One bit of news that came out of public comment is that the city has suspended portions of the Women & Minority Business Enterprise program (WMBE) to “comply with federal law.” The public comment suggested the program was being shut down. The Equal Business Opportunity department informed me “only portions of the WMBE program have been suspended. We are continuing to certify and re certify WMBE businesses. The SLBE (Small Local Business Enterprise) portion of the program is intact and unaffected and being strengthened.” But that was a forgone conclusion when the mayor and council quietly agreed in June to abide by Trump’s illegal executive orders related to diversity, equity and inclusion. I do not believe there have been changes in the federal law but have reached out for clarification.

All of the agenda items were approved, with only the vote on the land purchase for a park expansion in Channelside “pulled” for discussion. Which gets to a point I’ve been trying to make. The agenda does’t refer to the required approval items as consent items. The CRA agenda isn’t like Council’s where there might be 75 items requiring approval that are generally benign. This week’s agenda was 13 items. They met for an hour and 50 minutes. The discussion around the land purchase was limited to quick justifications for the vote. There was no presentation from staff. No questions being asked in public. There was a “sidebar” between Board member Clendenin and someone from the public away from the meeting however.

Setting aside the merits of any particular project there needs to be transparency. Consistent transparency. Either projects over $1 million require public discussion with an explanation of what the funds are being spent on and or they don’t. Either a vote has a fiscal impact or it doesn’t. But cherry picking what they will publicly discuss and what they won’t isn’t transparency and leads to distrust in the process. And distrust of the CRAs.