CORE presses for staffing and funding to lead reparations and racial-equity planning; MOERJ outlines near-term deliverables

The Commission on Racial Equity (CORE) and the Mayors Office for Equity and Racial Justice (MOERJ) testified about complementary but distinct roles: CORE emphasized public-facing engagement and an imminent, resource-intensive reparations and truth-and-healing process; MOERJ described cross-agency planning work, the true cost of living measure and pilot investments in youth and neighborhood programming.

CORE Chair Lynitz Johnny told the committee the commission has expanded public engagement (a 116% increase in participation in community cycles) but remains small (15 full-time roles) and is still building operational infrastructure. CORE asked the city to move an estimated $500,000 in FY26 personnel underspend to operations so it can finance outreach and to appropriate roughly $6 million in FY27 for community engagement, research, procurement for a reparations study and a public-education campaign.

Johnny described COREs planned work: issuing a researcher solicitation for a citywide reparations study, assembling a network for truth-and-healing and preparing training and a testimony guidebook for a citywide process. He emphasized community insistence on a participatory model: community organizations asked to see drafts and co-develop the values that will guide the work.

MOERJ Commissioner Afia Atemensa described the offices progress on the racial equity plan and the true cost of living measure. MOERJ said it hired equity planning managers who are central to the plan and that it expects to publish the preliminary citywide plan within the first 100 days and to release the true cost of living measure by the end of the month. MOERJ reported a FY27 preliminary budget that included reductions labeled as program transfers ($551,184), and staff said many of those transferred funds now support partner agencies running programming in neighborhoods and schools.

Council members and deputies discussed practical needs: whether CORE can partner with philanthropy, requirements (banking and procurement) to accept outside funds, and whether small independent commissions can access pooled shared services to reduce the administrative burden. CORE and MOERJ both said they would supply follow-up details on outreach budgets and partnership structures.