 4 to 3 to approve the facilitator proposal, with Mayor Bruce Teague, Shawn Harmsen and Pauline Taylor voting against it.

Despite the encouraging outcome Tuesday, a vital commissioner, citing stress and regular battles, decided to back away from the the TRC organization.

Commissioner Mohamed Traore resigns as TRC commissioners urge Iowa City Council to approve proposal

Mohamed Traore, former TRC chair who stepped down in July 2022 but remained as a commissioner, announced he was resigning from the TRC.

“I can’t do it anymore,” he said. “I honestly cannot. You people put me through hell for two and a half years.”

The TRC has faced challenges since its inception, including accusations of a hostile atmosphere in the commission, changes in leadership and commission makeup, a temporary suspension of the commission in 2021 and fierce opposition from community members.

The former TRC commissioner said he was a junior in high school when Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in 2012 and had finished his freshman year in college when Michael Brown was shot and killed in 2014. Traore said he felt that no actions had been taken to address racial injustice in those ensuing years.

Though Traore did not name any specific persons or organizations, he did express his frustrations how people have torn down the work of the TRC, making it so the commission tasked with combating racial injustice couldn't even begin work.

Traore said he’s sacrificed a lot for the commission and recounted how much time he and the commission had spent coming up with a request for a $1,000 monthly stipend for members, which was met with little support from city councilors. TRC members sought a stipend because of the amount of time and effort they put into meetings and the emotional toll of the topics they were dealing with, the Press-Citizen reported in 2021.

Johnson County Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz and CEO and founder of Astig Planning provided an overview of the proposal to city councilors and revealed $10,000 is set aside for other local groups as they step forward and aid the TRC's efforts.

“Our proposal really is a community-led framework and we like to talk about it as moving at the speed of trust,” Fixmer-Oraiz said.

The Astig Planning founder, who uses plural pronouns, said the four different groups involved in the proposal have been collaborating for a year-and-a-half.

“I think that we can all agree that if this type of work and the power that it has for transformative healing, it has to be community-led,” they said.

The proposal details the work consultants will do in a timeline of two phases, seven months total.

This includes holding truth-telling events that would allow for the TRC to meet their charge of witnessing “the truth of racial injustice in Iowa City” and to carry out restorative justice “through the collection of testimony and public hearings.”

Goers, while addressing a memo in response to the group's mission, said TRC could open the city up to litigation through defamation claims. The memo was brought up by Councilor Shawn Harmsen at Tuesday’s meeting.

Lauren Merritt, as well as a member of Think Peace who was part of the meeting virtually, addressed that concern, with Merrit saying the commission and its partners will determine how to ensure people can share their stories without putting the city at risk.

The TRC's role was analyzed during much of the conversation at Tuesday's meeting, with several community members voicing their thoughts.

Johnson County Supervisor Royceann Porter suggests town hall for Black community

Public commentators spoke for and against the TRC’s facilitator proposal Tuesday. Those in opposition largely expressed their concern they had not been contacted by the TRC or they were unaware of the commission’s existence until recent.

Activist Tony Currin and member of the Black Voices Project represented the organization Tuesday evening and asked city council not to approve the budget.

In one of the evenings more emotional moments, Johnson County Supervisor Royceann Porter spoke about the insults she accused former chair Amel Ali of making last year, negative comments directed at her and other members of the Black community. It never became clear whether Ali used some of the more serious insults she was accused of, the Press-Citizen reported in September.

“Until there’s some healing within the TRC and our Black community, I don’t care how much and who you give the money to, we’re going nowhere,” Porter said. “I’m going to stand here today. My recommendation was to come before you and ask you, the city council members, TRC and our Black community have a town hall.”

Teague suggested to defer voting on the commission’s facilitator proposal, but mayor pro tem Megan Alter immediately expressed her support of the proposal after, discussing how there are "good reasons" to have experts such as the national consultants involved in this work.

“There’s been so much compelling truth... this is what this is for," she said. "This is what this process is for and this is what movement forward is for and I do believe approving the budget right now, this is the step the TRC needs. Otherwise I don’t know how long this is going to last regardless of whether we extend this or not. What work can they do?”

Councilor John Thomas also voiced his support of the proposal and asked much of the night's discussion - including suggestion of a town hall meeting - be folded into the TRC’s work and become their first steps.

Harmsen suggested the commission set up at community events to continue creating visibility around the commission, listening to community members and building relationships with people. He questioned whether this work happens before or as part of the council approving the facilitators' contracts.

"Good news is that kind of engagement is what's in the proposal and you know as well as I do that cutting through the noise takes resources," Councilor Laura Bergus said. "So if we pause and we say, 'Try and cut through the noise a little bit more and then maybe we'll consider giving you resources to do that,' we are just shooting ourselves in the foot."

Dunn voiced his support of the proposal later in the evening.

“We should not be asking our nine volunteer, unpaid commissioners to be organizers in the community and telling them to do more and more and more while they have their own lives and their jobs they’re managing while they’re trying to do some of the most important work that our city has faced in generations,” Councilor Andrew Dunn said.

“I am personally just ready to do the work,” TRC chair Chastity Dillard told the Press-Citizen. “I know that our commission members are so excited to do this. It’s going to be a hard road. There’s going to be so many obstacles that we are already anticipating but we’re just ready to be able to move forward and just do the work.”

Iowa City Council also voted 6 to 1 to extend the timeline of the TRC’s work from June 30 of this year to Dec. 31, 2024.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City TRC facilitators approved after months of setbacks