There is an old saying – “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” There is some debate as to who said this first. Some say Will Rogers, others say Oscar Wilde and there are those that attribute the saying to a Madison Avenue advertising agency selling high-end men’s suits.
Wherever the truism originated, it went through my mind while watching the live video feed of the Fishers City Council meeting January 19. Councilwoman Jocelyn Vare, a Democrat, made her case that the appointments by the council to boards and commissions lack diversity. She submitted a set of proposals to the council appointment process, which can be seen in detail at this link.
Some of the numbers she cites are quite eye-opening:
–80% appointees are currently white males
–20% of appointees are women
–There are three people of color on all 24 boards and commissions
–There are no appointees identified as part of the LGBT community or considered disabled.
You can read more in the link, but you get the idea. Those numbers are clear – appointments to Fishers boards and commissions are not diverse. Not even close.
You would think such a statement would spark an immediate response from one or more Republican member of the council, who have a 7-2 majority. We saw total silence. There was nothing said.
Councilwoman Vare’s amendment to the appointment motion was defeated on a party line vote, 7-2.
I could understand why a Republican majority would not automatically approve a proposal made by a Democratic member, seconded by another Democratic member, Sam DeLong. But watching this meeting on video gave me the impression that the numbers cited were of no concern to the majority party on the council and that things are just fine the way they are.
That troubled me greatly. I thought back to the Fishers I found when moving here in 1991, which was not very diverse. The city I see today has much more diversity. It concerns me that city council appointments to boards and commissions fail to reflect that diversity of today’s Fishers.
I tried to follow up and after digging, discovered there were two statements issued after the council meeting. The first was from Mayor Scott Fadness. Here is his statement:
“I am committed to elevating as many diverse voices to leadership positions as possible, as my actions have demonstrated over the last two years. These actions have led to the launch of the Fishers Race Initiative, co-chaired by two people of color that lead another sixteen residents of color as members of the Community Committee on Race which committed $100,000 to bringing Interrupting Racism workshops to our residents. Additionally, I appointed a Black female chief medical director and a female public health director Fishers Health Department. And lastly, since 2019, in the 50 situations where I was required to fill a vacancy for my appointment, I filled 20 of those vacancies with people of color and/or females.
That said, I agree with council leadership in that residents who have served our community selflessly are arbitrarily dismissed from re-appointment based on their demographics.”
I believe that Mayor Fadness has a very good record on race and inclusion. His creation of the Fishers Race Initiative and funding the Interrupting Racism program give him high marks in diversity actions. The mayor has a good record of filling appointment vacancies with diversity in mind.
Selina Stoller, just elected President of the Fishers City Council at the January meeting, also issued a statement. Here it is:
“I am very proud of the work our community is doing around inclusion and equity, which includes:
- Female council leadership in 2020 and 2021
- Four female city council members since 2020
- Launch of Fishers Health Department with one black female as chief medical director and appointed female director of public health
- Since 2019, in the two situations where Council has had a vacancy for their appointments, they filled one vacancy with a female.
“However, our Council majority disagrees that when appointment terms expire we summarily dismiss residents who have performed dedicated public service merely for the fact that they do not fit a certain demographic. We certainly retain our commitment to ensuring diverse voices are represented. Simple statements during a council meeting do not equate to action nor give credit to any of this work that so many residents have participated in.”
Council President Stoller’s statement is disappointing on a number of points. First, the voters are responsible for electing female city councilors, and I give the voting public of Fishers credit for that, not the council itself.
When Cecilia Coble was elected president by the city council, she was the first woman to ascend to the post, and Ms. Stoller has succeeded her. For that, the council deserves credit.
I am not sure how the council takes credit for Mayor Fadness’ appointments of Health Department leaders.
The council is taking credit for appointing one woman when there were two openings on boards an commissions.
Finally, Ms. Stoller appears to be making the argument, as the mayor did in his statement, that the city should not “arbitrarily dismiss” or “summarily dismiss” current appointed members of city boards and commissions.
I have re-read Councilwoman Vare’s amendment to the motion and her reasons for making that motion and I see nothing that refers to firing all the appointees. She is proposing a new system to evaluate current members and provide a way to bring more diversity to new appointments.
I am entering my tenth year of covering Fishers news as a volunteer blogger, and I have sat through a number of these meeting of boards and commissions consisting of appointees. I can say that there are some appointees that do very good work and have served the city well and would deserve reappointment. But there are others that may not have earned an automatic appointment to another term. I can understand if the council majority does not want to sign-on to Jocelyn Vare’s proposal, but can those Republican councilors honestly say that the appointments, as they stand now, are diverse in any meaningful way?
There is a large chasm between “arbitrarily” and “summarily” firing appointees and providing some system to evaluate openings when a term is ending. As best as anyone can discern, there appears to be no real system to evaluate the work of appointees now. Is it right to always reappoint these board and commission members automatically?
I understand the council has scheduled a retreat soon and I sincerely hope they will make amends for the silence at the January 19th meeting and the council president’s statement after the session that appears woefully inadequate to me.
I know, what difference does my opinion make? I get that, but think about the following. Is it not important what business leaders looking at Fishers as a location think? Is it not important what people considering a move to Fishers think? Is it not important that our current inventory of high-tech firms will consider public policy about diversity when they make decisions to grow here or move elsewhere?
The Fishers City Council did not make a good first impression Tuesday night at the council meeting when the diversity issue was raised and silence ensued with most members. But the councilors have an opportunity to simply recognize that for many years, they have not been appointing diverse members to boards and commissions. The Fishers City Council needs to undertake a serious effort at making changes.
Let’s show Indiana, the nation and the world that Fishers is serious about having our city council appointees to city boards and commissions reflect the Fishers of today.