A staffer for Detroit’s reparations task force said Monday that a member who signaled intent to resign is still serving and that new efforts are underway to “build relationships” with the group’s remaining appointees.
Task force Project Manager Emberly Vick said CaMille Collins, who informed colleagues this month via email that she was weighing a resignation, is still an active member. Separately, member Allen Venable notified the task force in an email last week of his plans to resign.
The prospect of Collins’ departure and the notice from Venable come a month after task force members Maurice Weeks and co-chair Lauren Hood resigned last December. The once 13-member group is approaching its one-year anniversary and has struggled to hold consistent meetings, foster public engagement and publish information about its work.
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Vick said in a Monday email to BridgeDetroit that “at this time” Collins “is still an active member of the task force.”
“While there are some task force members that have stepped away, we are thankful for their service,” wrote Vick, who joined the task force this month to handle administrative duties. “I am working to build relationships with all the existing members now as I was only recently brought on board.”
In a Jan. 26 email obtained by BridgeDetroit, Venable wrote he was “constrained” to resign, notifying the task force and a legislative director for City Council President Mary Sheffield, who sponsored a resolution to create the task force after voters approved a 2021 ballot initiative to study reparations policies.
Venable declined comment on Friday, referring questions to the task force’s executive committee.
Collins was absent from several meetings last year, prompting the task force to send a “warning letter” advising her that she was in violation of bylaws and missing three consecutive meetings without notice is cause for removal. Collins acknowledged the warning in a Jan. 16 email to the task force.
The email stated Collins found herself “still in dilemma” about her future and “(does) not see or know of any benefit to continuing with my efforts.”
Collins declined to comment when contacted by BridgeDetroit on Jan. 26, and hung up when asked whether her resignation had taken effect. She also declined to answer questions about her status on the task force when contacted on Jan. 29.
The task force is scheduled to hold its second public meeting of the year at 2 p.m. on Feb. 3 at Northwest Activities Center.
Besides the resignations of Hood and Weeks, another opening on the task force was created last summer after the death of Rev. Dr. JoAnn Watson, a lifelong leader for restorative justice who took part in efforts to create a federal reparations commission.
Sheffield nominated two Detroiters – Edythe Ford, director of community engagement at MACC Development and Jasahn Larsosa, executive director of GreenLight Fund – to fill two of the task force’s open seats.
The City Council is expected to vote on those appointments at its Jan. 30 meeting.
