Athens Justice and Memory Project

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the November 17, 2021 meeting will be remote. The regular meeting for the Athens Justice and Memory Project will be available to watch live on YouTube at the link available on the ACCGov calendar. 12/15/21 Meeting Minutes Athens Justice and Memory Project Team Meeting Wednesday, December 15, 2021 5 pm – 6 pm Virtual WebEx Meeting A. Hattie Thomas Whitehead starts meeting stating this team was assembled by our Mayor in September 2020 and this team is working together on avenues of atonement outlined in the Linnentown Project resolution. B. Moment of silence for Linnentown decedents o The Committee will take a moment of silence to acknowledge and show respect to those who are no longer with us. C. Attendance: some members are calling in via phone 1. Hattie Thomas Whitehead, Committee Chair and First Descendant of Linnentown 2. Bobby Crook, First Descendant of Linnentown- called in 3. Christine Davis Johnson, First Descendant of Linnentown- called in 4. Cassandra Hunter, Second Descendant of Linnentown- called in 5. Charlene Marsh, Secretary 6. Dr. Jennifer Rice, UGA Professor and Researcher, Parliamentarian 7. Kelly Girtz, ACCGov Mayor 8. Commissioner Parker, ACCGov Commissioner, District 2 9. Commissioner Hamby, ACCGov Commissioner, District 10 10. Niki Jones, ACCGov Assistant Manager, non-voting/supporting member 11. Selah Gardiner, ACCGov Inclusion Office, non-voting member 12. Blaine Williams, ACCGov Manager, non-voting/supporting member D. Hattie Thomas Whitehead updates that the minutes have been sent out to the members and asks for a motion to approve the minutes. o Dr. Jenn Rice motions to approve the minute o Commissioner Parker second the motion o The motion carries E. Commissioner Parker gives and update on their conversation with the Mayor. o They spoke on work of the committee and alignment with the Mayor’s charge o Clarified with the mayor the relationship of various committees to each other: 1. those working on the Black history center is a subgroup of this group, 2. all Athens Justice and Memory Project members were appointed by mayor, 3. anyone else working on this would be a standalone group, which gives autonomy and enables them to do fundraising and other things in an autonomous fashion F. Mayor gives update: o The reality of this work is adjacent to work specifically with the Black History Center 1. Historic Athens is willing to sponsor this as a subsidiary for non-profit addition 2. Not under the impression that work is solely under the umbrella and the Costa building usage has to be brought to the full body of Mayor & Commission 3. Several business, minority business, and others being considered o Regarding formal steps, would love to gather in person in the new year and look at the proponents of the charge - break it down: 1. What have we done so far? 2. What does the road ahead look like for each of those components? 3. What more could we do to take it to the next step? 4. What other residents do we need to bring into this work? 5. Planning for the next year, and next couple of years G. Dr. Jenn Rice asks o To see Mayor’s charge and for the official formal it to be recirculated and posted to the website for access o Operating under the assumptions that the Linnentown Resolution is related to the group’s work and the resolutions are quite extensive and specific language o Need work sessions to break down to official AJMP work and revisiting the resolution would also be helpful, as this is the groundbreaking roadmap  o Formal agreement and relationship that was made with is in the resolution and require more scrutiny on how we’re going to implement those H. Hattie Thomas Whitehead states o Charge doesn’t include the ‘how’ o Realizing this team is working without a roadmap- working in unchartered waters and creative in how they move forward o Avenues of atonement stumbling blocks and challenges o Would like a work session to do that I. Dr. Jenn Rice asks for clarification of ongoing projects o Quite specifically what’s outlined in the resolution o Calls are hard without in-person whiteboards, handouts, etc. o Is this committee authorized to make direct recommendations on how to implement resolution as it reads in Sections 1-8? J. Mayor Girtz replies in some areas yes, in other areas they are broader than just the work of this committee o Charge for this body has overlap, and will email charge to group o Some are specific, some are budgetary matters the Commission is doing and not a punch-list of AJMP work o Meet in-person and bring both the charge and resolution and indicate areas of overlap K. Dr. Jenn Rice states o Work done conceptually, and specific recommendations on the ‘Walk of Recognition’ seems well within the charge, given it goes through approval processes and they make a recommendation and various components o Sounds like operational and logistical configuration of the Black History Center needs more clarification on what is responsibility of other depts., formal government work, and AJMP o Mayor Girtz states the text of charge reads “acknowledgement and apology for wrongs in the form of formal site markers” so definitely that, and recommendations for a Black History Center” o Mayor Girtz states an in-person meeting will hopefully L. Charlene Marsh ask for clarity on any activities with the planning and development of Black History Center o Level of confusion and different conversations and work going on o Make sure not investing time and energy on work they shouldn’t be doing o Any work that needs to be paused o Mayor Girtz states the work can continue, there’s a lot of work that will be anticipated to get the 1. Display space 2. Down the road possibly a stand-alone center  3. Folks that have been long involved in this work and are not involved in this o Ms. Hattie was asked to take this on and be a Chairperson for this and assembling sub-teams to work on this o Mayor Girtz states the charge has overlap and there are however