A majority of Cincinnati City Council will ask city administration to fund a study examining inequities in city policies and practices.
That effort, similar to the city’s 2014 Croson study on disparities in municipal contracting, would examine the city’s internal policies and procedures as well as the way it provides services to residents with an eye toward finding and eliminating systemic bias and racial disparities.
Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who introduced a motion asking the city to seek outside experts to complete the study, said the cost would likely be in the “mid-six figures.” The city’s Croson study, by comparison, cost more than a million dollars. That effort has led to an incremental improvement in city contracts awarded to women and people of color.
Sittenfeld said all the specific areas of inquiry haven’t been set, but could include everything from examining racial disparities in code enforcement to lack of diversity in Cincinnati’s fire department.
Council members Sittenfeld, Wendell Young, Tamaya Dennard, David Mann and Greg Landsman spoke at a news conference today at City Hall about the proposed effort. They were joined by prominent local leaders from the African-American community, including former Cincinnati mayor Dwight Tillery, Bishop Bobby Hilton of the National Action Network, Sentinels police union president Louis Arnold and others. Though he wasn’t present, council members Jeff Pastor and Chris Seelbach have also signed on to the motion.
"I'm excited to address root causes in a meaningful way that will change systems," Dennard said of the study, which she sees as a first step to long-lasting systemic reforms.
“These issues must be addressed," Young said. "Cincinnati is one of the most segregated cities in the nation... but we have good people here. To make the playing field level, we need to start at City Hall. In 2018, we're at an all-time low for African-American firefighters. We have our African-American police officers beginning to wonder about their representation.”
Young likely was referring to recent tension between city administration, the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police and the Sentinels, which represents black officers.
Other issues around race both locally and nationally are also driving the effort. Multiple speakers cited the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio's 2015 report, “State of Black Cincinnati: Two Cities,” which details disparities in Cincinnati along economic and racial lines.
“"Our opinions are not enough,” Tillery said. “We need the data to tell us why this tale of two cities is happening."
While nine out of 10 of the city’s highest-income neighborhoods are white, nine out of 10 of its poorest are black, a 2015 CityBeat report found. Due to historic policy decisions and economic dynamics, the wealth gap and differences in life expectancy are huge between black and white residents of the city.
Councilmembers supporting the motion stressed it is just the first step in a long, tough slog to overcome long-standing racial barriers in Cincinnati.
“Forty-three percent of the population of the City of Cincinnati is African-American,” Sittenfeld said. “Yet African-Americans continue to lag behind on most key economic, social, education and health indicators. City government can and should do more both to ensure that our own house is in order, and that our policies and service delivery are helping, never exacerbating, the challenge.”
