On April 14, the Leon County Commission voted 6-1 to revive a charter amendment that would address the historical harms caused by past Leon County government policies. The proposal calls for the county to study past injustices and allocate funding toward corrective initiatives.
Leon County Commissioner Brian Welch was the only no vote. Following the meeting, Welch posted written comments about the issue and a link to a video of his comments during the meeting on his social media platforms.
Welch’s written comments are provided below:
“I will always support polices that uplift ALL people in our community, especially in areas of need, neglect or disinvestment. I supported our recent County resolution apologizing for our history of slavery. But this is not a resolution, this is about policy. I cannot in good conscience, support an effort that builds a framework to deliberately and specifically direct funding to “individuals or communities” whose “ancestors” were harmed by historical injustices. The amendment as written is clearly about reparations, taking from today’s taxpayers and redistributing that revenue deliberately and specifically to people whom they didn’t harm. That effort is a non-starter for me and is bad public policy in my opinion. Especially if that policy jeopardizes all of the good work and investment we are presently making to uplift and improve our entire community. We are making great strides in Leon County and in the 32304 zip code specifically. This effort would not heal old wounds, it would only serve to create new ones.”
His comments during the meeting are provided below:
Commissioner Brian Welch should NOT have been they only NO Vote. ALL of the Commissioners should have Voted NO.