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Lucas County Commissioner
Pete Gerken possesses a unique “brand relevance” in Toledo
politics. Gerken has used the yin and yang of his own life
experiences to remain “down with the peeps” and occupy a
niche that allows him to remain relevant in shifting
political climates or economic conditions.
Mr. Gerken is running for
re-election on the November 8, 2016 ballot. I spoke with him
about his specific accomplishments and the County’s vision
for the African-American community. This is the finale of
our two-part conversation that focuses on rebuilding the
post-recession black community.
Perryman:
The black community has been hardest hit by unemployment and
a transitioning economy. What is the state of job readiness
supports that the Lucas County Commissioners put in place to
prepare people for current or new jobs?
Gerken:
Well, we have a national award for the Work Ready Lucas
County and a partnership with the ACT Program. We’ve had
that about a year and a half now, but basically that is one
of 19 counties in the country that allowed us to offer
certificates for work levels, and that prepares people to
walk in the door with and say ‘I’m certified to do this job,
I’m what the job may call for’. It’s a powerful tool. Much
of our clientele at Ohio Meets Jobs comes from the minority
community. We realize that sometimes educational and
economic processes in the county have left some of them a
little bit behind. We’re looking to catch people up where
their trades or skills are deficient. And we actually have
national certified programs that 90 employers in this
community recognize our certificates. So, our job is to
connect through Ohio Meets Jobs to those certificates and
then to those jobs.
The other thing is that we
just got part of a major grant for healthcare opportunities
called H5, which is health professional opportunity grants
that allow people with economic support, it doesn’t cost
them anything, to get trained and get jobs in the healthcare
field. We have to do 250 people a year in that program and
we just got another grant for three quarters of a million
dollars to help folks stay stable in their jobs in helping
with our disabled communities. We found that there is a
bunch of new caregivers to the disabled community that need
to be trained who are largely minority and we’re doing
supports around that.
Then we’ve also instituted
help to people, generally in minority lower socioeconomic
classes, our Employees Small Dollar Loans Program as our
effort to take on the payday loan and car title loan
companies. This is a credit building effort with 50
employers and eight credit unions participating in a program
that, without a credit score, you can get up to $1500 for
those emergencies that come, and that people may not be
prepared for, and so then it becomes a credit help. So,
we’re taking head on, one of the scourges of the community,
which is payday loans and auto title loans, but in a way as
to deflect people away from them by using our program.
Perryman:
I’ve heard good things about the program. Let’s talk now
about criminal justice reform, of which you have been
leading local efforts.
Gerken:
Obviously, the most notable achievement is the $1.75 million
dollars a year criminal justice award from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It [the grant]
challenged us to reduce disproportionality in our jail and
systems locally. First of all, there were 200 communities
in the nation that competed for it and only 10 were funded.
We’re the smallest community of the country to get funded.
And, we think that we’ve done the most with it so far. Our
challenge was to reduce incarceration rates in the jail by
19 percent, which will be a direct effect on the
disproportionality to have less people in jail, and not only
did we…we will be given 36 months to achieve that goal, we
believe we have achieved it in 36 days.
Perryman:
You’ve reduced disproportionality in 36 days?
Gerken:
Well, we have reduced the use of available beds for judges
to send people to, by over 19 percent in 36 days. The direct
result of that is just the same disproportionality that sent
people in there, it directly affected the African-American
community by how many people were in jail. That’s just in
the first 36 days. We continue to fund the courts on
electronic monitoring. We continue to work with the sheriff
on DART (Drug Abuse Response Team) and these are not
incarceration programs, these are diversion programs. We
signed a historic agreement two weeks ago with 20 judges,
all from Sylvania, Maumee, Oregon, the county and the City
of Toledo, and they all agreed to reduce their beds at
Stryker by 128 beds alone.
Perryman:
And still keep the community safe?
Gerken:
And what we know, is, that we now have everybody looking on
a database system, not a racially profiled system, about who
gets put in jail and who doesn’t. We’ve started to take the
profiling out of incarceration by having the data risk
assessment tool that says it’s not the charge, it’s your
flight risk. We have a whole new set of eyes and it’s
already with results.
