Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout213-20 RESOLUTIONpF f A Y E r," 4 m 9,gK A'S PS 113 West Mountain Street Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479)575-8323 Resolution: 213-20 File Number: 2020-0662 RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE MAYOR'S AFRICAN AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL: A RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE MAYOR'S AFRICAN AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL WHEREAS, race is a social construction with no biologic basis; and WHEREAS, racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal; and systemic racism is institutional or structural, and is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and African American community, unfairly advantages other individuals and African American community, and saps the strength of the whole social through the waste of human resources; and WHEREAS, more than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes for African Americans including cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high infant and maternal mortality rates demonstrating that racism is the root cause of social determinants of health; and WHEREAS, in Arkansas, the highest health disparities exist for African American and Hispanics, at every stage in the life course, and mortality rate for African American is higher than those of Whites with similar conditions; and WHEREAS, the American Public Health Association (APHA) launched a National Campaign Against Racism; and WHEREAS, Northwest Arkansas Council Diversity Report 2020 and Regional Strategic Plan 2018, Page 1 Printed on 8119120 Resolution: 213-20 File Number 2020-0662 and Walton Family Foundation Northwest Arkansas Quality of Life Survey Report 2019 states that "Fayetteville must address persistent disparities in health outcomes, and the social, economic, educational and environmental inequities that contribute to them"; and WHEREAS, the Arkansas Minority Health Commission has adopted in 2020 the resolution "Public Health in Arkansas" and in 2019 the resolution "Arkansas Racial and Ethnic Health Disparity Study" and 2013 the resolution "Trends in Health Disparities: A Report for Arkansas" and in 2012 resolution "Health Status of African Americans and in 2012 resolution "Latino Health Report"; and WHEREAS, public health's responsibilities to address racism include reshaping our discourse and agenda so that we all actively engage in racial justice work; and WHEREAS, while there is no epidemiologic definition of "crisis", the health impact of racism clearly rises to the definition proposed by Gales: "The problem must affect large numbers of people, it must threaten health over the long-term, and it must require the adoption of large scale solutions"; and WHEREAS, structural racism has increased health and economic inequities for African American community, exacerbated further by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville will develop a Racial Equity Action Plan and develop policies, practices and strategic investments to reverse racial inequities, eliminate institutional racism, and ensure that outcomes and opportunities for all people are no longer predictable by race; and WHEREAS, being anti -racist means moving and speaking in ways that repair (not simply abandon) more than 500 years of racist policies and practices. Anti -racism means actively participating in dismantling racist systems and institutional practices, as well as addressing personal interpersonal acts of racism; and WHEREAS, embodied anti -racist acknowledge that this history still lives and expresses itself through our bodies today; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville leadership is committed to ending racism and building an active, anti -racist culture in the City of Fayetteville. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS: Section 1: That the City Council of the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas hereby declares racism is a public health emergency, the City of Fayetteville will recognize the severe impact of racism on the Page 2 Printed on 8119120 Resolution: 213-20 File Number.' 2020-0662 well-being of residents and city overall and allocate funding, staff, and additional resources to actively engage in racial equity in order to name, reverse, and repair the harm done to African Americans in this City, including the following actions: 1. The City will center the voices, work, and leadership of the communities most directly affected by said racism. 2. Collaboration between the Mayor's African American Advisory Council, the City of Fayetteville Board of Health, and Board of Health Officer to identify health disparities and ways to positively affect health outcomes and the adoption of large-scale solutions to this public health crisis. 3. Provide support to the Fayetteville Mayor's African American Advisory Council to conduct and implement an internal evaluation of all City policies and procedures to prioritize racial equity with specification on how policies translate into anti -racist action towards City employees, constituents, and community members. 4. Develop and implement a Racial Equity Strategic Action Plan. 5. Develop a comprehensive rapid response protocol to immediate needs and long-term work to address systemic inequities. This includes activating the City Board of Health, the Arkansas Department of Health, Washington County Health Unit, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Community Clinic, and other public facing departments to respond to community stress and trauma. 6. Advocate for relevant policies that improve health in African Americans, and supports local, state, and federal initiatives that advance social justice, while also encouraging individual advocacy to dismantle systemic racism. 