Black Affairs Advisory Committee

The Black Affairs Advisory Committee shall have the following powers and duties:
(a) Serve in an advisory capacity to the City Manager and the Mayor and City Commission concerning issues and programs affecting the City's Black residents, businesses and visitors;
(b) Foster increased involvement by the City's Black community in the affairs of City government;
(c) Research, discuss, and formulate recommendations on issues, activities, and concerns of the Black community and diaspora in the City;
(d) Comment upon existing or proposed legislation, ordinances, resolutions, and policies that impact the Black community in the City.

The Black Affairs Advisory Committee shall be composed of nine (9) voting members as follows:

The Mayor and each City Commissioner shall appoint one member as a direct appointment, with the remaining two (2) members to be at-large appointments of the City Commission.

Vacancies on the committee shall be filled by the Mayor and City Commission. In filling any vacancy, the Mayor and City Commission may select a replacement committee member from a list of three candidates which shall be submitted by the remaining members of the committee. The individual members of the City Commission may supplement the committee's suggested list with additional names of candidates or, if neither the candidates on the committee's suggested list nor the additional names submitted by the individual members of the City Commission are approved, the committee shall submit an entirely different list for the Mayor and City Commission's Consideration. This process shall continue until a suitable replacement has been found to fill the existing or anticipated vacancy. The suggested list submitted by the committee for the Mayor and City Commission's consideration shall be submitted without specific recommendations or endorsements by the committee as to any particular name submitted therein, but may, in the event the name of a current committee member is submitted for reappointment, indicate, as a point of information to the Mayor and City Commission, that said name is that of an existing committee member.

Knowledge and Experience:

a) One member must be a business owner in the City;
b) One member must be a licensed and actively practicing in the field of real estate, hospitality/tourism, or banking;
c) One member must be licensed and actively practicing in the field of human relations/people development, communications / entertainment, art / culture, or education;
d) The remaining six (6) members must have a personal or professional knowledge or expertise in at least one of the following areas:
1. Education
2. Economic Development/Business Development
3. Culture/Entertainment/Events
4. Hospitality/Tourism
5. Healthcare/Technology
6. People Development/Human Relations
7. Finance/Banking
8. Media/Communications/Public Relations
9. Community Service/Social Justice.

The supporting department for the Black Affairs Advisory Committee shall be the Tourism and Culture Department.