Have you ever been to a meeting that started on time?
Government body, staff meeting at work, community organization, non-profit, garden club? Anything? Anything?
Yeah, neither have I.
How about this: A meeting that not only starts on the dot, but there is perfect attendance and everyone has to sit silently around the table and wait until the designated meeting time to begin.
As unusual as it sounds, that is exactly what happened when Nashville’s new Community Oversight Board held its historic first meeting on Feb. 12 in the basement of the Metro Courthouse.
Mayor David Briley sat at the head of the table with a fixed smile that only broke when the clock struck 4 p.m.
There are first meetings and first impressions. Witnessing that meeting left me with one conclusion:
This Board’s for You!
TAKING IT SERIOUSLY
Born amid tragedy and controversy and injected into Metro government not by politicians but by citizens who voted on a referendum to amend the Metro charter, COB is going to get it right. In fact, Nashville’s COB has every opportunity to become a model for citizen oversight boards everywhere in the USA. The foundation for that is a strong ordinance – did we mention the politicians were “hands off” on this? But the composition of this unpaid board and how seriously they appear to be taking their roles, all 11 of them, indicate that there is great potential.
The board includes three former Metro police officers, among them Nashville’s first and only African-American police chief, Emment Turner. That should tamp down criticism from the police union that only those with law enforcement experience are qualified to review an officer’s conduct. The board includes three attorneys, among them a former judge, a former Tennessee attorney general and a former member of the Obama administration.
Yes, that sounds a little Establishment until you look under the hood.
It includes a forensic pathologist (Dr. Adele Lewis); a leader in a Latinx advocacy organization (Andres Martinez/Conexion Americas); a former member of a mayor’s task force on chronic homelessness (Brenda Ross); a former public defender of juveniles in Baltimore (Phyllis Hildreth), and a self-described “frontline worker” (Jamel R. Campbell-Gooch) who connects with high school students who are having discipline issues.
Robert Cooper was Tennessee attorney general during the Bredesen administration. Matthew Sweeney has been a judge and a defense attorney and has handled civil rights cases in federal court.
Ashlee Davis got her law degree from Howard University and served in the Obama administration for six years.
Walter Holloway was with the Metro Nashville Police Department for 34 years, and Danita Marsh, who is a mediator seeking a law degree, was with the police department until an on-the-job injury.
TCB
COB quickly got down to business, electing officers:
Chair: Davis; First Vice-Chair: Campbell-Gooch; Second Vice-Chair: Hildreth, and Secretary: Cooper.
Mayor Briley opened the meeting by noting that he had been spending much time at the state legislature, where certain rural members are seeking to commit overreach and strip the board of its subpoena powers and its stipulation that at least four members represent economically distressed communities.
So much for the “states rights” crew in Legislative Plaza -- who in 2011 threatened to arrest any federal agents who crossed the state line to enforce gun laws -- applying the same principles when it comes to letting Tennessee communities decide how to govern themselves.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
This board is going to be independent.
Besides the business of showing up early and in perfect attendance, board members dissected the city’s human relations department’s description of the COB Executive Director post, which will be the board’s next big decision.
Former Nashville Circuit Court Judge Sweeney noted that the job description said the executive director would report to the COB and the Mayor. Hold the phone – the executive director reports to the board only, not the mayor, Sweeney pointed out. Scratch that, the HR lady agreed.
The former law enforcement members on the board are not going to be shills for the police union, it appears. The Mayor’s appointees – Cooper and Hildreth, who recently resigned from the Metro Human Relations commission to accept this position – are not there to tap the brakes.
Before being appointed to COB, Metro Council subcommittees interviewed the candidates. We have watched all 11 interviews. The interviews, a copy of the COB ordinance and more info are linked from the city’s web page for the COB.
‘RADICAL INCLUSION’
In Hildreth’s interview, she offered several catch phrases that represent guiding principles:
“Fundamental fairness...radical inclusion...everything be transparent...participatory justice...nothing about us without us,” Hildreth told a Council subcommittee.
This board has every opportunity to get it right. That’s why we believe:
This Board’s for You!
PREVIOUS STORIES AND VIDEOS
Our previous stories related to Nashville’s Community Oversight Board:
Connecting to the Community: Seven Ways to Make It Matter
Tale of 2 Cities: Citizen Oversight of Police in Nashville and Memphis
Who Will Watch the Watchers? Remains an Ongoing Question for Citizen Oversight of Police in Nashville
This video is from the January meeting of the Memphis Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board. Trent Collier’s complaint of excessive force is typical of cases CLERB hears:
Trailer for our feature documentary Who Will Watch the Watchers?
Gary Moore operates Moore Media Strategies, founded Citizens Media Resource, makes films about social justice issues, and covers First and Fourth Amendment issues for Daily Kos as FreeSpeechZone.