After months of chanting the words "shut it down" at demonstrations throughout the area, progressive activists proved they aren't screwing around at Tampa City Hall Thursday.
City Council members elected to suspend a meeting for 3.5 hours after critics of the Mayor Bob Buckhorn's approach to a civilian review board on police matters shouted "no compromise" in the wake of the council's apparent inclination toward, well, compromising in their position on the matter.
Council returned at 4:30 to pass measures to modify the mayor's proposal (against the advice of the legal department) and insist that Buckhorn meet with City Council Chair Frank Reddick to discuss the issue.
A few weeks back, the mayor announced the creation of an 11-member (nine regular, two alternates) civilian review board consisting overwhelmingly of people he would appoint (nine, including the alternates). It was in response to backlash over police practices like the one targeting African-Americans on bicycles, but activists said it was weak, giving too much power to the mayor, and without the "teeth" to really ensure consequences if a cop really does turn out to be a bad guy.
City Council agreed, and decided to pass its own ordinance.
Things got a little hairy when the council decided it was going to try to modify Buckhorn's executive order establishing the panel, something legal said the council can't do; it can only pass its own laws.
Members of the public who spoke to the council Thursday morning (there were 30 or so of them) said the council should stand firm, though some said they supported compromise.
Joyce Hamilton-Henry, head of the local ACLU chapter, said crafting a civilian review board with more public input would help address “decades of problems that intersect with race in this city.”
“We the people have been saying consistently for months now that Tampa needs a civilian review board that is independent, transparent [and] has the resources it needs to be able to be effective,” she said. “We are saying very clearly, and consistently, that we want a civilian review board with teeth, that the model that was proposed by the mayor will not satisfy the community. And if we truly want to..heal from decades of issues within the city…we must listen to the citizens, come up with a compromise that lets us know that you're hearing our concerns.”
Critics of Buckhorn's proposal say such a panel ought to also have subpoena power, but legal experts have said the city charter bars the council from doling out such authority to boards that don't consist of council members,
Buckhorn, meanwhile, told Tampa Bay Times reporter Richard Danielson he is willing to compromise, given how difficult the issue has become:
"All of us want to move on to more positive things," he said. "I think we all recognize that this whole discussion has taken on a life that we didn't anticipate and I'm not sure it's particularly productive for what we're trying to do here. If it means that in order to get things done and behind us, I would be willing to give them an additional vote and one of the alternate slots as a way to sort of reach out to them and get this issue behind us."
He also said he'd be willing to meet with Reddick, according to the paper. So far, Councilman Guido Maniscalco has been the only one to meet with Buckhorn on the matter, which he did twice to no avail.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2015.
