A bit of a rocky start for the City of Winston-Salem’s open forum on the police department:
More than 70 people came to what the city government billed as “an open forum” to “collect public comments” about the criminal-investigations division.
But at the start of the meeting, Deputy City Manager Derwick Paige said that people would all meet in a private room with Risk Management Associates, a consultant hired by the city to do the review.
…..City Manager Lee Garrity stepped in and said that the city would allow anyone who wanted to speak publicly to do so, and the city would allow those who wanted to meet privately with the consultant to do so.
“We’re going to change it up a little bit,” Garrity said. “So we’ll try to accommodate everybody. Does that sound good?”
People applauded.
But that change didn’t alleviate concerns of some city leaders:
Stephen Hairston, the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a retired Winston-Salem police sergeant, raised concerns about the RMA team. He pointed out that the room of citizens was diverse, “but there’s a lack of diversity on your team – all white males.”
Garrity said that none of the companies that submitted bids to do the review were racially diverse. He said that the consultants know that they must do an independent review.
City Council Member Vivian Burke, the chairwoman of the council’s public-safety committee, said that she and at least one other council member were concerned about the lack of diversity of the consulting team, but she said she trusts Garrity.
Burke need not worry, though. Those familiar with RMA’s work here Greensboro know the company’s lack of diversity didn’t keep it from producing the racially-charged results they wanted.
