Columbus City Council approves Police Review Board members; split on controversial nominee

Tyson said she is concerned that a panel member would express personal thoughts on a pending case, because “we want to be viewed that we’re a fair body” that will hear all the evidence before making up minds.

Three members of the public spoke in favor of Strickland’s appointment during the virtual meeting, including Strickland work associate at the Ohio State University Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Kelly Capatosto, a senior data and policy specialist.

Strickland is a Harvard-trained lawyer, Capatosto said, and it would be a “considerable mistake if unfounded perceptions, misconceptions, over a few lines of text on social media get to define this narrative”

“Right now, the rest of the country is watching Columbus, Ohio,” Capatosto said. “…Let’s not lose sight of that big picture.”

Strickland, an attorney at the Kirwin Institute, didn’t speak at the meeting. He had also said in the controversial post: “In America, Black people are killed by police and then blamed for their own deaths. We saw this with George Floyd, and it’s why one conviction won’t stop this cycle from continuing with other victims. We already see it happening today.

“Ma’Khia Bryant was a child. She was shot and killed by Columbus police. She should be alive today.”

In police bodycam video released the evening of the fatal shooting, Bryant appeared to be assaulting a female with a knife. The deadly incident unfolded in seconds after police arrived at the scene.

Also appointed to the panel were: Janet Jackson, 68, of Berwick; Chenelle Jones, 37, of the Northeast Side;  Mark Fluharty, 57, of Reynoldsburg; Willard McIntosh, 56, of Berwick; Rich Nathan, 65, of Westerville; Randall Sistrunk, 38, of the Southeast Side; Charles Tatum, 65, of Berwick; Mary Younger, 72, of German Village.

Added to those nine members were: Aaron Thomas, who works at the OSU College of Medicine helping to recruit historically underrepresented candidates for the program, and Brooke Burns, a juvenile public defender.

Thomas is the only LGBTQ nominee to the Review Board.

“One thing that the people of Columbus are asking for is representation,” he said. “They’re looking for people with similar backgrounds as them, people who may not be necessarily connected into the system of Columbus, but are just general members of the community, and I do believe that I represent that well.”

Burns said she also works with two nonprofit groups that serve under-resourced communities and is committed to a more-just legal system.

“I applied for the board because in my work as a participant in the legal system, I know that more often than not a person’s introduction to this system starts with an encounter with law enforcement,” Burns said. “…Whether those actions are perceived as fair can have an impact on outcomes in our system.”

Hardin said the two were added to “improve the perspective and diversity” the Review Board.

In other business Monday, council:

• Approved a $1 million contract Williams Architects to design a replacement for two aging city swimming pools, the city’s Glenwood and Windsor facilities. Glenwood is at the base of the Hilltop in Glenwood Park, near where I-70 crosses West Broad Street, and Windsor is in South Linden.

The funds will come from a federal Housing and Urban Development Community Block Grant, with the design to be completed by November 2021 and construction started this winter, keeping the impact to the swimming season to a minimum.

• Approved a contract with the Columbus Urban League to help administer $3 million of the $26.8 million in federal emergency rental assistance awarded Columbus in February. The agreement calls for at least 60% of the funding go to support households with an “area median income” at 50% or below ($42,100 for a family of four) and/or have a member of the household who has been unemployed for 90 days. Up to 40% of the funding can be used for households with an AMI at 80% or below ($67,350 for a family of four), while 10% of the funding will be administrative costs.