Raleigh appointments spark flare-up between mayor and council members, her critics
Appointing residents to the city’s volunteer boards sounds like it should be one of the least controversial things the Raleigh City Council does.
It doesn’t always work that way.
Debate over recent appointments to the city’s Human Relations Commission prompted accusations of insensitivity and political posturing tied to the Israel-Hamas war this week.
It started earlier this month after two people got enough votes to join the Human Relations Commission. Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said she was disappointed because she had been trying to find a Jewish person and someone of Asian descent, since members of those communities were rotating off the board.
“I’m going to express my concern at members of our community being excluded,” Baldwin said during an Oct. 3 City Council meeting. “I told you last time that I was doing this, and obviously there was no consideration.”
City Council members Mary Black and Christina Jones had made the successful nominations to the commission. Black, the council’s liaison to the commission, said it has struggled to meet because it lacked a quorum and that Baldwin’s nominees could be appointed later to alternative spots to fill in if needed.
Jewish representation and Israel
This week, Frank Hielema, a frequent Baldwin critic, showed part of that exchange during the council’s public comments meeting. He said the mayor had “complained or even whined” about the nominations.
“I quote the mayor, ‘Obviously that fell on deaf ears, so that’s unfortunate,’” Hielema said. “A couple of fitting expressions come to mind: Welcome to the club. And now the shoe is on the other foot. I understand your feelings, Madame Mayor. I’ve been coming to council for 13 months speaking about the deleterious consequences of the ‘Missing Middle’ in neighborhoods.”
Missing middle refers to allowing duplexes and denser types of housing in traditionally single-family neighborhoods
After he spoke, Baldwin said the video clip didn’t show she was advocating for Jewish and Indian representation.
“I think in light of what happened in Israel, the tragedy — ” she said, eliciting scoffs from some audience members, including Donna Bailey, another critic, who said, ‘Oh, give me a break!”
“The 300 people who showed up (Monday) night for the solidarity day would probably not say give me a break,” Baldwin responded. “We were all there in solidarity, and I think our Human Relations Commission does deserve Jewish and other representation.”
‘Don’t manipulate this’
Baldwin began to call the next speaker when Jones said she wanted to add something.
Jones had started speaking when Baldwin banged her gavel and said “Ms. Jones, no.” Some people in the audience shouted that Jones should keep speaking.
Jones said one of the two approved nominees was no longer eligible to serve and there was time for Baldwin to make her nomination.
“Please don’t manipulate this,” Jones said, gesturing her hand toward Baldwin.
“But you went ahead and did what you did,” Baldwin said, gesturing back at Jones.
“I would do it again,” Jones said. “I would do it again.”
“I was just asking for Jewish representation,” Baldwin said.
“You asked after three times of us not doing it (appointing new members),” Jones said. “So don’t put that on us like we were manipulating you. They got five votes. You went against what the vote was.”
As audience members talked loudly and clapped, Baldwin banged her gavel.
“OK, we will have some decorum,” she said, before calling the next speaker.
‘That’s humanity’
After the meeting, Baldwin told The News & Observer she had responded to Hielema because he “cut the most relevant part of the video.”
“And I feel then like I feel now that to have a Human Relations Commission that does not represent members of our Jewish community, or Indian community or Asian community, that’s not a human relations commission,” she said.
She disagreed that she was politicizing the issue by bringing up the Israel-Hamas war.
“That’s not politics, that’s insensitivity,” she said. “Because antisemitic literature has been left on people’s doorways and our police have been called to houses of worship.
“And to dismiss having somebody representing the Jewish community on the Human Relations Commission — that’s not politics,” she said. “That’s humanity.”
‘I’m not in elementary school’
Jones said she responded to Baldwin because “it felt like she was pointing, going, ‘and they didn’t want representation from the Jewish community.’”
“And that was so far from what was intended and what we were doing,” Jones said. “It was, in my opinion, manipulative.”
Baldwin knew there was still an open seat on the Human Relations Commission, Jones said.
“So knowing that information and still using this moment to make it seem like we were being discriminatory in any way is manipulative, and it’s misleading,” she said.
A nomination to Raleigh’s Human Relations Commission has no connection to the Middle East or the Jewish Federation of Greater Raleigh’s event that Baldwin attended, Jones said.
“It was making an emotional dig into something that had nothing to do with that situation,” she said.
“If we’re not supposed to talk in public comments, then we’re not supposed to talk,” Jones said. “But we always follow this unwritten rule that she’s allowed to speak and respond, but we’re not. And I’m not in school. I’m not in elementary school.”
After the meeting, Black said she felt her concerns also “fell on deaf ears.”
“We’re asking this group of volunteers that meet once a month for an hour and a half to do a big part of the restorative justice work for the city,” she said. “And we’re holding them up on being able to get members.”
“And whereas I understand that we need to have diversity on the board, I don’t feel like we can piecemeal that diversity and be like, ‘Oh, we have a Asian, we have a Muslim, we have a Jewish person,’” Black said. “That’s not going to get us to where we need to go.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 11:56 AM.
