Here's what Jim Merritt says he'll do to address racial inequities in Indianapolis

Indianapolis mayoral candidate and Republican state Sen. Jim Merritt on Tuesday released the details of his plan to address disparities affecting the city's black community, marking the first time a candidate in this race has released this kind of coordinated agenda.

For months, black leaders have been calling on Merritt and Democratic incumbent Mayor Joe Hogsett to create a black agenda. Merritt publicly committed to releasing his agenda in August. Hogsett, so far, has not. 

Speaking in response to a presentation on the black community's needs by the Concerned Clergy of Greater Indianapolis and the Baptist Ministers' Alliance, Merritt outlined his planned changes in the areas of economic development, education and public safety.

"Obviously, we have the three deserts in Indianapolis," Merritt said, "and we have a mission to provide a plan to achieve my vision for Indianapolis and recognize the needs of the black community and change actions to address those needs." 

What's in Merritt's plan?

While Merritt's presentation only covered three issues on Tuesday, his broader plan outlines the following issues and policies:

• Education: Increase the administration's involvement with charter schools by creating a Deputy Mayor of Education; increase parent, teacher and resident involvement on school boards to ensure community stakeholders' voices are heard; ensure charter schools are placed in under-resourced neighborhoods; re-evaluate zero-tolerance discipline policies.
• Economic development: Increased transparency regarding city contracts with minority-owned businesses; provide community financial literacy classes and forums to help minority business owners grow and do business with the city; zoning reform; re-examine tax credit eligibility.
• Housing and home ownership: Create an inclusive housing ordinance that would require a set amount of affordable housing in each new development; provide city grants to support Community Development Financial Institutions to provide mortgages and loans; create an Indianapolis Commission for African American Males to evaluate the needs of the black homeless population. 
• Public safety: Conduct a community review of the IMPD Citizens Police Complaint process; improve programming around cultural competency and implicit bias; create additional internal diversity and professional growth opportunities for current IMPD officers.

Merritt told IndyStar after the presentation that although community leaders' calls for a black agenda had intensified in recent months, he and his team had been developing theirs since spring.

"I'm really happy with what was created," he said. 

The Rev. David Greene, president of the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, said Merritt was on the right track, but could do more with regard to charter school regulation and economic development.

Specifically, Greene said he would like to see a moratorium on charter school development and placement until it's decided that the school model can work and is sustainable in the neighborhood in which it's placed.

"We need results," Greene said, "we can't just add a school just because somebody suggests it."

Hogsett's campaign didn't immediately have a response to Merritt's agenda, but the incumbent will have a chance to sit down with the same group and community members in a forum on Oct. 21.

Creating a black agenda

On Oct. 8, the African American Coalition of Indianapolis released a five-page outline of issues affecting the city’s black residents and a list of action items to alleviate those stressors.

With 15 member organizations endorsing the recommendations, the coalition’s document is less an agenda, more a framework for systemic changes, AACI chairman Willis Bright told IndyStar last week.

“It simply means we all have to make a commitment to roll up our sleeves, look at the issues – even though they may seem intractable – and say, ‘No, we’re Indianapolis; we are a city that gets things done,'" Bright said. "We’ve done it in the past, and we can do it again."

The five points and corresponding goals of the coalition’s plan are:

• Community violence and police reform: Reduce interpersonal violence within black families and neighborhoods; improve community-police relations; eliminate excessive uses of force and police profiling.
• Affordable housing: Make affordable homes and apartments more accessible through “aggressive enforcement” of housing codes; eliminate housing discrimination and increase homeowner accountability.
• Education: Close racial achievement gap on standardized tests by 5% each of the next three years; address racial/ethnic and gender parity in suspension and expulsion.
• Economic and black business development and inclusion: Grow perception and reality of economic inclusion for black- and minority-owned businesses.
• Food insecurity: Reduce number of food-insecure residents by 50% in two years.

Read the coalition's plan in full here, via the Indianapolis Recorder

Research and data and lived experience have shown that while these issues exist within all communities in Indianapolis, they disproportionately affect the city's black residents, Bright said.

'I don't like the creation of it'

Not all Indianapolis residents believe a black agenda is necessary — including Bill Benjamin, the retired Indianapolis police officer Merritt said would be his pick for police chief, if elected. 

Benjamin held a press conference Tuesday morning before Merritt announced his agenda in which he publicly accepted Merritt's offer for the job. When asked by IndyStar how he saw his role as police chief in creating and enforcing policies inspired by the black agenda, Benjamin expressed skepticism at the idea.

"I don’t like the creation of it … the black agenda," he said. "But, if it’s being called for by prominent ministers, prominent clergy folks who have value in their vote and their stance and their beliefs, then as a candidate, you’ve gotta do it.”

When asked for a response to his potential police chief's statements, Merritt told IndyStar he didn't have one. 

"I think I'd like to have a conversation with Bill in regards to what his problems are in regards to this," he said. 

Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds, an assistant professor of Africana studies and religious studies at IUPUI, acknowledged that similar agendas have received pushback for indicating preference to some groups over others, leading other cities to label their plans "equity agendas."

Both, he said, are responses to the “systematic erasure” of black and brown communities and the issues they face.

"An equity agenda is a means to give people access to resources and meet their essential needs and erase food deserts and provide quality education, and all those kinds of things," Edmonds said. "But it is also an end, because we believe that a more equitable society actually reaps benefits for everyone who lives in that society."

Coming up next

The African American Coalition of Indianapolis is hosting a series of community conversations regarding the creation of a black agenda:

• Oct. 18: 6:30 p.m. at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, 2624 E. 25th St.  
• Oct. 19: 10 a.m. at the Julia Carson Government Center, 300 E. Fall Creek Parkway North Drive.
• Oct. 21: Noon with Mayor Hogsett at Central Library, 40 E. St. Clair St.

The coalition and the Indianapolis Recorder will also host a debate at 6 p.m. Oct. 21 at Arsenal Technical High School, 1500 E. Michigan St.

Fox59 anchor Dan Spehler will moderate a debate at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at the MSD Wayne Township Chapel Hill 7th and 8th Grade Center, 7320 W. 10th St.

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Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at 317-444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.