SLO sets aside $160,000 for diversity and inclusion programs amid protests
Amid the backdrop of national and local protests, the San Luis Obispo City Council allocated $140,000 on Tuesday in new funding to enhance community diversity, equity and inclusion.
The amount is in addition to $20,000 the council already set aside for equality and inclusion programming, bringing the total to $160,000.
“The last thing we need to do is to be putting out the talk without walking the walk,” San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon said. “I feel very sensitive to that problem. We need to go as all in as we can to do it right and make it impactful, real and meaningful.”
The funding was approved as part of the city’s 2020-21 supplemental budget and came in response to community input, according to city officials.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the council expressed the importance of focusing on equity despite the city’s revenue shortfall of about $8.6 million in its general fund
“I’m very supportive (of the diversity funding),” Councilman Aaron Gomez said Tuesday. “I’m interested in looking at the commonalities that we have and shared values that bring us together. Continuing down a pathway of division doesn’t help anybody.”
SLO protests, calls for change
Joining in a call among nationwide marches and demonstration in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, San Luis Obispo has seen protests for five straight days — including a Thursday rally organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that attracted more than 3,000 participants.
Other events included a downtown protest organized by R.A.C.E. Matters SLO County that drew hundreds on Sunday and a six-hour Monday march that ended in a controversial use of tear gas and pellet bullets to disperse a crowd that was blocking Santa Rosa Street after protesters walked on Highway 101 earlier in the day.
On Wednesday, hundreds of marchers walked the city’s streets for four hours in support of black lives.
“This is an inspiration to everybody,” Cal Poly quarterback Jalen Hamler said Wednesday. “We’re just happy to be out here to try to bring about change. We have to stay consistent with what we’re doing and not stop.”
Hamler and other Cal Poly football players who led Wednesday’s protest issued a statement recommending that the city ensure local police officers have body cameras on at all times, especially during protests, and that officers receive adequate training in deescalation tactics.
Harmon said Thursday that she’s calling for the city’s Police Department to conduct a “critical incident review” of Monday’s law enforcement response to the protest that involved used of tear gas and bullet pellets.
Harmon said she’s asking for statements of protesters on what happened so that all of us can understand exactly what led up to this situation “so we can learn, make changes, and do better.”
Progressive student activist Alexa Ford, who graduated from Morro Bay High School on Thursday, is calling for law enforcement agencies including the San Luis Obispo Police Department and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, to reform their use-of-force policies as recommended by Campaign Zero. The activist group’s recommendations include banning chokeholds and strangleholds, requiring deescalation and requiring warning before shooting.
Council members recently received more than 1,000 emails on ways to improve racial justice and community inclusion, they said.
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City plans to form inclusion task force
In addition to approving diversity program funding, the city voted unanimously to form a task force that examines the various ways San Luis Obispo can address effective ways to bring about change and inclusion. The city may also hire a consultant facilitator to steer the effort.
Erica Stewart, the city’s first black councilmember, said at Tuesday’s meeting the past week of protests has brought a “lot of emotion.”
“There’s many times people say they’re there for and they’re not,” Stewart said. “I think on Sunday (at a rally a Mitchell Park) we saw a lot of people show that they’re here for all people.”
Stewart added she doesn’t condone violence or looting.
“I do see and hear the rage from so many people,” she said, adding “this has a lot to do with hundreds of years of pain.”
“Compassion, education and getting to know each other” will bring about change, Stewart said, adding the city’s ability to create effective change may require more funding than the $160,000 allotted.
“There’s a feeling they’re not seen or heard or feel they have to run away because of the percentage of melanin in their skin,” Stewart said. “Why the percentage of melanin in the skin has anything to do with immediate fear, I just can’t fully fathom it.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 12:38 PM.
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