A Timeline
Below is a detailed look at the important events and dates that led to the creation of the Mill Valley Force 4 Racial Justice, and the subsequent work that it has been doing.
May 25, 2020—George Floyd’s murder by police on May 25, 2020 ignited Black Lives Matter protests across the nation and throughout the world. Sympathetic signs began to appear around Mill Valley, but some were being removed without residents’ consent.
June 1, 2020—At a June 1 meeting of the City Council, one such resident asked what Mill Valley was doing “to show that Black lives matter in our community.” The Mayor responded with her now-infamous comment, “it is a City Council Policy not to take action on issues that are not of immediate local importance”.
In a starkly segregated city in the State’s most racially inequitable county, the comment outraged residents and prompted numerous local marches and rallies where hundreds showed up to attest to the daily lived reality of racial injustice in Mill Valley.
June 3 and 5, 2020—The Mayor made two statements: on June 3 she apologized for her “choice of words” and asked the community to join her in conversation announcing she would be putting “a review of existing racial inequities and injustice” on the agenda, and create a public portal to allow public input on these issues; the second, on June 5 she made another statement which included a link to submit comments about equality and justice to the City Council.
June 6, 2020 –Mill Valley protest marched from the Depot to Tam High School. Well over 1000 people attended.
June 15, 2020—Council responded by scheduling a special meeting on June 15 “Regarding Black Lives Matter and Development of a City Action Plan to Address Racial Injustice and Inequities in Mill Valley.” The meeting lasted nearly five and a half hours as community members took two minutes each to express their experiences in Mill Valley with racial bias and to offer recommendations to correct and repair the resulting injustices. Council also received 164 letters and emails urging action on racial equity. That outpouring has continued at every Council meeting since.
Community members asked Mayor McIntee to resign. As a result of two online petitions, written letters, and community members calling into the City Council meeting, the pressure built so much that at the June 15th meeting the council addressed the call for the mayor’s resignation.
July 6, 2020—At the next Council meeting, on July 6, 2020, Council adopted Resolution No 20-37, stating that Black Lives Matter, and committing to establish “an Inclusion & Diversity Task Force to review and develop additional actions, investigate best practices, and make specific recommendations to Council for next steps.” The City announced that a subcommittee (subsequently labeled a “working group”) comprised of the Mayor, the City Manager and Councilmember Ossa would oversee the selection of a facilitator and creation of the Task Force.
It soon became evident from the City Manager and staff reports that the Mayor’s working group was proceeding behind closed doors to select a facilitator and to determine other aspects of the Task Force process.
Racial equity did not appear on the Council’s agenda again until September 8, prompting dozens of letters and comments from the community at each meeting asking the City to prioritize the racial equity work and to place it on every Council agenda to ensure a transparent and inclusive process. Instead, staff offered brief, non-agendized announcements about decisions undertaken by the working group away from the public eye.
July 16, 2020—Just ten days after the July 6 meeting when the City’s working group was announced, some community members sent the City lists of candidates, suggested criteria and qualifications for the facilitator. The Mayor replied on July 16 that the City had already identified “highly qualified facilitators” and was “wrapping up” its interview process that week. It was hard to take seriously her offer: “if any of your candidates want to get in touch in the next few days, we’d be happy to interview them as well.”
August 3, 2020—The City announced the working group’s selection for facilitator, Dr. Patricia Patton, in a staff report at the August 3 Council meeting.
Patton, is a self-described “Human Capital Strategist and Executive Coach” who appears to have worked exclusively in the corporate context assisting individuals and small-groups to develop personal, interpersonal and leadership skills. https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciapatton/ Advancing racial equity in the government context, and facilitating inclusive community processes to do so, are well-established specialties for which there are many highly qualified practitioners. See e.g., Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE). Dr. Patton’s expertise, though considerable, did not fall in either of these areas and the City’s working group provided no clear explanation for its failure to select a DEI expert for the role. The decision to hire someone like Dr. Patton to facilitate the DEI Task Force speaks to the lack of DEI lens of the Mayor and the rest of the City Council.
Nevertheless, Dr. Patton set to work to select a Task Force and design a process to achieve the goals the City had identified in its July 6 resolution. She invited and reviewed over 50 applications from community members, held multiple listening sessions with potential members, and ultimately selected 22 people based on commitment, representation, history and expertise. (Note: Dr. Patton was paid $41,500 yet the council or DEI working group has not been asked for Task Force feedback on Dr. Patton after working with her for two months.
