Members disagree on progress, approach to action
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
The City of Burlington planned to deliver an update on a task force designed to improve race relations during a meeting of the Common Council earlier this month.
Instead, city officials on Aug. 2 learned about new allegations of racism, and task force members with differing views on progress since Burlington created the committee more than a year ago.
The task force developed in March 2021 has since been renamed from the Mayor’s Task Force on Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to simply the Burlington Community Task Force.
Dr. David Thompson, of Clinical Psychology Associates, Inc., now serves as key facilitator of the task force and said steady progress has been made since the committee formed more than a year ago.
“This task force has been anything but dormant, it has been moving right along and a lot of work has been done,” he said.
While Thompson expressed optimism, one Task Force member called progress non-existent, considering the culture of racism still exists within the community.
Laura Bielefeldt, President of Burlington Coalition for Dismantling Racism, recently joined the Task Force with hopes of bringing about change.
“I have some differences of opinion with Dr. Thompson,” Bielefeldt said. “But as far as the movement of the actual task force, it has been pretty stagnant.”
To read the full version of this story see the Aug. 11 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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