7. Measure the effectiveness of City programming and the return on investment of public dollar allocations in the budget toward advancing racial equity and reporting these results annually. 8. Foster small business development, affordable housing and community -based infrastructure serving lower income and minority citizens by working with our Community Development Block Grant resources. Attempt to reduce the number of lower income and minority citizens displaced by redevelopment of existing neighborhoods. 9. Commit to continue to increase funding public recreation resources, serving many lower income families. 10. Develop and implement an annual report with racially disaggregated data on the health of Fayetteville African Americans, including recommendations for actions to eliminate any disparities and improve overall health. 11. Build a workplace culture that promotes racialized repair, cross-cultural relationships, upholds the sacredness of caucus spaces for building community, and shifts the burden of addressing racism of African Americans. 12. Build and implement a comprehensive public safety system that address our criminal Page 3 Printed on 8119120 Resolution. 213-20 File Number: 2020-0662 justice system that decentralizes African Americans criminalization rooted in the public health approach to keep African American community disproportionately impacted by community violence safe. 13. Support a ban on the use of chokeholds, strangleholds, and knees placed on the neck/head area on an individual as an acceptable practice for police officers absent a deadly force situation. 14. Support transparency with the community, and the City of Fayetteville will ensure officer misconduct and disciplinary history information will be provided to the public in accordance with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. 15. Support the policy that recertification credentials may be denied for Fayetteville police officers if determined their use of deadly force was unwarranted by department policies and/or Arkansas criminal laws. 16. Support Fayetteville's City Council, Civil Service Commission, Mayor's African American Advisory Council, and the Police Chiefs Advisory Council to assist the police department with accountability, transparency, and public trust. PASSED and APPROVED on 8/18/2020 A pproved- Attest: K FAYE�EVILLE ay Kara Paxton, City Clerk Treasur-rz••..y ' �',9d' • •;kgNSpS • •may ���� Page 4 Printed on 8119120 City of Fayetteville, Arkansas 113 West Mountain Street Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-8323 1 it Text File File Number: 2020-0662 Agenda Date: 8/18/2020 Version: 1 Status: Passed In Control: City Council Meeting File Type: Resolution Agenda Number: C 1 RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE MAYOR'S AFRICAN AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL: A RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE MAYOR'S AFRICAN AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL WHEREAS, race is a social construction with no biologic basis; and WHEREAS, racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal; and systemic racism is institutional or structural, and is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and African American community, unfairly advantages other individuals and African American community, and saps the strength of the whole social through the waste of human resources; and WHEREAS, more than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes for African Americans including cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high infant and maternal mortality rates demonstrating that racism is the root cause of social determinants of health; and WHEREAS, in Arkansas, the highest health disparities exist for African American and Hispanics, at every stage in the life course, and mortality rate for African American is higher than those of Whites with similar conditions; and WHEREAS, the American Public Health Association (APHA) launched a National Campaign Against Racism; and WHEREAS, Northwest Arkansas Council Diversity Report 2020 and Regional Strategic Plan 2018, and Walton Family Foundation Northwest Arkansas Quality of Life Survey Report 2019 states that "Fayetteville must address persistent disparities in health outcomes, and the social, economic, educational and environmental inequities that contribute to them"; and WHEREAS, the Arkansas Minority Health Commission has adopted in 2020 the resolution "Public Health in Arkansas" and in 2019 the resolution "Arkansas Racial and Ethnic Health Disparity Study" and 2013 the resolution "Trends in Health Disparities: A Report for Arkansas" and in 2012 resolution "Health Status of African Americans and in 2012 resolution "Latino Health Report"; and City o/Fayetteville, Arkansas Page 1 Printed on 811912020 File Number 2020-0662 WHEREAS, public health's responsibilities to address racism include reshaping our discourse and agenda so that we all actively engage in racial justice work; and WHEREAS, while there is no epidemiologic definition of "crisis", the health impact of racism clearly rises to the definition proposed by Gales: "The problem must affect large numbers of people, it must threaten health over the long-term, and it must require the adoption of large scale solutions"; and WHEREAS, structural racism has increased health and economic inequities for African American community, exacerbated further by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville will develop a Racial Equity Action Plan and develop policies, practices and strategic investments to reverse racial inequities, eliminate institutional racism, and ensure that outcomes and opportunities for all people are no longer predictable by race; and WHEREAS, being anti -racist means moving and speaking in ways that repair (not simply abandon) more than 500 years of racist policies and practices. Anti -racism means actively participating in dismantling racist systems and institutional practices, as well as addressing personal interpersonal acts of racism; and WHEREAS, embodied anti -racist acknowledge that this history still lives and expresses itself through our bodies today; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville leadership is committed to ending racism and building an active, anti -racist culture in the City of Fayetteville. