Tampa City Council approves Racial Reconciliation Committee to address racial inequities

Deanne King
·3 min read

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Tampa City Council unanimously passed a resolution creating the racial reconciliation committee after a nearly four-year effort.

8 On Your Side has been following Resolution 568 since its inception in 2020. The resolution was an effort to have the City of Tampa apologize for the injustices African Americans have endured since slavery. It also called for the formation of a committee that would help propose policies that would help eliminate any current racial inequities. While the city formally apologized, the committee was never formed.

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After nearly four years, Tampa’s racial reconciliation committee has officially been approved by councilmembers. The renewed effort was spearheaded by Councilman Luis Viera after he was questioned about it during WFLA’s Rooted in Progress Black History Month Special.

“This really got liftoff because I was asked about it on your special and it became more urgent because I said I was for it and would make a motion for it,” said Luis Viera, Tampa City Councilman District 5.

The 13-member committee will address the economic and racial divide within Tampa and help create policy to combat continued disparities. Each councilmember will appoint one person from the community. Six community organizations will appoint one member. Those six organizations are:

  • Hillsborough County NAACP

  • The Urban League of Hillsborough County

  • The Tampa Bay History Center

  • Tampa Bay Coalition of Clergy

  • Abe Brown Ministries

  • Florida Rising

Council will submit all appointments by May 16. Originally, Mayor Castor was asked to appoint six members. However, she declined to do so. Castor sent 8 On Your Side the following response:

“Our administration is committed to advancing equity and opportunity, having for years intensely focused on improving results in same areas that the new city council will examine – housing, development, youth empowerment, opportunities for people returning from prison. We fully support the council’s leadership and initiative in forming the Racial Reconciliation Committee, but don’t need to appoint committee members to collaborate with and assist the council’s committee with its work.”

Mayor Jane Castor

Not all councilmembers agreed with Castor’s move. Viera said despite disagreeing, he is looking forward to working with the mayor and administration moving forward.

“I thought that was a missed opportunity on the part of the administration and I made that very clear,” Viera said. “But again I want to look forward to things that are in the future that we can work together on. A lot of the ideas that I talked about the returning citizens and more were supported and signed into law by the mayor, so we work together on issues like that.”

During city council meeting on April 18, some longtime Tampa residents expressed their thoughts on resolution 568. Some asked for several experts to be included on the committee, some asked for funding and some wanted to ensure council would implement the ideas curated by the the committee.

“A lot of people say, is this committee going to have teeth? Will it make a difference? The test in that is not in the committee members,” Viera said. “The real test is with me. It’s with our city council, our mayor. If we will take some of the ideas proposed and march forward with them.”

Right now, the council is solidifying a paid facilitator who will lead the committee. He said that person will be someone from the committee. After the facilitator and the committee members are confirmed, the work of the committee begins. They will assess issues within those five subjects, create proposals and present an assessment report in February 2025.

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