MVCAN SPECIAL UPDATE ON MILL VALLEY RACIAL JUSTICE ISSUES:
PLUS MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING MON. JULY 6, 6:30 PM
Tune in to the meeting remotely!
Mill Valley Mayor McEntee and 2020 City Council Members
MVCAN will be working to hold the Mill Valley City Council accountable for making progress on racial and social justice issues, such as police reform and local housing access.
MV CITY COUNCIL’S NEW DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) TASK FORCE:
In response to ongoing, committed activism by community members, the City of Mill Valley has begun the process of creating an official Task Force. On June 29, the city issued a public update outlining a broad range of potential issues to be addressed. This Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force will be a primary vehicle for the community to advocate for changes in local governmental policy and spending
MVCAN members believe that the operation of the DEI Task Force should be completely transparent. It needs to be bottom-up, collaborative and led by community members impacted by racism. Its budget and organization should be fully visible to the community, and the City should pursue its goals with a sense of urgency.
In order to ensure the DEI Task Force is accountable and responsive to community demands, we should have input into the process of setting up and structuring the task force. Most importantly, we also ask that the Task Force becomes a permanent Commission with real investigative power and policy influence.
At the Monday, June 6 meeting, the city staff plans to report on progress made in the formation of the Task Force. Although the City claims that transparency is a key value, they have not yet responded to MVCAN’s questions about the Task Force’s intended composition, structure and budget. In fact, not a single key question about the Task Force has been answered to date in a satisfactory manner. To see change happen, we need to continue to demonstrate strong, widespread and persistent support for our goals.
ACTIONS FOR MVCAN MEMBERS - Four Things To Do Now!
1. Attend the virtual Mill Valley City Council Meeting on Monday July 6, 6:30pm. To sign up at the city website for the meeting, click How to Participate Remotely_200706
Please register ahead of time to avoid any difficulty getting in. You will be sent a confirmation email with a link to Zoom. See below for more detailed instructions on how to participate during the meeting.
2. Participate with a spoken comment during “Open Public Comment” time AT THE BEGINNING of the meeting July 6, even if the City Manager has not yet made his Task Force report to the Council by then. This may be the only time made available for public comment. For more details, see “Guidelines for Making Comments at the City Council Meeting (Zoom)” at the end of this bulletin.
3. Additionally, you can submit a written comment to cityclerk@cityofmillvalley.org no later than 4:00 P.M. Monday, July 6. These comments will be distributed to the City Council and will become part of the public record but will not be read aloud during the actual meeting.
4. If you are interested in becoming a member of the new Mill Valley “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force” send an email to equality.justice@cityofmillvalley.org. Indicate your name, address, phone number and email address. Also, include your availability for meeting and any experiences or background that you feel would contribute to the effectiveness of the Task Force.
To get information regarding the Task Force, MVCAN has sent the City Council the following questions. As yet we have received no comprehensive response.
SOME QUESTIONS MVCAN SENT TO MV CITY COUNCIL, July 2:
Please feel free to ask the following questions at the July 6 meeting or speak out about related topics that concern you.
Who will be the members on the Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Task Force? What criteria is used to decide? How many will be “allowed”? Will it include all of 94941 and Marin City residents?
Will the Task Force be forming a subcommittee on the Mill Valley Police Department to advocate for organizational and budget reform? When will the City Manager be reporting back to the Council on the MVPD research assigned to his staff on June 15?
Will there be grants for individuals and groups to develop activities and programs on current issues of racism, racist history, and personal sharing and communication around experiences of racism? Will Mill Valley City provide resources such as the public library to be assigned to the process?
Will the Task Force address real affordable housing as a key step in promoting diversity in Marin residents?
In its June 29 statement, the City Council indicates it is “engaging a professional facilitator” for the Task Force. What are the qualifications sought, scope of work, and cost associated with this facilitator? Is this the best use of the Task Force’s budget? Will this person have experience as a social and political change advocate?
Can there be money budgeted now to pay stipends to task force members that can't otherwise afford to be volunteering for hours every week?Going forward, are the Mayor and the City Council willing to commit to placing the Task Force/BLM issues on the meeting agenda at every meeting so that the community can have Council members answer questions about the process?
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN MILL VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING - Mon, July 6, 6:30pm
How to attend the city council meeting using Zoom in a webinar format:
To participate in the Zoom meeting go to: How to Participate Remotely_200706.
If you don’t have Zoom, you can watch the meeting at https://cmcm.tv/watch.
There is a 20 second delay when you view the livestream.
Local television: tune in to Comcast Channel 27 and AT&T Channel 99
Please note, due to this meeting’s time change, it will not be listed in your program/TV guide but will be broadcast starting at 6:30 PM on Mon. July 6.
See “Guidelines for Making Comments at the City Council Meeting (Zoom)” at the end of this bulletin.
To look at the July 6 meeting agenda, go to AGENDA.
To see the city’s Black Lives Matter Resolution, which will be voted on by the council at the July 6 meeting, go HERE.
BACKGROUND:
One month ago Mill Valley Mayor Sashi McEntee summarily dismissed Black Lives Matter issues as not of “immediate local importance” to Mill Valley. This blithely dismissive and callous statement shocked a great many residents of Mill Valley and beyond. Since George Floyd was murdered, MVCAN members have worked very hard to overcome the refusal of the city council to address state and national issues that impact the lives and values of Mill Valley residents.
We are very pleased with the amount of acknowledgement that we and other activists have received from the City Council and with the positive momentum that has begun. At the same time, we are aware that Mayor McEntee’s comment about the city only addressing issues of “immediate local importance” was not a “one off” mistake but characteristic of many statements and actions that a majority of the MVCC have made in recent years in which they decline to address issues of import that are profoundly relevant to their constituents. The perception that these issues are not the purview of local government is false.
MVCAN efforts towards racial/social justice up to this point:
MVCAN submitted our petition to the Mill Valley City Council containing 7 demands with more than 400 local signatures. (If you haven’t already done so, you can see the demands and sign the petition at MVCAN.org) And we continue to organize and exchange views with the Mill Valley City Council (MVCC).
Over the last month over a hundred MVCAN members have participated in Black Lives Matter marches, and promoted and attended numerous racial/social justice protests.
At the June 15 virtual meeting of the MV City Council, MVCAN took a visible role in insisting on material changes in our city going forward. We need to build on that momentum.
MVCAN leader Frank Leidman, with decades of criminal defense attorney experience and also experience as a member of the San Francisco Criminal Justice Task Force (of the San Francisco Bar Association) has volunteered for the new City Task Force.
MVCAN has a new Working Group On Racial Justice in Mill Valley. Please write info@mvcan.org for more information.
The Mill Valley City Council in the last month responded to pressure from activists by passing resolutions that support BLM and that recognize the fact that many Mill Valley and local residents have suffered real historic and ongoing discrimination.
GUIDELINES FOR MAKING COMMENTS AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING (ZOOM):
Everyone is allowed one two-minute comment during the meeting or about 200 words written.
When you first join the Zoom meeting be sure to pick the “test your audio and microphone” option. At the last meeting some participants who wished to speak had problems, because their audio was turned off.
In real time (only) during the meeting, use the “Raise Hand” function in Zoom (or press *9 if you are calling in on the phone) to let the City Clerk know you want to speak. The City Clerk will select you from the meeting queue when it is your turn to address the Council.