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS: Section 1: That the City Council of the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas hereby declares racism is a public health emergency, the City of Fayetteville will recognize the severe impact of racism on the well-being of residents and city overall and allocate funding, staff, and additional resources to actively engage in racial equity in order to name, reverse, and repair the harm done to African Americans in this City, including the following actions: I . The City will center the voices, work, and leadership of the communities most directly affected by said racism. 2. Collaboration between the Mayor's African American Advisory Council, the City of Fayetteville Board of Health, and Board of Health Officer to identify health disparities and ways to positively affect health outcomes and the adoption of large-scale solutions to this public health crisis. 3. Provide support to the Fayetteville Mayor's African American Advisory Council to conduct and implement an internal evaluation of all City policies and procedures to prioritize racial equity with specification on how policies translate into anti -racist action towards City employees, constituents, and community members. 4. Develop and implement a Racial Equity Strategic Action Plan. Develop a comprehensive rapid response protocol to immediate needs and long-term work to address systemic inequities. This includes activating the City Board of Health, the Arkansas Department City of Fayetteville, Arkansas page 2 Printed on 811912020 File Number. 2020-0662 of Health, Washington County Health Unit, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Community Clinic, and other public facing departments to respond to community stress and trauma. 6. Advocate for relevant policies that improve health in African Americans, and supports local, state, and federal initiatives that advance social justice, while also encouraging individual advocacy to dismantle systemic racism. 7. Measure the effectiveness of City programming and the return on investment of public dollar allocations in the budget toward advancing racial equity and reporting these results annually. 8. Foster small business development, affordable housing and community -based infrastructure serving lower income and minority citizens by working with our Community Development Block Grant resources. Attempt to reduce the number of lower income and minority citizens displaced by redevelopment of existing neighborhoods. 9. Commit to continue to increase funding public recreation resources, serving many lower income families. 10. Develop and implement an annual report with racially disaggregated data on the health of Fayetteville African Americans, including recommendations for actions to eliminate any disparities and improve overall health. II. Build a workplace culture that promotes racialized repair, cross-cultural relationships, upholds the sacredness of caucus spaces for building community, and shifts the burden of addressing racism of African Americans. 12. Build and implement a comprehensive public safety system that address our criminal justice system that decentralizes African Americans criminalization rooted in the public health approach to keep African American community disproportionately impacted by community violence safe. 13. Support a ban on the use of chokeholds, strangleholds, and knees placed on the neck/head area on an individual as an acceptable practice for police officers absent a deadly force situation. 14. Support transparency with the community, and the City of Fayetteville will ensure officer misconduct and disciplinary history information will be provided to the public in accordance with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. 15. Support the policy that recertification credentials may be denied for Fayetteville police officers if determined their use of deadly force was unwarranted by department policies and/or Arkansas criminal laws. 16. Support Fayetteville's City Council, Civil Service Commission, Mayor's African American Advisory Council, and the Police Chiefs Advisory Council to assist the police department with accountability, transparency, and public trust. City o/ Fayetteville, Arkansas Page 3 Printed on 811912020 City of Fayetteville Staff Review Form 2020-0662 Legistar File ID 8/18/2020 City Council Meeting Date - Agenda Item Only N/A for Non -Agenda Item Mayor Lione►d Jordan 8/3/2020 MAYORS ADMIN (015) Submitted By Submitted Date Division / Department Action Recommendation: Mayor Lioneld Jordan requests City Council adoption of the Resolution from the African American Advisory Council that "Racism is a Public Health Crisis." Account Number Project Number Budgeted Item? NA Does item have a cost? NA Budget Adjustment Attached? NA Purchase Order Number: Change Order Number: Original Contract Number: Comments: Budget Impact: Fund Project Title Current Budget Funds Obligated Current Balance Item Cost Budget Adjustment Remaining Budget Previous Ordinance or Resolution # Approval Date: V20180321 CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE ARKANSAS MEETING OF AUGUST 18, 2020 TO: City