Hunter
08/03/22
The Iowa City City Council is scheduled to hold a special session Thursday to consider removing the recently-appointed chair of the city’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission after a podcast came to light with her using racial expletives describing members of the black community.
Mayor Bruce Teague brought up the issue at the end of the Council’s work session and received support on considering the removal of Amel Ali from at least three other councilors. No reason was given in the work session, but during the public comment section of the regular meeting, Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chair Royceann Porter and members of her Black Voices Project asked that Ali be removed after Porter received a podcast recording where Ali called her and other community members “coons” and made other inappropriate comments.
Porter asked that Vice Chair Chastity Dillard be appointed the new chair, adding that if the council won’t remove Ali, she and her group would take matters into their own hands.
Ali apologized during the meeting, calling her comments on the “Rock Hard Caucus” podcast ill-considered and hurtful. However, she added that she won’t resign the position because she doesn’t want to turn her back on the responsibilities entrusted to the Commission.
She has held the chair since being appointed last month
After the meeting, three TRC commissioners approached Porter’s group to talk about what occurred in the meeting. The conversation escalated to the point that both sides began yelling at each other. Ms. Porter reportedly left the building while shouting expletives and insulting the TRC.
