Detroit reparations task force working to submit proposal despite bickering, vacancies

Detroit’s reparations task force is eight months away from its deadline to submit recommendations, which would address systemic racism toward Black Detroiters, but the board has been losing members and may need more time.

Executive Committee co-chair Keith Williams said he is working “as feverishly as possible” to submit everything by October, but may ask for more time if necessary. The 13-member body, which meets the first Saturday of each month, got a slow start and has since faced bickering among officials, concerns about transparency — and the task of filling vacancies, including that of a member who resigned at Saturday's meeting.

JoAnn Watson, who served on the executive committee, died last year. Members who resigned before this month's meeting include co-chair Lauren Hood and Maurice Weeks. Two of the vacancies were filled by Jasahn Larsosa, executive director, GreenLight Detroit; and Edythe Ford, director of community engagement at MACC Development. Other members weighed resignations, according to BridgeDetroit, though they remained on the board as of last Saturday.

In a typical fashion, last Saturday's meeting kicked off with a speaker and presentation. Bernadette Atuahene, a property law scholar who has studied Detroit's property tax foreclosure crisis, discussed unfair property tax assessments and urged an end to "illegally inflated" assessments.

The latest reparations task force resignation

The meeting later took a turn when at-large member Anita Belle announced her resignation, alluding to the executive committee making decisions on behalf of the task force without each member’s knowledge. In a resignation letter, Belle said she expected a “transparent democracy” and asserted that several such incidents have occurred.

The committee is tasked with submitting a report with housing and economic recommendations to address historical discrimination against the Black community, which Belle said is doable if members go beyond the status quo and leave behind the mindset of Evanston, Illinois, the first U.S. city to approve reparations for its Black residents.

“There are so many things about that plan that would be unacceptable, especially to the majority Black city like Detroit,” Belle said. “It's a whole different dynamic … you can't be calling it ‘repair’ just to give somebody $25,000.”

Evanston’s reparations committee, which received nationwide attention, approved $25,000 grants for mortgage and down payment assistance to 16 residents, which members have cited as a potential form of redress.

“If you do that in Detroit, as you can see, people are going to be angry. It’s a bigger population,” Belle said.

'It was a dictatorship making this decision'

However, the final straw for Belle was when members announced an upcoming impact study that she said she was not aware of and felt backdoor deals were happening.

“All of that was announced. It wasn’t on the agenda. It wasn’t discussed in any internal meeting. There was no approval or any kind of disclosure, nothing, to the entire task force,” Belle said. "The majority doesn't even get to read a proposal before they have already committed to it. And that's when we wind up rubber stamping something through the back door."

“It was a dictatorship making this decision," Belle continued. "That was the last straw.”

Williams denied Belle's claim.

"That's a lie," Williams said. "Let's stay focused on redress and making sure that African Americans who lived in this community, who suffered through this community, get redress."

He told the Free Press that studies identifying past harms will be conducted through the University of Michigan. Columbia and Howard University will also identify the impact of past harms. Some areas include studying pollution and environmental concerns in southwest Detroit, the effects the Interstate 375 project and the notorious Birwood Wall on Eight Mile, Williams added. The African American Redress Network is also expected to identify initiatives through stories from residents.

Treasurer says she hasn't gotten financial reports

Reparations is "an emotional issue," Williams said. "Each individual has got great spirits, they mean right. But at the end of the day, you got to come together for the common good, and make sure people get what is deserved."

District 7 member Janis Hazel also raised concerns of transparency at this month’s meeting as the task force treasurer who has not received financial reports, she said, adding that if she remains unaware of the committee’s finances, she will file a Freedom of Information Act request.

Co-chair Lauren Hood, who resigned Dec. 2, reported that $700 had been spent "which the whole reparations task force never received any documentation about that so I cannot vouch for it," Hazel said.

"No invoices, no receipts, no nothing," Hazel said. "I wanted to let the reparations task force know that in my 30 years of working in the White House and under three presidential administrations in Washington, D.C., I served as a FOIA officer … I served in the Reagan administration, and the Obama administration, and the Trump administration so I can work with anyone if they are collaborative.”

However, the task force’s newly hired project manager Emberly Vick said the information was provided to Hazel in a Feb. 2 email, afteer an oral report on Jan. 26. The $700 expense was used on a facility rental, Vick said. Hazel also mentioned Vick’s $92,000 salary at the meeting. As project manager, Vick is responsible for helping with logistical matters, such as recording meeting minutes, maintaining schedules, operating Zoom meetings and more, according to the job description.

“I started this position on January 9, 2024, but have been informed that the task force currently has no expenditures or expenses, with the exception of my salary and the money spent on facility rental — the $700 she referenced, it is my understanding that nothing outside of this has been spent,” Vick said in an email.

City Council President Mary Sheffield, who spearheaded a successful ballot initiative to establish the task force and assisted in funding the body with $350,000 upon its establishment, does not plan to intervene. Instead, Sheffield is meeting with the members and project manager weekly to “ensure they’re supported from an administrative standpoint,” spokeswoman Kayla Rice said in an email.

“The task force was created to be community-led, not for council to have a heavy hand in leading the day-to-day operations,” Rice said. “Our office has been in communication with council members who will need to reappoint new members from their respective districts to move that process along.”

Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@freepress.com or 313-635-3491. Follow her: @DanaAfana.