Police relations, economic development priorities for Fort Worth’s diversity director
Christina Brooks will serve as the city of Fort Worth’s first diversity and inclusion director, a position born from a task force aimed at healing racial disparities in the city.
Brooks has held a similar positions in South Bend, Indiana, and at the University of Norte Dame. Fort Worth officials heralded Brooks as a proven leader with a track record in diversity roles. But she is not the candidate a group of community activists recommended following a forum with the six candidates.
City Manager David Cooke, in a statement, said Brooks was hired because she has about 20 years of experience working with underrepresented populations. She will start Dec. 9.
In Fort Worth, Brooks will be responsible for overseeing diverse hiring across city offices, including the police department as well as ensuring the city has equitable and fair practices for awarding contracts. A key part of her role will be monitoring city services for equity issues.
She’ll head a 14-person department within the city manager’s office. Approved in the 2020 budget, the department has a budget of more than $942,000. Brooks’ role is the only new position. The remaining staff were reassigned from the human relations department. Her salary is $150,000.
Cooke has said he expects Brooks to work closely with a police monitor, which the city is in the process of hiring.
Brooks said she saw many similarities between Fort Worth and South Bend. Studies in both cities have pointed to racial disparities and recent police shootings have highlighted division and mistrust between residents and officers.
From her first impressions, she said she identified two priorities: improving relationships between Fort Worth police and the community and ensuring the city’s growing economy reached all neighborhoods.
“We want to make sure at the end of the day everyone goes home safely,” Brooks said.
The job is a bit of a homecoming for Brooks, who is from San Antonio and has family in Dallas-Fort Worth. She and her husband Reggie have five children.
Brooks joined South Bend as the city’s first diversity and inclusion officer in 2016. There her responsibility has been similar to her expectations in Fort Worth: overseeing diversity hiring and contracting and building relationships with diverse communities. She also oversaw a Human Rights Commission with jurisdiction over St. Joseph County, Indiana, population 270,771.
At Norte Dame she was the school’s first program manager for diverse staff recruiting and oversaw an effort to broaden the racial and economic backgrounds of new employees. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University at South Bend with concentrations in political science and history and a master’s in nonprofit administration from Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame. She was also the co-founder and executive director of Brooks Running Start Foundation in Washington, D.C., which focused on inner-city children.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said she believed Brooks was a proven leader who could drive meaningful change in Fort Worth.
“We are thrilled she has accepted this important position and I personally cannot wait to welcome her to Fort Worth,” Price said in a statement.
Though the Race and Culture Task Force recommended the position earlier this year, Brooks’ hiring comes at a time of racial tension in Fort Worth.
In October a white police officer fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, in her Morningside home. The officer, Aaron Dean, resigned days later and has been charged with murder.
South Bend
Racial tensions grew in South Bend in June when a white police officer killed a 54-year-old black man while investigating reports of car break-ins. The police department said the man had a knife, but his family has filed a lawsuit disputing that. The officer never turned on his body camera, according to reports. He resigned from the department about a month later amid city-wide protests and calls for his firing, according to the South Bend Tribune and Indianapolis Star.
Brooks said the city has held seven listening sessions where residents aired frustrations and suggested changes to policies like police use of force. Those suggestions will be reviewed by the city’s public safety board.
“We wanted to make sure we gave people in the community a chance to voice concerns and then follow up with an actionable plan to address the challenges,” she said.
At the October community forum Brooks said she began a program in South Bend where beat police officers and men of color shared stories about their personal experiences. The program fostered greater understanding between the two groups, she said.
In South Bend, Brooks pushed for a study that found the city underused minority- and women-owned businesses. From 2015 through 2017, city work went to about 12% minority- and women-owned companies despite those firms being about 15% of the market, according to the South Bend Tribune.
In response, the South Bend City Council Tuesday approved an annual goal of doing at least 15% of its business with minority- and women-owned businesses.
Asked why she would leave South Bend during a pivotal time, Brooks said she felt as though the city was positioned well to progress. It’s also a changing of the guard in the city. James Mueller will take over as the city’s strong mayor. Brooks was brought in during the administration of Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic candidate for President.
“I think this is a transition point where South Bend is definitely on the right track,” she said. “I feel as though South Bend is in a really good position to run with the momentum.”
Community reaction
Audience members at the public forum often interjected, clapping and cheering when they agreed with candidates or booing and murmuring when they disagreed. Brooks received mixed reactions in part because she misspoke at least once, saying “South Bend” when she meant “Fort Worth.”
Bob Ray Sanders, a former co-chairman of the Race and Culture Task Force who sat on an interview panel during the forum, said he thought three of the candidates would do particularly well in Fort Worth, including Brooks. She was among the top, based on the way she answered questions during the forum and at a lunch where task force members were able to talk one-on-one with candidates.
“I thought she had an understanding of what diversity really is and the systems you have to have in place,” Sanders said.
United Fort Worth and the Tarrant County Coalition for Community Oversight, two grassroots organizations advocating for equity and police oversight, recommended Shani Barrax Moore, the director of diversity and inclusion at the University of North Texas.
Moore is the daughter of immigrants and the only candidate with experience similar to the city’s Latino community, a statement from the organizations said. Fort Worth is more than 30% Hispanic or Latino, but none of the six candidates appeared to have significant backgrounds working with Spanish-speaking populations or came from Latino communities.
The groups were critical of the way candidates for the position were presented to the public. Originally the city planned to hold the forum at police headquarters, which the groups called “tone deaf” and appeared designed to limit the number of people who attended. The forum was moved to Morningside Elementary where more than 160 showed up.
Pamela Young, an organizer with the Coalition for Community Oversight, said the public wasn’t given enough time to vet the candidates.
“I wish we would have had more time with them to really see who they are,” she said.
This story was originally published November 14, 2019 at 2:39 PM.
