City Council to form Committee for the Elimination of Racism and Bias, seeks applicants

posted on: 7/13/2020

The City Council will soon form an ad-hoc Committee for the Elimination of Racism and is seeking community members interested in sitting on the advisory panel. The committee will hold listening sessions, review data and develop an action plan intended to help identify and eliminate systemic racism in municipal operations, including public boards and commissions.

The advisory committee will report its recommendations to the City Council.

The City Council discussed the composition of the committee at its meeting on July 8. Members of the committee will likely include a City Councilor; a School Board member; a representative of Dover High School’s Project DREAM; a member of the public representing the NAACP, ACLU, or similar organization with a mission that seeks to eliminate racism and promote racial justice and equality; a member of a field of academia with a focus on identifying and eliminating systemic racism/bias; and members of the community with knowledge, interest, and experience in addressing systemic racism and bias. The number of community members is yet to be determined, pending interviews of applicants by the City Council’s Appointments Committee.

City Council to form Committee for the Elimination of Racism and Bias, seeks applicants

posted on: 7/13/2020

The City Council will soon form an ad-hoc Committee for the Elimination of Racism and is seeking community members interested in sitting on the advisory panel. The committee will hold listening sessions, review data and develop an action plan intended to help identify and eliminate systemic racism in municipal operations, including public boards and commissions.

The advisory committee will report its recommendations to the City Council.

The City Council discussed the composition of the committee at its meeting on July 8. Members of the committee will likely include a City Councilor; a School Board member; a representative of Dover High School’s Project DREAM; a member of the public representing the NAACP, ACLU, or similar organization with a mission that seeks to eliminate racism and promote racial justice and equality; a member of a field of academia with a focus on identifying and eliminating systemic racism/bias; and members of the community with knowledge, interest, and experience in addressing systemic racism and bias. The number of community members is yet to be determined, pending interviews of applicants by the City Council’s Appointments Committee.

Members of the community interested in serving on the Committee for the Elimination of Racism and Bias should contact the City Clerk’s Office for an application or download the application here. Applications must be returned to the City Clerk’s Office in person, by mail or by email. Applications will be reviewed in the coming weeks by the Appointments Committee.

The pending formation of a Committee for the Elimination of Racism and Bias follows the unanimous adoption of a resolution by the City Council in June that condemns systemic racism and acknowledges the effects of racial inequity on education and economic opportunities. The resolution states that Dover will continue to “strive to become increasingly welcoming, inclusive, representative, and responsive to historically underrepresented and underserved communities.”

For more information, contact the City Clerk’s Office at 516-6018.