Perryman:
You were not only instrumental but also invaluable and, for
Toledo, innovative in bringing body cameras to the Lucas
County Sheriff’s department.
Gerken:
Sure, let’s not forget about the body cams. The
commissioners and the sheriff, we are the first local law
enforcement, first body of government to demand and outfit
our law enforcement officers with body cameras, and by the
way, you were the one to push this on them.
Perryman:
Correct. So how does your agenda address the devastating
toll that mass incarceration has taken on individuals,
children, women and families of color?
Gerken:
We continue to look at the disproportionality of those
people that remain in our jail. The way we address it is to
continue to use some of the MacArthur money and our resource
money making sure people don’t end up in jail. We did the
first ever Getting Ahead Looking Out Program that actually
targeted people that were being released to the community
with the skills to, the minute they got off the bus, not to
return to prison. We’re the second county in Ohio to do
that. So the way we’re fighting disproportionality is very
easily, number one fighting recidivism, which is a large
contributor, and we continue to do that through programs
like Getting Ahead. We are also working through the Reentry
Coalition to sponsor African-American men mentoring other
African-American men when they get out of prison from minute
one to make sure they don’t go back. Everybody knows the
first 72 hours when you’re released will dictate whether you
go back or not. We are invested right now to end that
cycle.
And speaking of cycles
that the formerly incarcerated can’t recover from, let’s not
forget about the ban the box, you know the story.
Perryman:
Please tell us your story.
Gerken:
Alright, we were the first county in Ohio to realize if
we’re going to be real about recidivism, you got to have an
opportunity to help people get a job. We took the felony
question off our applications. Not to say that at some point
people won’t get a records review, but we think people need
to have a chance to apply for a job without their
application going directly into the wastebasket because the
box is checked. So if we’re going to talk about giving
people a chance to reenter, then we have to take down
barriers and that first barrier was to ban the box and we’re
the first county in Ohio to do it.
Perryman:
Finally, how would you describe the state of race relations
or the relationship between the community and law
enforcement in Lucas County?
Gerken:
I think race relations and police relations in Lucas County
are better than the average in the United States. Both
leadership in the African-American community and some
leaders of the police side have opened up the dialogue. We
haven’t had the events that other communities have had.
We’ve come a long way forward. We have things like Baldemar
Velasquez’ treaty, basically between the police and Latino
youth. I think that Black Lives Matter voices have at least
been heard in my office, and what’s been heard in my office
we try to ring into everybody else’s office, too.
Perryman:
And so, by having an open door policy, with, what are
perceived sometimes as “protest groups,” allows you to be
proactive rather than reactive and can prevent a social
crisis from occurring down the road?
Gerken:
Right. I’d rather talk about the problem than fight about
the problem. We may get to fighting sometimes, but we
certainly are going to have a community where listening is
valued first. So far, the leaders of the minority community
and most leaders of the police community have stepped up to
try that solution.
Perryman:
Do you believe in the principle that the real answers to
the problems in the black community can only come from the
black community itself rather than having the solutions
provided by others?
Gerken:
Yes, I believe in self-determined solutions. But being
self-determined you’re going to have to have the
availability of resources to make this determination. So
absolutely, there’s nobody going to come into anybody’s
neighborhood and tell them what we think they ought to do.
What we’re going to do is solicit and see what resources
they tell us they need to determine what their problems are
and fix them.
Perryman:
Lastly, please talk about where you’ve been, where you are
now and where you are headed as far as your agenda for the
African-American community.
Gerken:
I am a product of the 60’s and the UAW Movement in the early
70’s, which was a great friend to the civil rights
community. Where I’ve been is on the side of voting rights
and reforms along equality. I am investing a lot of my time
in jobs, housing, voting rights and equal opportunity. Where
I’m going to now is to continue those processes. What
you’ve seen in the past you’re going to get more of in the
future.
We get loud every once in
a while about things when they’re wrong. I think now as the
world becomes more complex and angry, it’s time to get loud
again about those issues that were on the forefront in the
60’s and 70’s. I think it’s time to get loud about that
again.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
Solidarity Part
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