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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK <br /> actuallystarted usingit, and now again serves as the City staff performance evaluation system and <br /> g <br /> career path development. <br /> She continued, Now that we have addressed being able to identify problems internally and look at <br /> them on a case-by-case basis and coaching officers that are supervising other officers on how to <br /> do that more regularly instead of waiting until the end of the year. Now we can start looking at <br /> bringing new people into the department. That's what the homegrown project is. And so I <br /> understand completely that most people think that this is something that can happen overnight. <br /> Sometimes people think that it takes a matter of months to make this turnaround,but when you're <br /> trying to change and shift a culture that has been in place for decades, it is not going to happen <br /> overnight. It takes time. It takes being able to use that time to talk to the people and the officers <br /> that are actually living that day-to-day experience and talking to the community that they serve. <br /> And so I will not apologize for taking my time and doing both of those things and creating the <br /> system that I believe this community needed. And so that's the answer to the question about ethnic <br /> and racial diversity within the Police Department in the City of South Bend. <br /> She went on, On the issue of the disparity study, this City, possibly in this chamber, thirty-two <br /> (32) years ago at the instruction and the leadership of Eugenia Bradley, wrote an ordinance, and <br /> all that the community was asking at that time was that minority businesses have a fair shot at <br /> getting City dollars in contracting and procurement. And in 1987 that was a hope that was really <br /> dashed in 1989 because of a Supreme Court case, the City of Richmond versus Croson, and that <br /> case scared a lot of cities into doing away with their minority and women business programs. <br /> In that court case, the court did not say that you could not have a program. It said that you had to <br /> have a narrowly tailored program and that you couldn't use the general discrimination of a <br /> population to create a program that was affirmative for minority businesses. It said that you had to <br /> have very specific evidence in your city, in your marketplace, that showed that discrimination was <br /> taking place. And so because of that case, the City of South Bend, no different from other cities <br /> all across the nation, stepped back from the program that the community wanted because at the <br /> time we did not have a legal standing to hold people accountable to the ordinance that was <br /> originally written. <br /> She continued,This City came back in 2011 and amended that ordinance, with again the hope that <br /> we would, as a City, make good on the promise that we had made in 1987 and, again,because we <br /> did not have a disparity study which was spelled out in very specific terms, that we had cause to <br /> take affirmative action towards targeting minority and women businesses for special consideration. <br /> It wasn't until 2018 that this Council, with their leadership and the Mayor of this City, with the <br /> community support, said, we are going to do what is necessary to actually hold people accountable <br /> to a promise that we made in this community thirty-two(32)years ago.And that is why on October <br /> 3'd, 2019 at 5:00 p.m., we will be presenting findings that will allow this City to hold people <br /> accountable and to hold ourselves accountable for the City funds that we spend in making sure that <br /> we are doing right by minority and women businesses. <br /> She went on, So I hope everyone who is in attendance tonight, and people out in the community <br /> that may be watching this online, will be there on October 3`d, 2019 so that you can hear what we <br /> have already started to do to address the disparities in our processes and our policies and what we <br /> plan to do in the future. Thank you. <br /> EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT <br /> 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov <br /> 33 <br />