Kirkwood Mediation Agreement

Yesterday at the Kirkwood City Council meeting there was a presentation of a mediation agreement between Kirkwood and the Meacham Park (a mainly black section of Kirkwood) residents. This agreement was facilitated by the U.S. Department Of Justice. The meetings between the two parties were held in secret. After the presentation a resolution was passed putting the agreement into effect.

I have three thoughts on this.

One, why is the DOJ involved? Aren't they supposed to be in charge of administering justice when a crime is committed? As far as I'm concerned, racial prejudice is not a crime. And I'm not even saying there was any racial prejudice, except maybe for Harriet Patton, president of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, who discussed a program to give every home in Meacham Park a computer with internet access - something that was never suggested for poorer white folks in Kirkwood. Anyhow, it just seems idiotic to me that the DOJ had anything to do with this.

Secondly, why the secrecy about what was discussed in the meetings? If this is a real issue, don't people need to hear the discussion? Don't we need more than just a phony agreement whose only purpose is to make the city of Kirkwood look good? "Ooh, look what we did! We passed an Agreement! No more shootings at council meetings. Hooray! We're so great!"

Thirdly, (and this seems to me to be actually the most important issue) the resolution putting this agreement into effect was never properly voted on. To become a bill, a resolution must have a first reading, then a vote to table 'til the next meeting where it has a second reading and is voted on again. If it then passes, it is law. This resolution has only had ONE READING! Therefore it is not law! If it is not law, what is the purpose?

On a side note, Meacham Park was originally an unincorporated community. It was annexed by Kirkwood in 1991. In my opinion, Kirkwood wanted to reap the tax benefits from building a shopping center on Meacham Park land. This could only be accomplished by annexing Meacham Park. Be that as it may, the TIF money from the shopping center was supposed to be used for home improvements in the Meacham Park area. After being used for poor quality improvements and going to waste, the TIF money was depleted in 2005. Kirkwood annexed Meacham Park only to use them and they have successfully accomplished that. This "Mediation Agreement" means nothing and will do nothing.


The Mediation Agreement

History of Meacham Park