The Santa Clarita City Council and the William S. Hart Union High School District are planning to team up for a Human Relations Task Force to address community concerns following racial injustices across the country.

During Tuesday’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting, city officials announced their support for the City of Santa Clarita to team with the Hart School District to restart a decades-old Human Relations Task Force.

“I clearly do not have all the answers, but we can create a more inclusive community. Words matter, and we need to acknowledge that as community leaders,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Cameron Smyth. “We all know that this community, we’ve taken some hits over the past six months. But I also know, and we’ve all seen it as a council, that the resolve in our community is unparalleled.”

In response to community members who feel that they are not being heard within the community, the round table is expected to enact “long term change.”

“I want to use this forum to help inform these changes,” Smyth said. “I have talked to a number of residents who have had difficult experiences here and that makes me sick and I don’t want anyone to feel that way.”

Smyth wants this roundtable to build upon conversations ongoing within the community to enact “long term change” in the City of Santa Clarita.

“I don’t want this to be ‘one-off.’ We had the protest and we came and talked,” Smyth said. “I want this to be long-term change.”

This announcement follows the negative attention the City Council has gained over the past week for a perceived failure to address statements Councilmember Bob Kellar made in 2010.

Christian Olmos, representative for the Civil Advocacy Network of Santa Clarita supported removal of Kellar, but also called for an internal review, as well as calling for the City Council to publicly release the ACLU letter that urged the city to end the previous curfews.

“I’d like to echo support to the removal of Councilmember Kellar whose comments are both extremely distasteful and contrary to the values of this community,” Olmos said. “Secondly I request the city council and the mayor accommodate our request to release the letter received by city officials from the Southern California ACLU for public review.”

While Mayor Pro Tem Bill Miranda stated that he supported the Black Lives Matter movement, he also condemned those with “vulgar and mean signs.” He also called this time of civil unrest a “time to look inward,” and asked those who were calling for Kellar’s resignation to think of their motivations.

“But in looking inward, we must know and understand what it is that we want,” Miranda said. “Do we want equal justice, or do we want a pound of flesh? Because if we want a pound of flesh, count me out.”

Details of the roundtable, or forum as the mayor has also described it, are still being determined, with a formal proposal expected to be on the agenda for the next council meeting.

The roundtable is expected to include a diverse representation of the community, built upon the framework of the previous task force.

“My idea is to try to take what’s happening and turn it into more of long-term policy that reflects our community now, and develops those policies,” Smyth said.

Smyth stated the importance of including officials with the William S. Hart Union High School District in the forum, as many of the protesters in the Santa Clarita Valley have been young students from the district.

“I think everyone should be encouraged by the turnout of almost exclusively young people in our community that want to have their voices heard, they want to make a change,” Smyth said. “They are doing this peacefully, respectfully and they should be heard and they should be acknowledged.”

Dr. Cherise Moore, who serves on the Hart District’s governing board, is expected to bring up the Human Relations Task Force at the board’s next meeting on Wednesday.

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