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The city of Livermore is accepting new applications for its Equity and Inclusion Working Group following a City Council update last week.
During the council’s Jan. 11 regular meeting, city staff asked for direction from the council on next steps for the working group, including whether to reopen applications for more people to join.
“I think opening (the application period) back up will potentially make sense but I think that we do need to consider where is this going and again what is the goal?” Councilmember Brittni Kiick asked.
“Let’s say we get 300 applicants; are we going to take 300 applicants? Are we going to limit down those 300 before we say absolutely ‘yes’? Are there any restraints that we’re considering putting on this?” Kiick continued, adding that she believes the group “absolutely should still exist,” but the council should consider possible consequences of expanding it.
Following the meeting, the city reopened applications on Jan. 13 and will accept them through Friday.
When the public working group was initially formed last year, the Council Subcommittee Equity and Inclusion — co-chaired by now-Mayor Bob Woerner and now-Vice Mayor Trish Munro — accepted all 48 people who submitted applications by the Aug. 7 deadline. However, the current council has not yet decided whether it will take the same approach with the new set of applicants.
Munro proposed last week waiting until the council has appointed its fifth member before having a larger discussion about how the working group should move forward.
“We are right now four members; by the next meeting we’ll be a full complement. This seems to me to be exceedingly important work that we’re doing,” Munro said.
“There seems to have been a little kerfuffle back in December that led to this becoming more contentious opening up than we might have enjoyed,” she continued. “That said, it’s opened up and we have applications and that’s great; however, how we go forward with this seems to me to be a longer discussion that we should have when we have the full complement.”
Last month, the working group was at the center of a social media-fueled controversy after notes from a Nov. 17 meeting were referenced in an article by pro-law enforcement website Law Enforcement Today, which suggested that the city was considering the Thin Blue Line flag — which is used to express support for law enforcement, but is considered by others as a symbol of intimidation — as a symbol of hate. At the time, Woerner and Munro said the notes had been taken out of context.
As a result of the debate, several community members shared their input about the group during public comment at the Dec. 14 regular council meeting. Some expressed support for its efforts, while others called for it to be disbanded altogether.
Jackie Cota was one of the residents who spoke out against the working group in December (identifying herself at the time as Jackie Faith). She returned on Jan. 11 to echo her opposition to the group.
“This subcommittee made up of principals, vice principals, therapists and misguided activists have bought into the propaganda and academia-based lie that there is systemic racism born out of something they like to call white privilege,” she said during public comment. “This is a bully tactic Marxists like to use to silence you.”
Woerner clarified that the conversations and ideas that the working group has had so far have not been implemented in any form of policy or action by the council.
“We have to maybe reset our expectations in general as to what we can do and on what kind of time frame and how,” Woerner said. “In other areas, we have advisory bodies and we have a structure; this one we created to hear from people and of course, we heard a lot.”
“I would say at this stage, where we’re at, is we’ve been listening to what people said, and I think we also want to clarify that the fact that we’ve listened is not the same thing as the council taking action, for sure, and it’s not even the same thing as the subcommittee making a recommendation to the council to take action. We’ve done none of those things,” the mayor added.
Woerner agreed with waiting until a fifth council member is appointed to have a more expansive discussion but he asked staff to develop some structural recommendations for council to consider at its next regular meeting, to be held on Monday (Jan. 25).
A complete recording of last week’s meeting is available here and the Equity and Inclusion Working Group application can be found here.
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“”I would say at this stage, where we’re at, is we’ve been listening to what people said, and I think we also want to clarify that the fact that we’ve listened is not the same thing as the council taking action, for sure, and it’s not even the same thing as the subcommittee making a recommendation to the council to take action. We’ve done none of those things,” the mayor added.”
I would say we are at the stage to stop rationalizing/spinning the divisive and inflammatory notes from your own subcommittee. How about clarifying that the City of Livermore had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to George Floyd and is not “systemically racist” instead?
