A commission appointed by the South Bend Common Council three years ago has finished its report on reparatory justice for Black residents. But before the community starts to implement the report’s recommendations, there’s controversy surrounding its release.
Commission co-chair and NAACP South Bend President Trina Robinson finds herself in an odd position. She wants people to read the report but she feels she can’t yet discuss it publicly because the commission told the council it would first present it to them before sharing it with the community.
Robinson says the commission gave the report to Council President Canneth Lee in March and are waiting for him to assign it to a committee, and draft a resolution for its introduction to the council. She says Lee had some concerns about its legality but the commission says it’s finished.
“We made it abundantly clear that this was our final report," Robinson says. "We are very pleased with it. There is not anything that we would change.”
Still, Mayor James Mueller on Thursday denied WVPE’s interview request. In a statement his spokeswoman said, “It would be inappropriate for us to comment before the commission and council finalizes and releases the report officially.”
Lee did not reply to our interview requests.
Despite the controversy, the report has been widely circulated in the community and you can find it within this story.
Council member Oliver Davis says he also widely shared the report after City Clerk Bianca Tirado file stamped it as received by her office on May 4, making it a public record.
Both Davis and Robinson say people have told them they've been denied the report when they've gone to the clerk's office and asked for a copy.
"The report is out there now so I'm not quite sure why it's not with the proper protocol, which would be to request it as you would request any documents from the clerk's office," Robinson says.
"It needs to be presented to the people of South Bend and it needs to be presented now," Davis says. "The mayor is now saying that it wasn't completed. There's 138 pages and we need to at least start on those 138 pages. And if there are other issues or information that is coming out from the committee that we will have, then we can discuss that then."
Tirado did not respond to WVPE’s interview requests.
Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter South Bend isn’t waiting for the council. They were having an event Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Charles Black Center to talk about implementing the report’s recommendations.