Council FROM: Lioneld Jordan, Mayor DATE: 08/03/2020 CITY COUNCIL MEMO SUBJECT: Resolution from the African American Advisory Council RECOMMENDATION: As Mayor, I request your approval of the attached resolution from the Mayor's African American Advisory Council, "Racism is a public health crisis." BACKGROUND: I was approached by D'Andre Jones in the Fall of 2018 to establish an ad hoc committee dedicated to the concerns of the African American community. The African American Advisory Council formed in January 2019 with the purpose to improve the quality of life of African American residents. Since that time, they have established dialogue with me and the Chief of Police, City Council, and a number of community members. Initially, the committee looked at community policing and data regarding arrest rates of African Americans. This same data was shared with you about a year ago. Since that discussion, the Advisory Council ended up talking in more general terms about establishing a strong partnership between the Mayor, the City Council, the Administration, the Police Department, and the African American Community. DISCUSSION: For a couple of months, the African American Advisory Council has worked on a resolution that is before you tonight. They brought this research and draft to me and also sought feedback from the City's Board of Health. It is in -keeping with my practice to seek stakeholder input as to policies, services, and issues that impact and are important to our residents. To that end, the African American Advisory Council is commissioned by me to provide community input and recommendations to City leadership regarding matters, needs, and concerns relating to the quality of life or general well-being for African American residents in the City of Fayetteville. The resolution before you tonight highlights a number of action steps that will help address local concerns of minorities in our community. BUDGET/STAFF IMPACT: Budget impact for some of the action items will be considered during the next budget cycle. Attachments: Resolution "Racism is a Public Health Crisis" Mailing Address: 113 W. Mountain Street www.fayetteville-ar.gov Fayetteville, AR 72701 RESOLUTION NO. A RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION PROPOSED BY THE MAYOR'S AFRICAN AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL WHEREAS, race is a social construction with no biologic basis; and WHEREAS, racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal; and systemic racism is institutional or structural, and is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and African American community, unfairly advantages other individuals and African American community, and saps the strength of the whole social through the waste of human resources; and WHEREAS, more than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes for African Americans including cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high infant and maternal mortality rates demonstrating that racism is the root cause of social determinants of health; and WHEREAS, in Arkansas, the highest health disparities exist for African American and Hispanics, at every stage in the life course, and mortality rate for African American is higher than those of Whites with similar conditions; and WHEREAS, the American Public Health Association (APHA) launched a National Campaign Against Racism; and WHEREAS, Northwest Arkansas Council Diversity Report 2020 and Regional Strategic Plan 2018, and Walton Family Foundation Northwest Arkansas Quality of Life Survey Report 2019 states that "Fayetteville must address persistent disparities in health outcomes, and the social, economic, educational and environmental inequities that contribute to them"; and WHEREAS, the Arkansas Minority Health Commission has adopted in 2020 the resolution "Public Health in Arkansas" and in 2019 the resolution "Arkansas Racial and Ethnic Health Disparity Study" and 2013 the resolution "Trends in Health Disparities: A Report for Arkansas" and in 2012 resolution "Health Status of African Americans and in 2012 resolution "Latino Health Report"; and WHEREAS, public health's responsibilities to address racism include reshaping our discourse and agenda so that we all actively engage in racial justice work; and WHEREAS, while there is no epidemiologic definition of "crisis", the health impact of racism clearly rises to the definition proposed by Gales: "The problem must affect large numbers of people, it must threaten health over the long-term, and it must require the adoption of large scale solutions"; and WHEREAS, structural racism has increased health and economic inequities for African American community, exacerbated further by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville will develop a Racial Equity Action Plan and develop policies, practices and strategic investments to reverse racial inequities, eliminate institutional racism, and ensure that outcomes and opportunities for all people are no longer predictable by race; and WHEREAS, being anti -racist means moving and speaking in ways that repair (not simply abandon) more than 500 years of racist policies and practices. Anti -racism means actively participating in dismantling racist systems and institutional practices, as well as addressing personal interpersonal acts of racism; and WHEREAS, embodied anti -racist acknowledge that this history still lives and expresses itself through our bodies today; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville leadership is committed to ending racism and building an active, anti -racist culture in the City of Fayetteville. