TITLE
Recommendation to adopt resolution acknowledging Racism as a Public Health Crisis and establishing a Framework for Reconciliation. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
Pursuant to the City Council’s request on June 9, 2020, the City Attorney’s Office, together with the City Manager and the Office of Equity, has prepared the attached Resolution for the Council’s review and approval.
Communities across the world are now more than ever speaking out against the unjust treatment of people of color within the United States. These meaningful and necessary conversations followed the tragic killing of George Floyd after his arrest and detention by the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25, 2020.
This Resolution would ensure that the City of Long Beach, including its employees and staff, will take this crucial moment in history to receive and share with the public experiences with racial injustice to ensure equity and equality, as communities of color continue to face disparate treatment within our society.
There is a current failure of ensuring health equity and equality across the community. Diabetes, heart disease, and other serious medical conditions prevalent among communities of color are consistently ranked the leading causes of death in the United States. Such serious medical conditions are also considered high risk factors for severe illnesses such as those resulting from COVID-19, an ongoing pandemic which is the subject of federal, state, and local public health emergencies. Thus, COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting communities of color who have a higher risk of serious illness or death if they contract the virus, including within Long Beach.
Accordingly, this Resolution would declare that the City of Long Beach acknowledges racism as a Public Health Crisis resulting in certain societal concerns and measurable detriments to communities of color, specifically with respect to the delivery of and access to wellness and healthcare, economic development and opportunity, public safety, housing, and education.
This Resolution would further establish, and direct the City Manager to implement, a Framework for Reconciliation to determine a path to move forward with respect to the existence and long-standing impacts of systemic racism in Long Beach and the country. The Framework for Reconciliation in Long Beach will center around four key steps:
1. Acknowledging the existence and long-standing impacts of systemic racism in Long Beach and the country;
2. Listening to accounts and experiences of racial injustice, inequity, or harm of community members;
3. Convening stakeholders to evaluate the feedback from the listening process and shape policy, budgetary, charter and programmatic reform ideas; and
4. Catalyzing action, presenting immediate, short-term, medium-term, and long-term recommendations for the City Council’s consideration.
The Resolution would recognize the need to immediately begin engaging in the public reconciliation process, internal policy review, and local action plan committing to these four steps.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
BODY
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Respectfully Submitted,
CHARLES PARKIN
CITY ATTORNEY
BY:
MONICA J. KILAITA