ACLC Criminal Justice Committee Meeting

Join our criminal justice committee’s meeting this Thursday April, 29th at 6:00pm via Zoom.

Zoom link  https://ufl.zoom.us/j/95981082293

The ACLC’s Criminal Justice Committee is focused on reforming the Alachua County Court Services into an institution that helps keep people out of jails/prisons. Our committee published a white paper on Court Services with recommendations on how to make it a powerful tool in our criminal justice system, the full version can be found at our website.

Food Justice Protest

From Wednesday to Friday, last week, UF students and allies for food justice held non-stop protestshosted guest speakers, and attempted an overnight occupation of the Reitz Union for a better, fairer food service contract. As a result, we’ve secured key meetings with administrators directly overseeing the contract negotiations and important committee members, on top of raising the consciousness of students and the Gainesville community about this issue and earning considerable press attention.

Just Health Care Meeting: Medicare Expansion 101

Join the  Just Health Care Committee for our first meeting of 2021!

Scott Darius, ACLC Health Care Liaison,  will be heading a discussion around medicaid expansion which will include a quick overview of medicaid expansion, advocacy training on how to engage with this campaign locally, a preview of the upcoming legislative session as well as some action steps.

Zoom link
ufl.zoom.us/j/95839929452

Check out the Facebook event for updates

Gainesville City Commissioner (District 1) Candidate Response: Gigi Simmons

The Labor Coalition does not endorse any candidates, and the inclusion of these questionnaire responses to our website should not be taken as an endorsement.

The Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission have made significant progress on providing living wages for municipal workers, including part-time, temporary, seasonal, and contracted workers.  How do you propose we achieve similar wage and benefit gains for workers throughout our community?

Gigi Simmons (District 1):Recently, the city commission did include contract employees under the living wage ordinance (applicable for new or renewed contracts). We are committed to addressing the inequities in our community in all forms including wage(s).”

What do you envision as the role of other large local employers in Gainesville in helping to improve wages, benefit workers, and reduce inequalities? How have/would you encourage these large local employers to address these issues?

Simmons:Many people who live in District 1 are employed by the University of Florida, Alachua County Schools and other major employers. I believe an increase in minimum wage will combat and help to reduce economic inequalities within our community. I will continue to work with  employers to create economic opportunities in District 1 such as healthcare services and programing/education that will deliver and inspire growth in East Gainesville.  High paying and living wage jobs in the medical profession can contribute to economic growth stimulation and empowerment within our community. I envision partnerships with our local employers and fostering relationships that will be sustainable for years to come.”

If you are an employer: Do you pay all your workers a living wage and how do you define a living wage?  If you do not: how are you making an effort to do so?  [If you are not an employer, “N/A” is an acceptable answer.]  

Simmons: N/A

The City of Gainesville recently passed a comprehensive rental housing ordinance.  What will you do to see that this ordinance is properly implemented and what are some additional policies the City of Gainesville can enact to improve access to quality, safe affordable housing in our community? 

Simmons:I had the pleasure of serving on the rental house subcommittee. I, like my colleagues were extremely engaged and committed to the creation and passage of this ordinance.  In addition, to the ordinance the commission has just approved an RFP for solicitation of a Community Land Trust (CLT).  This is one way to address affordable housing and something I’ve advocated for since the beginning (and before) my initial term. I would also like to consider establishing an official city registrar to begin documenting every single vacant, abandoned, or neglected home in East Gainesville and consider partnerships with private organizations to create a taskforce in assessing the property values of the aforementioned vacant, abandoned, and neglected homes. Draw on economic development programs such as the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area to offer loans and tax credits for homeowners as an incentive to renovate their homes and boost property value. Provide direct rental assistance to tenants struggling to pay rent through the continuation and expansion of the GNV CARES Program. Continue to lobby our state representatives not to sweep the Sadoski fund. Continue to help fund the weatherization program to ensure that our resident’s homes are energy efficient.”

Do you support a local hiring preference that includes the use of certified apprenticeship programs for taxpayer-funded projects?

Simmons:Yes, I support this and a motion passed in favor, by the City Commission to move forward with this measure!”

Do you support offering free RTS bus passes for K-12 students and/or making RTS free for all Gainesville residents at the point of service? How can the City of Gainesville improve public transportation for people who rely on it but aren’t affiliated with UF?

Simmons:Yes. Currently we offer the “First Mile, Last Mile,” a free bus service for residents in East Gainesville.  Due to its, success expanded routes are being offered in high demand areas. In addition to First Mile Last Mile, I support fareless bus service for our senior citizens.  The department of Mobility is analyzing our public transit system and looking at improvements, including frequent service routes that could, for example, run every 15 minutes.  Making buses easier to use with more rapid service which would benefit the people in my district.”

What would you do to advance healthcare outcomes in black and brown communities as well as racial equity overall in our community? 

