The publisher of the state’s oldest African-American newspaper expressed concerns in a recent Iowa Bystander issue about the Iowa Commission on the Status of African Americans’ Ongoing Covenant with Black Iowa.

Jerald Brantley, in a May 19 column titled “From the pen of JB,” wrote: “Let’s talk about gatekeepers and their negative effect on our community . . .Take for instance the Commission on the Status of African Americans. Now we have this Covenant with Black Iowa but do we really know what’s going on with it or what the commission is doing to further the mission, since we’ve heard no more? It’s because we have a gatekeeper that appears to have changed from being for the people to now being sucked into the old normal, that old mind set — “I’m the show . . not the message” — bad move.”

The commission’s Division Administrator Abraham Funchess, who said he was aware of Brantley’s comments, stressed the plan is moving forward despite some “gaps” in communication. Brantley didn’t return phone calls and emails to Iowa Independent seeking comment. “Community work is painstaking. It’s a slow process,” Funchess said. “Oftentimes there’s not a lot of reward in it. It certainly doesn’t help when we engage in demobilizing politics that in many ways suggest the community, the nebulous entity called community, has the same class and political consciousness. We have differentiated individuals within this community who have their own agendas. It’s going to require a lot of work to accomplish what we want to with the OCBI imitative.”

The commission is in the midst of a five-year plan to study and improve the lives of blacks in 10 cities, including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Davenport, Dubuque, Sioux City, Fort Madison, Burlington, Iowa City and Fort Dodge. The project is focused on education, youth, economic development, political involvement, spirituality, justice issues, housing and health care.

A disparity study about city contracts is underway in Davenport and project coordinators, whose role is to mobilize community interest and solicit community-driven proposals, recently have been hired in six of the target cities, he said.

“All valid criticism is welcome because accountability is a necessity,” Funchess said. “We have to be prepared to respond accordingly so that people are equipped with the best and most accurate information in order to engage in the work.”

Funchess added: “We have done some work already that is unprecedented. Never has there been a campaign to organize people. We have [in the past] talked about what people are feeling, but now the emphasis is on the plan so that necessary funding can flow to the community.”

The commission last month discussed the plan via its large statewide email network. The commission awarded the city of Davenport $75,000 in matching funds for a disparity study. The California-based Mason Tillman Associates, Ltd., is conducting the 10-month study to address the following questions, particularly in the areas of construction:

*  Is there a disparity between the number of qualified minority, women and disadvantaged-owned firms willing and able to perform a particular service and the number of such firms actually engaged by the city?

*  Has the city engaged in practices that have prevented or deterred minority, women and disadvantaged business owners from participating fairly and equally in goods and services contracts?

*  Has the city passively participated in a system of racial exclusion practiced by elements of the business community?

* Has the city fully utilized their opportunities to provide race and gender neutral measures?  Will additional race and gender neutral measures sufficiently remove any identified barriers?

* Are race and gender based remedies warranted?

“We think the model will provide a template for other cities,” including Des Moines and elsewhere,” Funchess said.

In an April 8 Quad City Times story by Tory Brecht, Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba praised the study, saying: “We want to make sure everyone is receiving a fair shake in procuring contracts,” Gluba said. “We are proud of our ethnic diversity. If everyone gets a piece of the action, everyone prospers. And this is the beginning of that.”

Community members in the target cities are encouraged to speak with project coordinators about recommendations they have that potentially could improve the lives of blacks. The goal is to get blacks focused on their most troubling areas of concern, create proposals to study or fix the problems and submit written proposals to the commission. The commission will seek money from the Iowa Legislature to pay for the projects, he said. Existing projects also are eligible to become part of the plan, Funchess said.

The project coordinators in Des Moines are Gretchen Woods, youth adviser of the Des Moines Chapter of the NAACP and Kim Carr-Irvin, of Creative Visions.

A community meeting will be held in late June in Des Moines to discuss the plan with the community, he said. A time and date have not been set.

“I want people to know that we’ve got a lot of work,” Funchess said. “There’s still much work to do . . . but we do have good leaders in Ft. Dodge, Burlington and Des Moines, in terms of the project coordinators.”