lots of other folks invested in Black History that would be at the table too o Manager Williams states the formal site markers no question of the charge, there have been procurement and government procedures that have created some hurdles 1. Spoke with Ms. Hattie on the Black History Center to learn more about the engagement of the public and opportunities 2. Defining Black History needs engagement and input from the community 3. Commissioner Parker and Mayor stated there’s a separate group working on this, a separate group working alongside the Linnentown group o Ms. Hattie states the Mayor assembled a separate team in May which she calls “an advisory committee’, but Mayor Girtz may call it something else o Mayor Girtz there’s not a lot of formality around it right now, need to be owned by other folks in the community M. Dr. Jenn Rice asks another clarifying question o Advisory committee, what does that mean? o Asks for other examples of others: user groups- more structure/voting groups/scope of authority o Mayor states there are project specific groups, others are more research focused, others make recommendations and that is a similar body N. Hattie Thomas Whitehead states this group will meet in person for further clarity o A lot of expectations from the community and raised awareness and be clear moving forward and leading this team o Dr. Jenn Rice asks for a day session before 5pm to meet and work on this and gain clarity on the activities and charge for the committee to share ahead of the public meeting and can the time be changed o Hattie Thomas Whitehead states that members are working during the day o Charlene Marsh can make accommodations with enough planning o Hattie Thomas Whitehead asks to meet at the Athens Regional Library on Baxter tentatively on the 3rd Wednesday of January: January 19, 2022 at 3pm o Dr. Jenn Rice states that this session is a committee retreat to do work with each other rather than public facing work and to be more in sync and get on the same page O. Dr. Jenn Rice updates on Walk of Recognition o Mosaic design graduate class is over o Final class meeting on Friday and students presented work in their subgroups o Next to come to this committee is the draft design proposal that the students put together and that Dr. Lynn Saunders-Bustle and Dr. Jenn Rice are revising and polishing to present to this committee and then for a formal design recommendation to the Mayor & Commission o A video was submitted by a student group on the Linnentown Mosaic and will be shared with the AJMP and will distribute this o Students were engaged and looking forward to sharing their work o Since last meeting, shared ideas with 1st and 2nd descendants and several were able to see draft designs and also met with ASALH to explain what they’ve been doing and very productive o Still waiting for ROW clarification on Finley o RFP needs to go out for interpretative historical signage o Still need to talk about the position for the Site Supervisor position for the installation when that comes around Summer/Fall o Looking forward to sharing what students have done o Manager Williams mentions we need to see the concept first to understand what next steps are, whether we would hire one group to do it all- signage and installation or if there’s a staggered approach to getting the signage done separately o Hattie Thomas Whitehead asks Manager Williams for clarity on the ROW o Manager Williams states that we went to the courthouse looked at the drawing from the 60s that is not clear about the extent of the ROW so we have forwarded that to the University to ask for their understanding of it and their feedback because it’s not clear, and waiting to hear back from them and if we need to survey it ourselves we can to understand o Hattie Thomas Whitehead asks Manager Williams if there was a timeline given to the university o Manager Williams states he will follow up if they’ve determined anything o Dr. Jenn Rice states that the signage is separate and should be contracted out by a company that has experience can do this historical signage work, tip to tail project o The mosaic is totally different project driven by the community and should never have a central artist or curator and needs a site supervisor for the logistics o Manager Williams mentions to include the concept into the RFP so that the elements of the mosaic are picked up in the signage and it’s tied all together- colors, themes, etc o Dr. Jenn Rice states that it does need to be cohesive and asks if it’s standard procedure to consult a property owner on a ROW question o Manager Williams states that what we found is that it’s just not clear, the map has a box over the top of the area that isn’t well defined and got a text from an upset property owner of the fiber optics, so we should and make sure and have a mutual  understanding of who owns the property and can pay a surveyor several thousand dollars to have the area surveyed o Dr. Jenn Rice states the property has longer history and it’s interesting to have the property owner consulted o Manager Williams states he’ll share the map we found, but even the ROW person thinks it’s unusual and we have to o Manager Williams states he’s referring with regards to the corner for the mosaic, the signage is good and doesn’t seem to have any question o Dr. Jenn Rice states the particular area south of Baxter, west of Finley based off documentation we have is unclear o P. Hattie Thomas Whitehead updates on o Costa Building: Mayor Girtz has already answered information on approval o Still working on teams, except a Fundraiser has no lead o Historic Athens- if any donation can be found anywhere, there’s a place to put it o Linnentown Quilt is being assembled and will let everyone know where it weill be displayed Q. Meeting adjourns at 5:56 pm I N CL US I O N O F F I C E T H E U NI F I E D G O V E R NM E N T O F A T H E NS -C L A R K E C O UN T Y , G E O R G I A P. O. Box 1868  Athens, Georgia 30603 (706) 613-3015  Fax (706) 613-3029 www. ac cg ov . c om