Stafford residents will soon have an opportunity to weigh in on a proposal to form a new county coalition that will be receptive to citizen concerns and complaints related to social injustice and discrimination.
Amid protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, the idea to form grassroots multicultural coalitions sprang up across the country, including Stafford.
Stafford businessman Vernon Green led a peaceful protest at Stafford Marketplace in June to promote the idea of a citizen-led group to serve as the voice in local communities to air grievances of human rights violations, housing and employment discrimination, concerns about law enforcement and other current community issues.
After the demonstration, Green asked Stafford supervisors to help identify someone in each of their districts to serve as members of such a commission.
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“I feel like George Floyd is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Green said at the time. “My heart is torn, as the frustration of prolonged injustices against minorities has ... reached a boiling point.”
Supervisors appointed a subcommittee, made up of Supervisors Crystal Vanuch, Gary Snellings and Tinisha Allen, to determine what the new group would look like and who they would serve. Even the name of the new group was proposed: The Stafford County Diversity Advisory Coalition.
“I have been pleased with progress of the subcommittee and I believe the board will move forward to establish this coalition,” said Supervisor Meg Bohmke. “I feel they’ve done some great work in a short amount of time.”
The subcommittee held its third and final meeting Aug. 3 and will present its findings and recommendations to the full Board of Supervisors for consideration on Sept. 1. Residents will have an opportunity then to weigh in on the proposal to create the coalition, which could potentially screen complaints and concerns of racial injustice, employment and housing discrimination from county residents.
Vanuch said the subcommittee talked to members of the Prince William County Human Rights Commission in developing Stafford’s proposal. Attorney Raul Torres, who leads the Prince William Human Rights Office, told the supervisors that Prince William’s commission operates like a mini version of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and also hears housing complaints.
“Our commission, that started in 1993, is an enforcement commission, meaning that it handles complaints of discrimination,” said Torres. “It has advantages … for employees and employers, landlords and tenants.
“When you have a local human rights commission, the charging party walks into a service office of the county and files the discrimination complaint,” he added. “In that case, it allows us to investigate. You know the local person and the local employer will be dealing with a local agency.”
Prince William Commission Chairman Curtis Porter said in the 27 years the office has operated, only two cases ever advanced to the level of a public hearing. Torres said all other cases were resolved.
Green acknowledged that commissions like the one formed in Prince William take years to establish, but commended Stafford officials for their “due diligence” in moving along so quickly.
“I think this is a good first step and eventually the goal is to get whatever is needed to enact diversity, prevent discrimination and provide resources to those in our minority communities,” he said.
“The pace is still faster than the years we’ve been waiting for change to come. I think it has been exponentially faster ...,” he continued, but added, “It’s just the beginning.”
Green hopes someday the Stafford coalition will move toward a more formal commission, similar to what Prince William established. But he said most such commissions began first as coalitions, similar to what Stafford has in mind.
Vanuch said creating a committee similar to Prince William’s would take years and a lot of resources and money. She said a coalition would require fewer resources and could begin acting sooner to “provide education, community outreach, and celebrate the diversity within the community.”
But she noted that a commission would compete with schools, roads and other needs for county funding.
“We couldn’t guarantee that even if we passed the ordinance [to create a commission] that it would start maybe this year, next year, the year after that,” she said.
Vanuch said the draft charter for the Stafford model includes “three pillars” that she hopes the new coalition will address:
- making recommendations to supervisors to potentially enhance the local governments’ ability to communicate and deliver services more effectively to minority residents and businesses;
- making recommendations to supervisors on specific community, diversity, inclusion and equity issues;
- and assisting in the planning of community initiatives designed to foster a culture that acknowledges, advances and celebrates diversity, inclusion and equity.
Residents who want to present their views on the new coalition can speak in person at the government center at the 3 p.m. meeting on Sept. 1, or can submit comments online beginning the Friday before the meeting at staffordcountyva.gov/924/Public-Hearings.