They’re volunteers.
That reminder has come up more than once since the South Bend Community Police Review Board has experienced problems achieving a quorum needed to conduct public business ― which happened again at the July 16 scheduled meeting.
“Life does happen,” Charles King II, the review office’s director and only paid employee, noted in a Tribune story last week. At an open house earlier this year ― where only two of nine members were in attendance ― King said that members “are doing the best job they can, and they are volunteers.”
In a local TV interview last week, Mayor James Mueller, when asked about the board’s most recent quorum issues, answered in part, “So the board, they’re volunteers, so they’re not getting paid, and that’s one of the challenges …”
It’s true that people have lives, and things happen that can get in the way of other commitments. This isn’t about casting blame on the volunteers selected by Common Council members. That won’t solve the problem and therefore doesn’t make much sense.
You know what else doesn’t make sense to us? Implying the community should have lowered expectations for volunteers. That besmirches the work of countless volunteers who serve this community in so many ways, who help keep charitable organizations afloat, who power important causes and who make this community stronger and better while never receiving a paycheck for their efforts.
Are we to believe there are no individuals like that who would be willing and able to serve on the review board, who believe deeply in the cause and would be invested in the initiative succeeding?
On the subject of the review board’s success, it’s hard to forget how much of a long, hard, yearslong slog it was just to establish a review board. Some who were for years lukewarm on the idea have been equally lukewarm on supporting it so that it can succeed.
Speaking at a press conference last year, Saint Mary’s College professor Andrew Pierce, who said he helped create the city ordinance creating the review board, described the process of shaping a functional board as an “absurd comedy of errors.” Pierce also said he believes the mayor’s office and certain members of the Common Council have tried to delay and disrupt the board’s work.
We can’t know whether Pierce’s belief has merit. But if city leaders did want to thwart the review board, their current approach would be an effective way to do it.
In the aforementioned TV interview last week, Mueller noted that the Common Council is looking at the ordinance for fixes that could improve chances of meeting quorum in the future. For example, could they allow new members to serve on the board in a probationary period while completing the required training? Or are the training requirements too “onerous”?
It’s good to hear that the council is trying to address this problem. Because the past year has demonstrated to us that there’s something worse than not having a review board in this community to increase transparency, accountability and trust.
It’s having one that is allowed to die from benign neglect.
Editorials represent the opinion of the Tribune Editorial Board. Its members are Audience Engagement Editor Alesia I. Redding, Enterprise Editor Cory Havens and Executive Editor Ismail Turay Jr.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Volunteers aren’t review board’s problem. It’s leadership. | Editorial
Reporting by Editorial Board, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Editorial Board, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
