Kennewick wanted to improve relations with minorities. So why did it disband its diversity commission?

Two years after a Kennewick city councilman infuriated many Latinos by sharing a pro-wall meme on his private Facebook page, the commission formed to contend with the aftermath has disbanded and most of its recommendations have been ignored.

The city council created the commission in part to head off a Latino boycott of Columbia Center after now-former Councilman Bob Parks shared a meme of Bernie Sanders, purportedly seeing the need for a border wall after visiting Yakima.

The commission was given about a year to look at Kennewick’s relationship with minorities and to develop recommendations for ways to improve.

Members met monthly and presented the modest recommendations in February. It asked the council to allow to continue beyond its original time frame. It also recommended the city improve its outreach to minorities and that it re-launch its dormant citizens academy.

The council was effusive in its praise for the commission, but latched onto the citizens academy plan while largely ignoring the other recommendations.

“I need a real issue here,” said Councilman John Trumbo, who attended about half the commission meetings.

A vague mission

The citizens academy will be re-branded and re-launched this fall, with an emphasis on encouraging minorities to sign up for the program, which educates citizens about city roles and responsibilities.

Mayor Don Britain hinted at reviving the commission in the future, but acknowledged the council let it flounder by giving it a vague mission

“Any future diversity commission needs to have specific goals,” he said.

The citizens academy is a good starting point for citizens who are interested in the city and potential roles on the council or the numerous boards and commissions, said spokeswoman Evelyn Lusignan.

She called the diversity commission a success and clarified that staff could recommend the council to reconstitute it at some point in the future.

“First and foremost, we want new avenues to communicate with our citizens,” she said.

But four of the six former diversity commissioners who shared their experience with the Tri-City Herald said they were disappointed the council didn’t consider all their recommendations.

They said they felt “disrespected” when some ideas went unheeded during the course of the year.

They also were told that their plan to hold a community forum away from city hall was unnecessary, and that they shouldn’t share results of a community survey with the city council.

The latter was shared anyway, after the commission ended.

“What the council got was the blood, sweat and tears of a beginning,” said Zelma Maine Jackson, who chaired the group.

Maine Jackson, who is black, is a long-time Kennewick resident who retired last week from the state Department of Ecology.

Ed Frost, a retired Ben Franklin Transit manager who also served as an elected Kennewick School Board member, was startled by the abrupt end in February. He wanted the council to weigh all the recommendations.

Focusing on the citizens academy let it avoid tough questions about its expectations for the commission.

“(City Manager Marie Mosley) made it easy,” he said.

While the elected seven-member Kennewick City Council is all male and all white, Kennewick is diversifying.

Latinos accounted for 29 percent of the city’s population in 2016, up 6 percentage points in five years, according to recent Census figures.

The non-Hispanic white population fell to 63 percent, from 70 percent, of the total.

The commissioners said they volunteered because they expected to make a real contribution to a changing community.

Uby Creek, a Latina, grew up in a family of migrant farm workers in Texas. She’s run for public office on several occasions, including school board.

She said she hoped to bring a female, minority voice to the city.

She described the commission’s abrupt as as being “fired”.

Frost, who is white, grew up near Spokane. He was embarrassed for Kennewick when Parks’ Facebook post blew up.

He volunteered to help the city avoid the sort of turmoil that rocked Pasco after police officers there shot and killed Antonio Zambrano-Montes, 35, in early 2015.

Zambrano-Montes had been throwing rocks at cars near Fiesta Foods. His autopsy revealed he was high on methamphetamine when he was shot.

“These are things that happen in a community where there’s a huge void between law enforcement and the people they are policing,” Frost said.

They won’t forget

Brenda Still, who is white, taught elementary and middle school in Colorado, Indiana and Kennewick, retiring about a decade ago after teaching for 24 years at Kennewick’s Desert Hills Middle School.

“I saw tons of kids that needed to be supported,” she said.

Maine Jackson said she had wanted to bring her past work on diversity and economic development to her adopted hometown.

She has served with the Governor’s Diversity Commission and said embracing diversity is good for building economies.

“I don’t see our council at all looking to the future,” she said.

The ex-commissioners aren’t the only ones frustrated.

“People who were frustrated and mad, they won’t ever forget about it,” said Leo Perales, a Kennewick resident who was among those crowding the city council chambers demanding action. “And they won’t ever forget about Mr. Parks. That’s why this is important.”

Perales has a complicated history with the diversity commission.

After failing to win a spot on the commission, Perales formed an unexpected alliance with Parks.

The two proposed a statement of inclusiveness to the city council.

But a majority of the council viewed it as an “end run” around the diversity commission and the proposed resolution failed.

Perales also unsuccessfully ran for election to Parks’ vacant seat.

“I think racism is a really big issue right now. It’s OK to have conversations,” he said. “I feel like Kennewick’s really dropped the ball.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2018 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Kennewick wanted to improve relations with minorities. So why did it disband its diversity commission?."