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS: Section 1: That the City Council of the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas hereby declares racism is a public health emergency, the City of Fayetteville will recognize the severe impact of racism on the well-being of residents and city overall and allocate funding, staff, and additional resources to actively engage in racial equity in order to name, reverse, and repair the harm done to African Americans in this City, including the following actions: 1. The City will center the voices, work, and leadership of the com►nLin ities most directly affected by said racism. 2. Collaboration between the Mayor's African American Advisory Council, the City of Fayetteville Board of Health, and Board of Health Officer to identify health disparities and ways to positively affect health outcomes and the adoption of large-scale solutions to this public health crisis. 3. Provide support to the Fayetteville Mayor's African American Advisory Council to conduct and implement an internal evaluation of the all City policies and procedures to prioritize racial equity with specification on how policies translate into anti -racist action towards City employees, constituents, and community members. 4. Develop and implement a Racial Equity Strategic Action Plan. 5. Develop a comprehensive rapid response protocol to immediate needs and long-term work to address systemic inequities. This includes activating the City Board of Health, the Arkansas Department of Health, Washington County Health Unit, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Community Clinic, and other public facing departments to respond to community stress and trauma. 6. Advocate for relevant policies that improve health in African Americans, and supports local, state, and federal initiatives that advance social justice, while also encouraging individual advocacy to dismantle systemic racism. 7. Measure the effectiveness of City programming and the return on investment of public dollar allocations in the budget toward advancing racial equity and reporting these results annually. 8. Foster small business development, affordable housing and community -based infrastructure serving lower income and minority citizens by working with our Community Development Block Grant resources. Attempt to reduce the number of lower income and minority citizens displaced by redevelopment of existing neighborhoods. 9. Commit to continue to increase funding public recreation resources serving many lower income families. 10. Develop and implement an annual report with racially disaggregated data on the health of Fayetteville African Americans, including recommendations for actions to eliminate any disparities and improve overall health. 11. Build a workplace culture that promotes racialized repair, cross-cultural relationships, upholds the sacredness of caucus spaces for building community, and shifts the burden of addressing racism of African Americans. 12. Build and implement a comprehensive public safety system that address our criminal justice system that decentralizes African Americans criminalization rooted in the public health approach to keep African American community disproportionately impacted by community violence safe. 13. Support a ban on the use of chokeholds, strangleholds, and knees placed on the neck/head area on an individual as an acceptable practice for police officers absent a deadly force situation. 14. Support transparency with the community, and the City of Fayetteville will ensure officer misconduct and disciplinary history information will be provided to the public in accordance with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. 15. Support the policy that recertification credentials may be denied for Fayetteville police officers if determined their use of deadly force was unwarranted by department policies and/or Arkansas criminal laws. 16. Support Fayetteville's City Council, Civil Service Commission, Mayor's African American Advisory Council, and the Police Chief s Advisory Council to assist the police department with accountability, transparency, and public trust. PASSED and APPROVED this 18t" day of August, 2020. APF 'TEST: KARA PAXTON, City C FAYETTEVILLE s �''.4;';NcroN�; ``• ry UFAYETTEVILLE P ARKANSAS Advisory Council Memo To: Mayor Jordan From: D'Andre Jones, Chairman Date: July 31, 2020 Subject: Racism is a public health crisis resolution The mission of the African American Advisory Council is to assure all African Americans residents in the City of Fayetteville equitable access to economic, social and vocational opportunities. The Council supports its mission by: • Studying quality of life and general well-being issues for African Americans in the City of Fayetteville; • Identifying gaps in equitable service delivery problems that affect African Americans; • Making recommendations to the Mayor and City Council to improve the quality of life and access to equity city services African Americans; and • Review changes to ensure city decision positively impact current and future needs of the African American community. Through programming, partnerships and sponsorships, the African American Advisory Council continues to strive to improve the quality of life of African American residents in efforts to eliminate disparities and advance equity. The Council worked with key organizations and community members to identify the biggest equity problems impacting African Americans in the City of Fayetteville. The plans for improving the inequities for African Americans outlined in this resolution were based on input from those most involved with the problems. Racism as a public health crisis was identified as needing immediate attention. Racism in undeniably a public health crisis, according to the American Public Health Association (APHA): Racism structures opportunity and assigns value based on how a person looks. The result: conditions that unfairly advantage some and unfairly disadvantage others. Racism hurts the health of our nation by preventing some people the opportunity to attain their highest level of health. African Americans continue to have the highest incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates from chronic diseases in Arkansas. 