Pastor Christopher Harris at Tampa City Hall in Tampa, Florida on May 1, 2025. Credit: Screengrab via City of Tampa Meetings/YouTube

Tampa’s Racial Reconciliation Committee (RRC) was expected to present its findings from the last year of meetings to the city in July, but members say the city hasn’t provided the resources it needs.

The committee gathered on June 17 for what was set to be its final meeting before presenting their recommendations to the city. Discussions of Tampa’s commitment to confront the city’s racial disparities, however, took over the conversation, resulting in the committee’s push for more time.

The 13-member committee was formed in 2024, four years after the City of Tampa passed Resolution 568—a plan aimed at addressing the city’s history of racial inequity. Its work is supposed to help the city go beyond erecting historical markers and Black history celebrations. Over six months of meetings, members discussed ways to tackle affordable housing shortages, expand economic opportunities and support the city’s youth, but say they received little help from city officials along the way.

“We’ve been on a gerbil wheel for the last six and a half months and [haven’t] come up with anything of value that we can even submit to my daughter,” RRC member Daryl Hych said during last month’s meeting.

Yvette Lewis, President of the Hillsborough County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the stall came in when the committee asked for city data and expertise.

“When they got to the subject of housing and economic development, they [the committee] wanted to know what the city was doing to make sure that they’re not duplicating or had all the information that they needed,” Lewis said. “The city wasn’t open to giving them the information.”

The committee began sounding alarms in early May, when members told Tampa City Council in a joint statement that they were not receiving the resources needed to fulfill the committee’s goal.

“To date, we have asked the mayor’s staff on numerous occasions for a collaborative spirit that would include data, gaps in the data, subject matter experts, departmental leads, a situational analysis, and a progress report of the Mayor’s agenda on the issues specifically related to this committee…,” committee member Christopher Harris told City Council on May 2. “There has been static on the phone line.”

In a statement, city spokesperson Adam Smith told CL that city officials “have repeatedly said they are happy to answer questions and supply additional information if requested.”

“A few weeks ago, the committee sent the administration a lengthy spreadsheet about city services to fill out and draw conclusions about possible service gaps. Because it seemed more appropriate for the committee, not the administration, to make such conclusions, the administration instead provided the committee with extensive data and information about current city services and programs to make its own conclusions,” the statement read.

Lewis said city officials were often contradictory in what they told the committee, initially saying that as a city-appointed committee, members were the experts.

“Then on the other side, they said, ‘Y’all don’t speak for the whole community,’” Lewis added. “They said one thing and the next breath, they turned around and said something different.”

The committee planned to formally request an extension at the June 26 City Council meeting, but no such request was made.

Instead, Tampa residents at the meeting highlighted another obstacle the committee is facing: the recent passing of Councilwoman Gwendolyn Henderson. Many Black residents—particularly in District 5, which Henderson represented—say her absence leaves a gap in advocacy for the city’s Black communities.

The special election to fill Henderson’s seat is already crowded and includes a dozen candidates.

Smith says the RRC’s presentation is “on standby” until the City Council can request additional resources and time for the committee.

The office of Councilman Luis Viera, who led the effort to establish the committee in 2024, requested the RRC’s facilitator to compile the committee’s feedback from their last meeting into a proposal. Anticipated in the next few weeks, the completed proposal will then be submitted to the City Council for consideration.

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