Green Bay signs historic race relation agreement

Green Bay signs historic race relation agreement
The Associated Press
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:10/25/2007 10:27:31 PM CDT
GREEN BAY, Wis.—Police, school and city representatives signed a
historic mediation agreement Thursday designed to improve race
relations—the first of its kind in the state.
The voluntary agreement includes pledges to boost minority recruitment
and hiring in the police and fire departments, city administration and
the Green Bay Area Public School District.

It took two years to reach the agreement, which is the first citywide
agreement signed in Wisconsin, said Kenith Bergeron, a conciliation
specialist with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations
Service in Chicago.

Milwaukee has a similar community relations agreement, but it's only
with the police department.

Concerns about unequal treatment of minorities in the city and school
district prompted the pact.

The group met 10 times since August 2005. Their initiatives include
closing the achievement gap for students of color, implementing a
cultural competency training program for teachers and police officers
and encouraging more minority-owned business.

The city plans to provide employment advertisements in other languages
and develop an advisory system to help identify potentially racially
sensitive topics on council and committee agendas.

Green Bay's police department already has established an advisory
committee that has met monthly over the past year, Police Chief Jim
Arts said.

He admitted the department had a long way to go in its efforts to
recruit from minority communities—out of 187 sworn officers, 14 are
women, three are Native Americans and one is Hispanic. There are no
black officers on the force.

"You're going to hear that we're essentially a white department. I
don't like hearing that, but it's the reality," said Arts, adding that
they've made some modest improvement in minority applications in the
last round of recruitment.

Likewise the Green Bay School District sees a "great opportunity
coupled with significant challenges" with one-third of its 20,000 plus
students coming from minority populations, superintendent Daniel Nerad
said.