Durham People's Alliance launches campaign to terminate Durham County Manager Wendell Davis

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People’s Alliance, one of Durham’s political action committees, has officially launched their campaign to oust Durham County Manager Wendell Davis.  

 

In a statement posted on their website, the PA Board of Directors encourages local officials to consider not renewing the County Manager’s contract. They advise that the board: (1) appoint a manager whose governing philosophy and leadership style most aligns with their own, (2) select a manager with a commitment to understanding and engaging with the community (3) has a passion for and knowledge of the work of equity (4) work (s) aggressively toward creative solutions and (5) Finally, we hope that the ultimate employment contracts will be fair to Durham. 

 

The PA’s reasoning for not renewing Davis’ contract reads like a syllabus regarding why race relations in Durham needs repair. This is a statement rooted in white privilege with conclusions that can be viewed as payback for refusing to play by the rules of the white people in the room.  

 

In other words, members of the PA board need to listen to Black people who have lived in Durham long enough to interpret their bull shit. 

 

What does it mean to appoint a manager “whose governing philosophy and leadership most aligns with their own?”  Is this an affirmation of Heidi Carter's request for the manager to jump to her commands? It would help for members of the PA Board of Directors to read the letter Davis wrote regarding Carter’s actions during a board meeting.  Readers can go back and forth about what was said versus what was meant, but the perceptions of Black people matters when it involves issues of race and racism  

 

The PA is demanding the appointment of a county manager who fits their interpretation of “progressive” leadership. The recent Presidential election proves a distinction between how liberal white people view progressive versus some Black people. In framing the county manager’s contract as a referendum involving local progressive politics, I challenge PA to take a few steps back to listen to how many Black voters feel regarding a willingness to question a brother’s progressive status. 

 

Let me help. It feels like a lynch mob. 

  

In stating a desire for a manager with a “commitment to understanding and engaging with the community,” the PA is soliciting for a leader willing to radically embrace their agenda. This often shows up in the funding of public education without questions involving accountability. This is the mistake often made by white liberals hiding under the protection of a progressive agenda. 

 

 Public education is about the achievement of Black and brown children. White progressives have a way of walking into Black spaces with a determination to define what Black people need.  This happens with nonprofits led and funded by white people. They rarely ask how it feels to have dwindling academic performance among Black children while teachers seek more pay. Progressive have labeled Davis the budget boogey man while Black parents celebrate his efforts in calling for accountability.  

 

Word to progressives. There is no progress when white teachers get more at the expense of Black and brown children. Another word for progressives. Don’t use Black people in promoting a $15 minimum wage while refusing to support county employees who deserve hazard pay. 

 

The work toward forming a progressive agenda involves a valid conversation. None of the PA's statement considers how many Black voters feel. It’s a statement validating an interpretation of what it means to seeks progress. 

 

“Third, our elected leaders must ensure that they select leaders who have a passion for and knowledge of the work of equity,” the post states. “Some of our biggest problems as a community are due to disparities in wealth, health, and justice across the lines of race, ethnicity, and class.” 

 

Bravo! The PA is correct in naming equity and inclusion as some of “the biggest problems of a community.” It would help to mention the current need to address the concerns submitted by both the International City/County Management Association and James E. Coleman, Jr., the attorney contracted by the county to investigate allegations of racism made by the county manager. PA quotes from ICMA’s blog but failed to acknowledge the findings of either report or the recommendations of the Durham Racial Equity Task Force.  

 

The PA’s statement is written without the facts of the previous year. It pretends Cater wasn’t accused of comments viewed racially insensitive. It pretends former Board Chair Wendy Jacobs didn’t publicly call for an investigation of Davis for writing a letter to, in her opinion, influence the election. There’s no mention of how that statement violated laws involving comments regarding an employee. There’s no mention that ICMA ruled in favor of Davis and agreed Carter’s comments could be perceived as being made “due to an inherent bias that [Commissioner Carter] harbor[s] toward him, but people in color in general.”  PA mentions the failure to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting members of the LGBTQ+ community with no mention of the racial tension that continues as a result of actions made by members of the board. 

 

There’s no call for Carter to recuse herself from talks related to the renewal of the manager’s contract. There’s no discussion involving how failing to renew the manager’s contract may lead to litigation for retaliation if Carter fails to recuse. 

 

With all the misguided language in the PA’s statement, none is more racially crass than the attack of the manager’s salary. Does the PA desire a real conversation involving a Black person’s worth? 

 

According to a report published on October 16, 2018 written by Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan for the Durham Herald-Sun, at the time, Durham City Manager Tom Bonfield earned $243,503, Raleigh City Manager Ruffin L. Hall earned $249,107, Chapel Hill Town Manager Maurice Jones earned $210.000. In 2018, the New Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder received a contract paying $198,00 in base pay, which was $49,000 less than predecessor Wanda Greene.  Davis’ contract is in line with what other managers make across the state. 

 

The underlying tension in the PA’s statement is an old trope that Black people don’t deserve to be paid that much. In a statement that also involves the hiring of the city manager, there is no mention of City Manager Tom Bonfield’s compensation package. The PA mentions the inclusion of a massive severance package, included in the contract due to the division on the board at the time Davis was hired. 

 

Getting rid of Davis has been on the PA’s agenda since he was hired. In reading the dispositions in the lawsuit filed against Durham County by Marqueta Welton, alleging retaliation, there is evidence that Jacobs conspired with Welton against the interest of the county. Welton testified that it was her understanding she would be offered the job of manager after the board voted to dismiss Davis. The record involving tension between Davis and Jacobs is a consistent theme of the disposition, a fact that may establish the motivation behind PA’s statement. 

 

PA, the Durham Association of Educators, Carter and Jacobs argue Davis needs to be replaced due to his stance against funding education. My reporting over the past 18 months suggests something entirely different. Davis is a county manager unwilling to be managed by the interest of political action committees. He’s not guided by the grip of PA, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People or The Friends of Durham. PA desires a manager who can be dragged into the mud of their political leanings. That may be sound politically, but, in a city like Durham, that may not be the best thing for all citizens of the county. 

 

The PA’s statement is written to give credence to Nida Azziz Allam offering the third vote needed to not renew the managers contract. She may be willing to take a bite. If so, expect heated days in Durham loaded with words about retaliation for telling a Black man’s truth. Carter may win payback for being called a racist, but don’t expect Black people to remain silent as members of the board of commissioners lynch a Black man’s reputation. 

 

We see you.