It comes to my mind how the FBI, the top law enforcement unit in the country quickly assembled MEDI photos and videos and systematically arrested many of those involved with the riot on the DC capitol last week.
None of those resources were put into play for those rioters in the George Floyd riots. There is no recorded record of the FBI arresting anyone in the George Floyd riots.
Interesting that Cierra sits on the E&I committee and Pleasanton Weekly feels her biased opinion qualifies her to write an article about it. Bravo once again corrupt so called media shows how pathetic they are.. and Cierra is one of the militant activists that sees everything through a racist rise colored glass
“Let’s say we get 300 applicants; are we going to take 300 applicants? Are we going to limit down those 300 before we say absolutely ‘yes’? Are there any restraints that we’re considering putting on this?” Kiick continued, adding that she believes the group “absolutely should still exist,” but the council should consider possible consequences of expanding it.”
No problem. Let’s say if there any negative consequences, the council can give the same response (excuse) as before – comments/plans/recommendations/etc. from the working group “were taken out of context”. Apparently no one considered the possible consequences of having a “working” group of left wing activists interpret “systemic racism” into whatever they wanted and then assume it was going to be accepted by city residents as “inclusive” and “welcoming” afterward?
Another interesting point. Pleasanton Weekly allows Cierra Bailey who sits on the E&I committee and wrote this article allows her to make assumptions about comments made in the first meeting in her attempt to doxx a member of the community. This is the type of militant activists that make up the E&I committee and once again their agenda of hate has had a light shined on them. Cierra Bailey even called a teacher a racist because the teacher was trying to equate their regional dialect to hers to understand a word she was using. Cierra Bailey sees everything that makes her feel uncomfortable as racist. These are the type of people who make up the “defund police” otherwise called E&I committee in Livermore. Flowery words don’t change the facts. We know your agenda of hate. We’ve seen the recent list of “demands” the BLM has put forth to Joe Biden and we are done being called racist by ignorant indoctrinated Marxists and we are now fighting back against your cancel culture of hate.
It is interesting that my comments were deleted for containing ‘false’ information when clearly there is written proof and facts that Cierra Bailey, who sits on the E&I committee feels and calls things that make her feel uncomfortable ‘racist’. As seen in her written story here https://thebolditalic.com/growing-up-black-in-the-suburban-bubble-of-oblivion-824b26d4a33a where she explains how she “accidentally left my Black switch on in class, confusing my White teacher with a phrase she didn’t understand” “I had grown up hearing my family refer to powdered laundry soap as washing powder. It never occurred to me that this was not universal terminology, so I was caught off guard when my teacher interrupted a story I was sharing to ask me what washing powder was. When I explained it’s what you use to wash your clothes, she laughed and said, “Oh, you mean detergent!” She was wrong; I actually meant exactly what I said the first time. But for her sake, I continued the rest of the story consciously replacing washing powder with detergent.” So Cierra assumes a teacher equating her regional dialect to Cierra’s as being “racist” by her statement “Despite closely following the unspoken code of conduct in White spaces, racism still managed to find me, of course.”. Another example of racism is her statement “It found me at five years old when a kindergarten classmate took a pair of scissors to my hair. As she was escorted out of the classroom kicking and screaming, she defended her actions by shouting, “It’s not even real!” I don’t know about you but my kids at 5 years old experience their friends getting ahold of scissors and cutting their friends hair and it wasn’t considered racist. This is the type of militant activism participating in the E&I committee and deleting my comment just shows the bias of Pleasanton Weekly.
Cierra’s attempt to ‘doxx’ a member of the community without proof is further example of the dangerous nature of members of the Livermore E&I committee and once again reasons the community is calling for the disbanding of this dangerous unnecessary unqualified committee. It is shameful that the Pleasanton Weekly has fallen to militant censorship because they do not do any research on their contributors but choose to censor free speech when the community fights back on the misinformation they are publishing. Shame on the Pleasanton Weekly