Brookhaven's Social Justice, Race and Equity Commission gives update nearly one year after organizing

BROOKHAVEN, Ga. - A nearly 40 person commission has spent nearly a year researching social justice and equity in one metro Atlanta city.

Monday, the City of Brookhaven's Social Justice, Race and Equity Commission's chairman detailing the work they've accomplished so far regarding racism and diversity.

Since starting this initiative last summer, I'm told the commission is meeting regularly as they continue to conduct interviews, collect data like arrest statistics and city employee demographics and analyze that data to see what inclusive changes are needed in the city.

"It wasn't put in place to say Brookhaven is doing something wrong," Commission Chairman John Funny said. "It's just an opportunity as a new city to take a pause and review policies and procedures that is currently underway in the city to see if there is an opportunity for improvement or tweaking from a different set of lens. Looking at it from an equity and race perspective."

During Monday’s virtual town hall, Funny noted that there've been difficult conversations as the nearly 40 person commission reviews current city policies.

"We're learning that people are conditioned based upon how they were raised, condition with growing up. That plays into a lot of the discussions we have. It's great to hear commission members say 'oh, I didn’t think about it that way but now I can understand.' that means we are being very successful with this conversation," Funny said during the town hall. 

It's a conversation focused on reviewing the city's hiring practices, affordable housing, public engagement and communication outreach, and the police department's use of force and hiring.

"They're collecting data on the front end. This is historical data from each of these departments in the city and they're beginning to analyze the data to begin to tell the story of what the data is saying," he described. 

From there, Chairman Funny said the commission will assess that data and begin having a deep conversation with the community about social justice.

"This is where the community is gonna have the opportunity to attend interviews, they can attend focus group meetings, civic dinners that will have this discussion around the table."

He went on to say that "we want their input. Everybody doesn’t see everything the same way. To have their dialogue and input is so important to us because they may shed light on a subject matter or topical matter that the commission may not have thought of." 

Councilwoman Madeline Simmons and Funny created the initiative in the midst of the civil unrest we saw in Atlanta and across the country last year following the deaths of George Floyd and other people killed during encounters with police.

"It's, unfortunately, that it took the murder of George Floyd and so many others in the spring of 2020 for these conversations to get going and move forward but that was the silver lining," Councilwoman Simmons said. 

The commission includes 37 community members from various backgrounds.

Funny said the commissions will present its recommendations to city council later this year.

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