When The Charlotte Observer Slams Vi Lyles You Know Something's Rotten

From "The Local Paper"

Charlotte’s Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative, a historic $250 million public-private partnership announced by Mayor Vi Lyles in November, is off to a shaky start. 

The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance announced last week its hiring of Kimberly Henderson as executive director of the Employer Office of Inclusion and Advancement, an office which will “operationalize and directly support” the mayor’s initiative. 

The next day, WCNC first reported that during Henderson’s tenure as director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, a state audit identified $3.8 billion worth of unemployment fraud and overpayments during the pandemic. 

The Ohio attorney general’s office asked state and local police to investigate whether any criminal statutes were violated, including “Dereliction of Duty, Obstruction of Official Business and/or Falsification by the former director and/or any other staff members.” Information regarding that investigation have not been publicly released.

                                                                                                    Photo City of Charlotte

That, naturally, would cause any Charlottean to question whether Henderson is really the best person to lead an initiative of this importance, particularly when it involves millions of taxpayer dollars. 

And it certainly doesn’t help boost the credibility of an initiative that some of the public may be skeptical of, considering the initiative has already received criticism for a lack of transparency and public input. 

Janet LaBar, president and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, defended the decision to hire Henderson, saying she was aware of Henderson’s past when she hired her. “I factored this into consideration, as well as her capabilities for the role of executive director of the Employer Office of Inclusion and Advancement, and I made the decision to hire her,” LaBar said in a statement Monday.

But even more troubling than Henderson’s hiring is the issue of who was — and who wasn’t — involved in it. 

At Monday’s city council meeting, the mayor dispelled the notion that she or the city participated in the hiring process. 

“I wanted to state clearly that I, nor the Charlotte City Council or any council member, had any role in the hiring of the Alliance staff,” Lyles said Monday. What? There’s no evidence to suggest Lyles isn’t telling the truth about the hire being made without her. 

Still, that raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability — including the mayor’s involvement, or lack of involvement, in the initiative she launched and which bears her title. 

Why was Lyles, the mayor, not involved in choosing the person who will lead what is being called the “mayor’s initiative”? The city championed the initiative when it was first announced — Lyles said it “set a new standard for an American city” — but seems to be distancing itself from it now. Why? 

This is not the “oversight” and “accountability” Charlotteans were promised when the initiative was announced. Some $80 million in public funds have already been committed to it — an allocation, by the way, that council members say they weren’t fully aware of until after the fact — but the initiative appears to be governed largely by private entities. If that’s the case, then calling it the “mayor’s initiative” is misleading.

It’s also concerning. Unlike the mayor or city council, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance is a private entity that doesn’t have to answer to the public. 

The Alliance doesn’t appear to answer much to the city, either, as it apparently has the authority to make key decisions about the initiative’s future without the input of city leaders. As the Editorial Board said when the racial equity initiative was first announced, Charlotte has a checkered history with initiatives such as this one. Too often, big ideas struggle to yield big results, and ambitious plans end up shelved or ignored. 

The Opportunity Task Force, for example, hasn’t generated hoped-for changes surrounding economic mobility, and the city’s transit plan has hit major roadblocks. 

Certainly, Charlotte needs to make meaningful and long overdue investments in racial equity. But early missteps with transparency — and now a questionable hire — threaten to undermine public confidence in this important work. 

Lyles must be forthcoming about who is leading the “mayor’s initiative” and the extent to which she and the council have been involved, and she and the council should take accountability and authority over an initiative that involves millions of the public’s dollars.