Comment on Another member resigns from Iowa City Truth and Reconciliation Commission

IOWA CITY — After condemning the Iowa City Council last week for their plans to temporarily suspend the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Raneem Hamad has resigned from the commission.Hamad was the lone representative of the Iowa Freedom Riders — a group that represented the interests of the Black Lives Matter movement locally and called for the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.“There is no longer any IFR representation or participation with the TRC, and the council can breathe a sigh of relief,” Hamad wrote in her March 25 letter.The nine-member commission was formed by the council last year to hear evidence of discrimination and racial injustice and provide opportunities for those impacted to share their stories and express their truths through art, theater and other avenues.Hamad joins Anthony Currin, Royceann Porter and T’Shailyn Harrington as members who have departed the commission after months of dysfunction, which came to a head during a March 4 meeting in which Porter resigned as commission chair ahead of a vote of no confidence and Harrington was voted out of her leadership role.Jesse Case, who had been hired as the group’s facilitator, also resigned after the March 4 meeting.The city council on March 16 voted to suspend the commission until April 15.