Simmons:COVID-19 has truly unmasked the inequities in healthcare in our black and brown communities.  I currently lead the Health Equity and Access Advisory Group. Our goal is to address the lack of health care options in East Gainesville. Because of this group’s hard work, dedication, and commitment to the needs of the residents in District One we were able to take our findings and recommendations to the Gainesville City Commission for discussion and action.  As I continue to work in this capacity as a commissioner, I will continue to partner and fight for equal healthcare and programming for East Gainesville residents.”

 What steps can the City of Gainesville take to address unequal access to quality food?

 Simmons:The City of Gainesville should continue to partner with Working Food, UF and the Health Department to research our local production and distribution systems to identify where deficiencies exist.  Also, we should recognize that many children and families get nutritious food from the school system and work to provide city community centers as distribution sites.” 

What will you do to ensure UF is a better corporate citizen in Gainesville (e.g., payments in lieu of taxes, moving more services to GRU, helping to ensure better access to quality housing, etc.)?

Simmons:I will discuss and work with members of UF in supporting the continuation of prioritizing employees through a living wage, better development patterns to reduce costly sprawl, protecting our environment through wastewater treatment systems like Sweetwater and advocating for connecting more septic tanks to sewer.”

 What is GPD doing to keep undocumented people out of jail, where they will be subject to ICE detention?  For instance, not arresting people for lack of driver’s license up to three times and instead issuing a civil citation is an alternative that is permissible by law. 

Simmons:Appropriate expansion of the option to use civil citation to keep people from entering the criminal court system will help our undocumented neighbors, as well as address some of the racial inequities in our judicial system.”

 

Spring 2021 Print Newsletter

After a long hiatus our print newsletter is back! We will be releasing a spring 2021 edition. More updates to follow.

Please call or email to submit an idea for an article that we can include. Articles should address issues that ACLC is working on including but not limited to: Renters’ Rights, Evictions, Medicaid Expansion in Florida, Living Wage, Worker’s Rights, Criminal Justice and Food Justice.

Call us at 352-375-2832

Food Justice in 2021

The ACLC is part of the Food Justice League, a coalition of workers, producers, and environmentalists whose mission is to replace the current UF contract with Aramark with one that respects workers, supports sustainable agriculture, and values a vision of a better food system in Gainesville. The Food Justice League has 5 sets of demands that are based around food service worker well being, the environment, and accountability. Sign the petition for food justice at UF here

Right now the students, mostly lead by Dream Defenders and the Coalition Against Prison Slavery (CAPS) are leading a public campaign to boycott the Retiz to call attention to this. There is also discussion of earned media campaigns, op-eds, and more. We’re also looking at adding pressure via the Faculty Senate as the Student Government.

UF BoT — Grinch of the Year

We are proud to announce the 2020 Grinch of the Year award to the University of Florida Board of Trustees (BoT) for their hard and unrelenting support of the rampant spread of COVID-19 at the number 5 public university in the nation! UF is currently number 2 in the nation for college COVID-19 cases but, with the strong support from the BoT, we are confident that we will reach number 1 status soon!

The BoT probably deserves this award every year, but they’ve really outdone themselves in 2020. No one could ever do justice and accurately describe the callousness and open disregard for human life that the BoT has shown since the pandemic began back in March. Their accomplishments include:

  • Pushing to hold in-person classes in the Spring that endangers the lives of everyone in the Gainesville community.

  • Open disrespect and lack of support for faculty, staff, and students.

  • Pushing through measures to have attendees at UF athletic events, which included forcing through measures that ignore health professionals’ advice on best practices.

  • Continued deflection of responsibility for managing the pandemic away from the institution and onto individuals (see: that useless pledge they encouraged UF community members to sign).

  • Abysmally insufficient testing, isolation, and quarantine procedures and resources available to students and staff.

“I’m really proud that the UF BoT has followed in my footsteps,” said Typhoid Mary. “I had expected leaders to listen to the science, at least on par with the 1920s” she continued. 

“UF President Fuchs gave UF workers a big bah humbug this Christmas,” said Ebenezer Scrooge. “I could almost hear myself saying ‘if they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population’ when the UF denied 68% of UF faculty ADA accommodation requests to not teach in-person classes” he went on. 

“At first we were upset that we didn’t win the Grinch of the Year award, but after reading about the actions of Mori Hosseini and the rest of the Board of Trustees I understand,” said Harry and Marv the infamous Wet Bandits who are known for breaking into houses around Christmas time and harassing clever 8-year-olds. “We know what it means to ruin someone’s holiday, we do it all the time but we’re just destroying families’ material possessions. The Board of Trustees is destroying lives. The people lost to COVID-19 can’t be replaced.” they continued. 

The ACLC voted on the Grinch of the Year Award at our general membership meeting on December 8th. We will present this award to Chair Mori Hosseini at the next in-person Board of Trustees meeting.