2,3,4,5,6 In addition, racism in itself results in a negative impact on mental health and elevated stress levels. In combination with existing health challenges, our African American citizens face an even greater potential of serious illness and potentially death. We are reaching out to you with the hope that the City of Fayetteville will take the opportunity to recognize that racism is a public health crisis. We ask that you institute measures to protect Fayetteville's African American citizens against racism. Our city has already shown that it has the potential to be a powerful voice in the fight against racism. By enacting the proposed resolutions, the City of Fayetteville will be setting an example within our state and across the country. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to discussing this resolution with you and hope that you will sponsor it and introduce it to the city council. Thank you for considering this request, Fayetteville Mayor's African American Advisory Council D'Andre Jones — Chairman LaKisha Bradley — Vice -Chair Lance Reed — Secretary Dr. Claretha Hughes Brice White Wendell Higgins Dr. Denise Hoy Nate Walls Raven Cook Cory Perry Spencer Brown Draft 2020 RESOLUTION Racism is a Public Health Crisis WHEREAS, race is a social construction with no biologic basis; and WHEREAS, racism is a social system with multiple dimensions: individual racism is internalized or interpersonal; and systemic racism is institutional or structural, and is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and African American community, unfairly advantages other individuals and African American community, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources 1.8 ; and WHEREAS, racism causes persistent racial discrimination in housing, education, employment and criminal justice; and an emerging body of research demonstrates that racism is a social determinant of health ?°9; and WHEREAS, more than 100 studies have linked racism to worse health outcomes for African Americans10 including cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, high infant and maternal mortality rates demonstrating that racism is the root cause of social determinants of health; and WHEREAS, in Arkansas, the highest health disparities exist for African American and Hispanics, at every stage in the life course 2,3,4°5,6, and mortality rate for African American is higher than those of Whites with similar conditions 2,3,as,6; and WHEREAS, the American Public Health Association (APHA) launched a National Campaign Against Racism 1; and WHEREAS, Northwest Arkansas Council Diversity Report 2020 and Regional Strategic Plan 2018, and Walton Family Foundation Northwest Arkansas Quality of Life Survey Report 2019 states that "Fayetteville must address persistent disparities in health outcomes, and the social, economic, educational and environmental inequities that contribute to them" 11,12,13; and WHEREAS, the Arkansas Minority Health Commission has adopted in 2020 the resolution "Public Health in Arkansas" and in 2019 the resolution "Arkansas Racial and Ethnic Health Disparity Study" and in 2013 the resolution "Trends in Health Disparities: A Report for Arkansas" and in 2012 resolution "Health Status of African Americans and in 2012 resolution "Latino Health Report; and WHEREAS, public health's responsibilities to address racism include reshaping our discourse and agenda so that we all actively engage in racial justice work; and WHEREAS, while there is no epidemiologic definition of "crisis", the health impact of racism clearly rises to the definition proposed by Galea: "The problem must affect large numbers of people, it must threaten health over the long-term, and it must require the adoption of largescale solutions".la WHEARES, structural racism has increased health and economic inequities for African American community, exacerbated further by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis; and WHEREAS, the City of Fayetteville will develop a Racial Equity Action Plan and develop policies, practices and strategic investments to reverse racial inequities, eliminate institutional racism, and ensure that outcomes and opportunities for all people are no longer predictable by race; and WHEREAS, being anti -racist means moving and speaking in ways that repair (not simply abandon) more than 500 years of racist policies and practices. Anti -racism means actively participating in dismantling racist systems and institutional practices, as well as addressing personal and interpersonal acts of racism; and WHEREAS, embodied anti -racist acknowledge that this history still lives and expresses itself through our bodies today; and WHEREAS, City of Fayetteville leadership is committed to ending racism and building an active, anti -racist culture in the City of Fayetteville; NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS: Section 1: That the City Council of the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas hereby declares racism is a public health emergency, the City of Fayetteville will recognize the severe impact of racism on the well-being of residents and city overall and allocate funding, staff, and additional resources to actively engage in racial equity in order to name, reverse, and repair the harm done to African Americans in this City, including the following actions: 1. The City will center the voices, work, and leadership of the communities most directly affected by said racism. 