Proposed Changes to Board of Community Relations, Youth Commission

The Kapszukiewicz administration today proposed changes to city boards and commissions.

The administration asked Toledo City Council during its agenda review meeting to consider abolishing the Youth Commission. Funding for the Youth Commission executive director salary, which is $62,703 in the proposed 2018 budget, would be shifted to the department of public service. That position is currently filled by Alicia Smith. Ms. Smith would become the manager of youth and recreation and work closely with the manager of parks and forestry, under Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz’s proposal to council.

The $30,445 of remaining general fund money earmarked in the proposed 2018 budget for the Youth Commission would be shifted to the parks and recreation department, under the mayor’s request.

The administration also asked council to abolish the Board of Community Relations. In its place, the mayor has asked council to create the Human Relations Commission. The proposed 2018 budget defunded the Board of Community Relations executive director position.

Mayor Kapszukiewicz today said: “It is time to reinvigorate, reboot, and reconstruct the Board of Community Relations and the important work it does into the Human Relations Commission. We want everyone to have a seat at the table together.”

The Human Relations Commission would oversee Welcome Toledo Lucas County initiatives, manage initiatives to reduce violence, support efforts to build tolerance, coordinate mediations, and support social justice training.

The $86,775 that was earmarked for the Board of Community Relations in the proposed 2018 budget would instead be used for operating expenses and programming, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at the University of Toledo, under the mayor’s plan.

The Board of Community Relations board consists of 26 members. Mayor Kapszukiewicz today proposed the Human Relations Commission consist of 10 members. Five of those members would each receive civil service pay totaling $3,000 annually, under the mayor’s proposal. They would be compensated that amount to continue mediation services previously performed by the Board of Community Relations executive director.

“We are asking council to consolidate the current Board of Community Relations and the Youth Commission into one new single board to be comprised of citizens representing various specific interests,” said Gretchen Debacker, Toledo legislative director. “These changes are being proposed in an ongoing effort to unify all working boards and commissions and to promote greater efficiencies.”

The proposed ordinance requesting the changes can be found below.

BCR & Youth Commission Ordinance 2018