The Tampa City Council on Thursday disbanded its Racial Reconciliation Committee over concerns about pushback from the state and federal level.
The unanimous vote came after a city attorney sent the council a memo last month explaining Tampa could risk losing federal funding if it continued to support the committee.
Council member Luis Viera regretted the decision but admitted they had no other choice.
“It’s something that, unfortunately, our hands are tied on,” he said.
“I state with reasonableness that this committee was not radical. All it did was say, ‘Hey, look, let’s take a look at our history of racism, let’s take a look at our history of repression.’ Talking about ongoing injustice, discrimination and racism is not radical. It’s the American thing to do.”
The committee was created in April 2024 to give marginalized groups a voice in city matters.
The concern arose because city support of the group could be interpreted as violating new laws and policies that restrict government-backed diversity, equity or race-related initiatives.
Without backing from the city, committee members have the option to continue meeting independently. They are now released from Florida’s Sunshine Law, which would have prevented them from discussing their work in private.
Council member Bill Carlson explained that the resolution was necessary to keep the committee active.
“What we’re in effect doing today, as my colleagues said, is releasing the committee from the Sunshine Law,” he said. “The committee can meet on their own, but they can’t even talk to each other right now unless we do this.”
Carlson emphasized the council will still take the committee’s suggestions, as unaffiliated groups have the ability to submit proposals for review.
“If the committee, not as a city committee, wants to come back and give us recommendations, they're perfectly entitled to do that just like any other community organization,” he said.
It is unclear whether the committee plans to continue as an independent organization.
"The committee was actually organized by the city council, so there may be some individuals that are committed to doing some work to impact the community or to advance some of the agendas within the community," said committee vice chair Christopher J. Harris. "But to my knowledge, there's no commitment or formal activities that have been organized yet."
Harris indicated, if the committee does continue, its mission might change.
"We were organized initially by the city council, which is why I think it's important for us to be able to separate the organization and the mission of the committee versus the ... mission of individuals, and the individual mission of what it looks like to better our community," Harris said.
He added that committee members had mixed feelings about the dissolution.
"I think there were some people that were very frustrated that the work was being stopped. And I think you had other people that understood why the committee was being disbanded," Harris said, pointing to the possibility of the state or federal government targeting funding.
"You have to acknowledge that there's a committee like this that's doing its work, but it may impact the dollars that the city or the county is receiving that could impact development, impact housing, impact transportation," he said.
Harris also hoped, in absence of an organized city effort addressing these concerns, that Tampa residents come together to do so.
"We're all better together, and so, rather than just depending on a few committee members to make progress in our community, why don't all of us get together and try to figure out what that progress looks like?" he said.