2. Collaboration between the Mayor's African American Advisory Council, the City of Fayetteville Board of Health, and Board of Health Officer to identify health disparities and ways to positively affect health outcomes and the adoption of large-scale solutions to this public health crisis. 3. Provide support to the Fayetteville Mayor's African American Advisory Council to conduct and implement an internal evaluation of the City Charter as well as all City policies and procedures to prioritize racial equity with specification on how policies translate into anti -racist action towards City employees, constituents, and community members. 4. Develop and implement a Racial Equity Strategic Action Plan. 5. Develop a comprehensive rapid response protocol to immediate needs and long-term work to address systemic inequities. This includes activating the City Board of Health, the Arkansas Department of Health, Washington County Health Unit, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Community Clinic, and other public facing departments to respond to community stress and trauma. 6. Advocate for relevant policies that improve health in African Americans, and supports local, state, and federal initiatives that advance social justice, while also encouraging individual advocacy to dismantle systemic racism. 7. Measure the effectiveness of City programming and the return on investment of public dollar allocations in the budget toward advancing racial equity and reporting these results annually. 8. Foster small business development, affordable housing and community -based infrastructure serving lower income and minority citizens by working with our Community Development Block Grant resources. Attempt to reduce the number of lower income and minority citizens displaced by redevelopment of existing neighborhoods. 9. Commit to continue to increase funding public recreation resources serving many lower income families. 10. Develop and implement an annual report with racially disaggregated data on the health of Fayetteville African Americans, including recommendations for actions to eliminate any disparities and improve overall health. 11. Build a workplace culture that promotes racialized repair, cross-cultural relationships, upholds the sacredness of caucus spaces for building community, and shifts the burden of addressing racism of African Americans. 12. Build and implement a comprehensive public safety system that address our criminal justice system that decentralizes African Americans criminalization rooted in the public health approach to keep African American community disproportionately impacted by community violence safe. 13. Supports a ban on the use of chokeholds, strangleholds, and knees placed on the neck/head area on an individual as an acceptable practice for police officers absent a deadly force situation. 14. Supports transparency with the community, and the City of Fayetteville will ensure officer misconduct and disciplinary history information will be provided to the public in accordance with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. 15. Supports the policy that recertification credentials may be denied for Fayetteville police officers if determined their use of deadly force was unwarranted by department policies and/or Arkansas criminal laws. 16. Supports Fayetteville's City Council, Civil Service Commission, Mayor's African American Advisory Council, and the Police Chief s Advisory Council to assist the police department with accountability, transparency, and public trust. Adopted at the Fayetteville City Council Meeting on August 18, 2020. References: 1. American Public Health Association. Racism and Health. Available at: https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/health-equity/racism-and-health. 2. Arkansas Racial and Ethnic Health Disparity Study Report. 3. Phillips, M.M., Quick, S., and Goodell, M. (2020). Healthy People 2020 Health Status Report. Little Rock (AR): Arkansas Minority Health Commission. 4. Phillips, M.M., Quick, S., and Goodell, M. (2013). Trends in Health Disparities: A Report for Arkansas. Little Rock (AR): Arkansas Minority Health Commission. 5. Maulden, J., Goodell, M., & Phillips, M. M. (2012). Health status of African Americans in Arkansas. Little Rock (AR): Arkansas Minority Health Commission. 6. Maulden, J., Goodell, M., & Phillips, M. M. (2012). Health status of Latino in Arkansas. Little Rock (AR): Arkansas Minority Health Commission. 7. Jee-Lyn Garcia, J., & Sharif, M. Z. (2015). Black lives matter: a commentary on racism and public health. American journal of public health, 105(8), e27-e30. 8. Jones, C. P. (2002). Confronting institutionalized racism. Phylon (1960 ), 7-22. 9. Flynn, A., Holmberg, S., Warren, D., & Wong, F. (2016). Rewrite the racial rules: Building an inclusive American economy. Roosevelt Institute, June, 6. 10. Institute of Medicine. Unequal Treatment. https://www.nap.edu/read/i 0260/chapter/2#7. 11. Northwest Arkansas Council. EngageNWA. Engage the Future: A Look at the Growing Diversity in Northwest Arkansas. Engage the Future: A Look at the Growing Diversity in Northwest Arkansas 12. Northwest Arkansas Council. EngageNWA. Northwest Arkansas Strategic Plan 2018- 2022. Northwest Arkansas Strategic Plan 2018-2022 13. Walton Family Foundation. Home Region. Northwest Arkansas Quality of Life Report 2019. Northwest Arkansas Quality of Life Report 2019 14. Galea, Sandro. Crying "Crisis". Dean's Note. Boston University School of Public Health. https://www.bu.edu.sph/2017/04/23/crying-crisi . 15. Jackson, B. W (2006). Theory and practice of multicultural organization development. In Jones, B. B. & Brazzel, M. (Eds.), The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change (pp. 139-154). San Francisco, CA, Pfeiffer.