166su’s Gun Violence Prevention Commission doesn’t think a change to how it reports its funding allocation decisions to city council is necessary.
The council discussed an ordinance during a meeting Monday that would give it the ability to review commission recommendations regarding grant funds. But after a heated discussion among members, the matter was tabled
The Gun Violence Prevention Commission reviewed council member’s comments at its Tuesday night meeting. Commissioners agreed that it doesn’t want to be treated any differently than any other city commission.
Laura Carini, who works with the commission through the city attorney’s office, said it’s clear that the council doesn’t want to stop the work of the commission.
“You are not spending money. You are not writing checks, obviously. It’s all gone through the city, and that’s just going to continue,” Carini said.
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“I work with the arts commission,” she continued, “and all of [their] grants come through me. And they come to me and they go to Bob [city manager Cowell]. They don’t go through council. It’s exactly the same process.
“That process is the system,” commissioner Elliott Major said. “The change that they’re asking for, would that be consistent to all other organizations?”
“No,” Carini said.
“Then that’s a problem,” Major said.
“It is a problem,” said Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, the commission chair. “And I raised that issue yesterday, and that’s what we’re trying to correct.”
“We said we want to be equal, not less than, not more than, we want to be equal to the other commissions,” commissioner Stacey Sheppard said.
The commission began discussing the development of subcommittees among its members or other community members. Among the suggested committee focuses were funding, community engagement, research and grant opportunities and applications.
Each of those committees would work to fulfill the commission’s three gun violence initiatives: prevention, intervention and response. Commissioners said their general mission to do research and make recommendations remains the same.
Commissioner Shakira Williams said the commission should just be a piece of the city government puzzle. Some problems, like urban blight and lack of street lighting, may help to prevent gun violence but may fall under the responsibility of public works or code enforcement departments.
“That takes a lot of pressure off of us, and I think we could do a better job at our job,” she said.
The number of city gunfire incidents in which a person was hit by a bullet between Jan. 1 and May 14 is 29, according to the 166su police department’s most recent report. Of those, 22 are aggravated assaults and seven are homicides.
The numbers are almost identical to what they were this time last year. In the same time frame in 2022, there were also 22 aggravated assaults, but just six homicides.
An arrest has been made in every homicide investigation reported in the city this year. Eleven shooting cases, including those seven homicide cases, have been closed by an arrest.
