Members of Morgantown City Council said they support the spirit of the plan, but too many questions remain to make the Human Right Commission’s Strategic Plan for Diversity Equity and Inclusion policy for the city.
The policy is aimed at increasing the diversity of both the city’s work force and the pool of volunteers that makes up its boards and commissions.
Council voted 5-1 to table the adoption of the diversity policy during its most recent regular session. This after a unanimous vote in support of adoption on first reading, Oct. 1.
Councilor Barry Wendell voted in the minority. Councilor Dave Harshbarger was not present.
City Manager Paul Brake said the specific policies outlined are non-binding guidance. Each would need review by the city’s personnel board as well as adoption by council to become enforceable city code.
This led councilors to question the point of adopting policy that may or may not be followed, especially when a number of potential issues, or unintended consequences, with the plan have been outlined during council’s discussions.
“From what I’m hearing from council … we like it in theory, but we all have some adjustments and reworking that we’d like to do,” Councilor Zack Cruze said. “I’m not really comfortable passing something when we’re passing the spirit of it with the understanding that it’s then going to be changed and come back. It seems counterintuitive.”
While members of the HRC have said any personally identifying reporting would be completely optional, some members of council — as well as Morgantown Pride President Ash Cutright — said the possibility remains individuals could be inadvertently outed by the reporting and auditing process spelled out in the plan.
Further, Cutright said, the plan fails to adequately address the topic of gender.
Morgantown Mayor Bill Kawecki echoed the sentiments of most council members in recognizing the amount of work put in by the HRC and its intentions in doing so.
“I really do agree with the concept … but I think the attempt here, in trying to identify all the specifics, has gotten us painted into a corner,” Kawecki said, adding, “It just attempts to be too specific and in doing so creates all kinds of problems — the unintended consequences that we’re talking about.”
Deputy Mayor Rachel Fetty agreed and made the initial call for council to “put on the brakes a little bit.”
“Because for us, in this conversation, there are very few consequences, but there are consequences for every single applicant for a board or commission that comes forward in the future,” Fetty said.
In other news, council:
— Approved the $224,000 bid of Commercial Builders for repairs to both the sidewalk and the vault beneath the sidewalk in front of city hall.
Vaults were typically used as storage or mechanical rooms and extend out under the sidewalks in front of a number of older buildings downtown.
Brake said the work will include a new vault ceiling covered with a water-proof membrane and, ultimately, a new sidewalk that will align with the entrance to city hall.
— Approved the purchase of two 2019 International CV515 dump trucks for the city’s public works department at a total cost of $184,448.
— Approved the purchase of an additional 1,000 pounds of treated road salt from Cargill for $99,940 or $99.94 per ton.
That price is up from $95.32 last year.
The city has 2,000 pounds of treated salt now.
— Adopted, on second reading, 131 feet on an alley near Melrose Street in the 3rd Ward into the city’s maintenance plan.
City Engineer Damien Davis previously explained the resident making the request, Alexandra Stockdale, paid to get the alley — which previously only existed on paper — up to specifications and ready to open as a public right-of-way.
Stockdale is the assistant city engineer.
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