Between the future of a local eviction relief plan, the creation of a Human Relations Commission and the details of civilian oversight of the ACC Police Department, the ACC Commissioners are looking at a very busy voting meeting next Tuesday.
Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz joins WUGA's Chris Shupe with updates on police oversight, a homeless encampment, eviction relief, and the firing of the County Auditor:
This transcript has been edited for clarity
CHRIS SHUPE
Mayor Girtz, welcome back to Athens News Matters.
KELLY GIRTZ
Good to talk to you Chris.
CHRIS SHUPE
Well, first off, where are we on local eviction relief? We know the Commission had originally wanted to get Project Reset, an eviction prevention program, off the ground by October 1st. What's been the holdup and what can we expect to see a program like this go into effect?
KELLY GIRTZ
So, it's obviously been a challenging landscape, as we've seen a variety of federal administrative decisions and then court issuances as well, bringing eviction prevention in and out of the legal framework and simultaneously, we've been working locally with our Magistrate Court, and statewide with the Department of Community Affairs to ensure that there are good linkages between DCA – Department of Community Affairs - who holds nearly a billion dollars of eviction, prevention and rental relief funds, and the Magistrate Court, who hears what are termed “dispossessory hearings,” or essentially eviction hearings. So we put out to bid the contract [to do] the facilitation, interacting with both of those agencies and with the public, both renters and landlords, and did get a single response. I think we got a single response because we put it out pretty quickly with a tight turnaround time, wanting to initiate the program and so we're now working with that applicant to ensure that when the program hits the ground, all the pieces are in place.
CHRIS SHUPE
Well, can we expect a vote on the matter at Tuesday's meeting?
KELLY GIRTZ
We may delay if we need a little more time to negotiate with or interact with the applicant, so that's to be announced.
CHRIS SHUPE
All right, fair enough. There's also the matter of a civilian oversight authority of the Police Department, and the jail. This issue has gotten a lot more attention since the nationwide protests against police brutality last summer. And in February, a task force submitted a set of recommendations as to what an oversight committee could look like. Now the [Government Operations Committee] voted last week to approve a draft ordinance that would spell out the oversight board's creation. Can you talk us through what that means and what the Commission will vote on on Tuesday?
KELLY GIRTZ
Right, So what happened last week was a recommendation of the Government Operations Committee. And this has been something that's been gestating for a couple of years. Obviously in the terms of our recent history, it coincided with a lot of the brewing racial tensions between localities and residents and police departments [that] came to a head. I think that a lot of people recognized [this] as having culminated with the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis. It's been a difficult time to have these conversations - not as if there's ever an easy time to have these conversations - and so it certainly evolved. Maybe more slowly than I would have preferred, but what is true is that if you look at well-engaged police departments across the country, many hundreds of them have a community oversight or a community advisory body. By Georgia State law, that oversight stops when it comes to an actual personnel decision, so a resident group can't have actual formal authority to hire and fire, for example, and so this one would not. But, what I believe we will see roll out is a body that's representative, that asks first and most importantly, the question. “How do we act proactively, to make sure that our force represents the community and engages positively?” So, we just want to do things well on the front end so that we've got a positive relationship between the Police Department who has very unique powers, and of course very unique challenges, and the community. But then ask also on the back end for those few dozen cases a year where there are complaints, “how can we effectively handle those and learn from them?”
CHRIS SHUPE
Tell us about the Human Relations Commission that could be coming down the pipeline. What's the vision for such a Commission and what will be on the agenda for this month's meeting?
KELLY GIRTZ
So, what we'll be doing is initiating a Human Relations Commission, and again, this is something that hundreds of communities across the country have. Gwinnett County and Atlanta, our key nearby neighbors, have a similar body and this will be a group that provides a touchstone to the community, and says, “what are we doing to positively recognize the challenges across difference within our population - for those who are differently abled, for those who are aging, for those across racial boundaries, For those from different lands and different languages. How are we shaping our community in a way that is positive and warm and inviting?” And so the body was envisioned when we launched the Inclusion Office two years ago, and again we, of course have gone through this very challenging last year and a half. So, this probably in a non-pandemic environment would have already been launched, but I'm very excited to have a group at the table that can kind of look inside the government and say for us as an entity you know, “What are we doing internally, that can be very positive for the community? How can we craft our human resources policies? How can we interact internally and then also externally? How do we engage with neighborhoods, community members, and community organizations in a way that Athens is a welcoming community where everybody feels invited to the table.”
CHRIS SHUPE
Well, speaking of community relations, there's been a lot of discussion lately about some instances where the police are called to intervene where it's been more of a mental health issue. Where are we with improving the number of mental health care workers within the Police Department?
KELLY GIRTZ
Well, two things have happened here in this fiscal year that kicked off July. The first is that we added a unit to the co-responder team, and that's where a clinician is paired with a police officer to really deal with ongoing cases of challenge around the community. So, we've expanded to four of those pairings in this year's budget. And that's been a model that has been well regarded around the state and around the country. Many communities have replicated what we've done, or in the midst of doing. And that secondly, what we're doing in conjunction with Advantage Behavioral Health Services, who provides behavioral health, [and] mental health services in this region - in this many county area - is launching a crisis response unit. And so for non violent but needy community members, somebody can be sent out right away to engage in a positive way. Of course, a team that has the kind of behavioral health and mental health training so that they can positively engage with people in the midst of crisis. Because many times, police departments are called upon to deal with individuals or situations that aren't even necessarily criminal on under anybody’s definition of criminal, but really have their roots in trauma and in personal challenge and in some case, addiction, one of the things that we really want to do, is for anyone in any kind of crisis, turn that around as quickly as possible and not make the crisis spiral out of control. Further, you know that it's no secret that we had a number of police shootings of mentally challenged individuals in the last three years. We want to prevent that from happening. We also want to prevent people from unnecessarily ending up in emergency room beds and unnecessarily ending up in jail cell beds where we know that things can get more challenging and not better. So this is a solution oriented approach.
CHRIS SHUPE
Well, finally we have to ask about the termination of Athens’ internal auditor in a special called session that was only scheduled the day prior. The Commission voted unanimously last week to fire Stephanie Maddox, who went public with allegations of workplace discrimination and intimidation in June. Do you have any comment on why the meeting was called last minute or why she was let go?
KELLY GIRTZ
Well, as you can appreciate, Chris, personnel decisions are confidential and can't be discussed, and I understand that's challenging for the public because we are a government that seeks to be open about our expenditures, about our programming plans, and so many other things. But when you're an employer, you you've got to maintain the sanctity and the confidentiality of personnel matters, and so that's the case here as well. But I understand why public members are interested.
CHRIS SHUPE
Fair enough, Kelly Girtz is the Mayor of Athens-Clarke County. Thanks for stopping by today.
KELLY GIRTZ
Thanks Chris, be safe.
