Superior City Council To Take Up Creating A Commission On Communities Of Color

The Superior City Council will consider whether to approve creating a commission on communities of color at Tuesday’s meeting.

Superior Mayor Jim Paine is asking the council to create the commission. He plans to appoint four people to serve on it. Paine said the goal of the group is to address and discuss inequities and barriers for people of color in the community.

“There have been actual incidences, very serious incidences, where justice was outright violated for people here in Superior,” he said. “We decided it was time to have people of color in a position to create actual policies to address these issues.”

Kym Young is one of the four who would be appointed to serve on the commission. She said some of the barriers that people of color face in Superior include a lack of diversity in hiring.

“Superior is still very much a segregated town,” she said. “I mean, when you look at the fact that we have such a high rate of people of color in this town, they don’t want to stay here because there is no job opportunities. There is no housing opportunity. They don’t feel like they have community or system support in this community.”

Stephan Witherspoon would also be appointed to serve on the commission. He agreed the city needs to focus more on diversity in hiring. He said that includes hiring people of color, women, and people from the LGBTQ community.

“Let’s start from the bottom up, and the bottom is we have to be recognized and validated before any work could happen,” he said. “People need to know that we have just as much skills and knowledge and all that — as much as anybody else. We need to be brought to the table. We want to be on the table and not on the menu.”

Paine said he hopes the commission will receive unanimous support. He said he’d like the group to set the mission and vision for what the commission will accomplish. But Superior’s mayor said he’d also like the group to review barriers for people of color in city government, police and community relations, and police and fire training.

The City Council will vote on creation of the commission at its meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Douglas County Government Center.