October 7, 2020 - November 19, 2020—The City gave the Task Force of strangers eight weeks to complete its investigation and research and issue its recommendations. Remarkably, even without the substantive assistance of a DEI professional, the Task Force produced a scholarly, 93-page Report addressing six facets of community life with 30 recommendations based on well-established best practices.
November 19, 2020 – The DEI Task Force submitted their Report & Recommendations to the Mill Valley City Council. First and foremost, the Report identified two overarching, immediate recommendations: (1) an expert-facilitated Racial Equity Plan; and (2) a permanent DEI commission. These foundational steps, the Task Force explained, would be essential to begin to address the predominantly-white City’s lack of knowledge, experience, infrastructure and leadership in the realm of racial equity. Mill Valley has never had a Department, Commission, staff member, policy or goal dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.
December 7, 2020—During the presentation of its Report at the December 7 Council meeting, the Task Force repeatedly and explicitly urged Council to discuss and decide the two priority recommendations that would help ensure the effectiveness of the remainder of the work. These requests were echoed in over 100 written and oral comments from the public. Inexplicably, while Council members roundly praised the work or the Task Force, members studiously evaded these two most important issues. One Council member said that these recommendations should “probably” occur “at some point;” two others mentioned the recommendations but failed to state a clear position; and the remaining two offered no comment on the recommendations whatsoever. Instead, Council members directed the City Manager to review the remaining 28 recommendations and to determine, apparently at his own discretion, which were appropriate and feasible and then divide them among existing departments and commissions, whose foci are wholly unrelated to DEI work.
Given the absence of direction from Council on the two primary recommendations, Task Force members were shocked when the City Manager subsequently informed the Task Force Co-Chairs that a DEI Commission is “off the table.”
While some City Councilmembers have said that they strongly support local racial equity efforts, Task Force and community members are struggling to trust these assertions in light of: the lack of transparency on the part of the City working group; the questionable choice for Task Force facilitator; and Council members’ persistent refusal even to discuss the Task Force’s two priority recommendations.
Community concerns have been further heightened due to a variety of comments by Council members appearing to minimize or deny the existence of racial inequities in our community. At the December 7 meeting, for example, various Council members: suggested that the difference between the white and Black experience in Mill Valley is no greater than that between any two Council members; expressed skepticism as to the existence of racial profiling by police in Mill Valley; questioned the documented disparate impact of Student Resource Officers on Black students at Tam High School; and equated the experience of a Black driver stopped by police in Mill Valley with that of a white driver stopped in Marin City. Though perhaps unintentionally, these comments are deeply offensive to Black community members.
In addition, despite apologizing for racially insensitive comments at the start of these events, the Mayor has continued to “like” and post items on her Twitter feed that project an utter disrespect for the DEI efforts that she is purporting to lead. For example, the Mayor “liked” a Tweet reposted by President Trump stating that “critical race theory is the greatest threat to western civilization and its (sic) made its way into the US Federal Government, the military, and the justice system.” She has also “liked” posts that sarcastically demean anti-racist efforts as misguided liberalism.
Mid December 2020--Following the disappointing December 7 meeting, Task Force leaders requested an opportunity to address the Council at its January 7, 2021 meeting in order to facilitate open and honest dialogue and to obtain clarification on Council’s instructions to staff concerning the two priority recommendations which the Council had yet to address. The City Manager denied this request, suggesting instead that the Task Force Co-Chairs could meet with the City’s working group. This would not have provided the needed clarification since, consistent with the Brown Act, Council can only discuss, shape and deliver directions to staff at a meeting of the full Council.
December 30, 2020—On December 30, the Task Force sent a letter to Council and the City Manager asking that the Council place the two priority recommendations on the January 7 Council agenda for a discussion and vote. Task Force members were hopeful that Council would honor their extraordinary volunteer efforts with the dignity of a direct discussion and vote on their principal recommendations but were disappointed. Only one council member, Urban Carmel, offered any response in a phone call with the Co-Chairs, but he made no statement regarding a DEI Commission or a Racial Equity Plan. The Task Force was therefore left with no avenue other than public open time at the January 7 meeting to address the Council in 2-minute segments.
January 7, 2021 – There were 78 attendees at this City Council meeting; 26 community members had the opportunity to speak or submit an eComment. All those who were given a chance to speak urged the City Council to take immediate and meaningful action to address systemic racism in Mill Valley. In their response, the Council members reiterated their previous stance, stating that the city wants change to happen, but at the same time insisting that “this is government and we operate in a certain way.
Although Council members indicated on December 7 that the Task Force members would be “crucial partners” in this work going forward, the Task Force has received no information from the City about any issues or subjects under consideration, nor how the Task Force might participate.