ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones is scheduled to attend the Monday evening meeting of the city’s Reparations Commission, marking her first appearance at the commission she established more than a year ago tasked with exploring ways to repair lasting damage from the city’s stark history of racial segregation.

The mayor’s appearance follows some criticism about the lack of attendance at the commission’s meetings from the elected officials who would ultimately act on its recommendations and requests from its members for city funding for its work. 

Commissioners have faced complaints about inadequate public outreach and participation in the process (The meeting, as of Monday afternoon, did not appear on the commission’s city landing page).

In November, commissioners asked the Jones administration to allocate funding that could help it attract more public involvement and allow it to finish its report on slavery, racism and recommendations for alleviating their harms.ÌýÌý

The Reparations Commission was originally scheduled to submit a report with recommendations to aldermen and the mayor by March. After a request from the commission for more time to finish its work, the mayor’s office last month agreed to give it until September. 

Jones and St. Louis Development Corp. CEO Neal Richardson plan to present the city’s “Economic Justice Action Planâ€�Ìý»å³Ü°ù¾±²Ô²µ  Released in 2022, SLDC and the Jones administration are already using the plan to guide investment toward some of the city’s long-suffering majority Black neighborhoods, primarily on the north side. 

There has been no firm commitment from the mayor’s office yet on funding for the Reparations Commission, but the mayor could address that request during Monday’s meeting at 6 p.m. at the Deaconess Center, 1000 N. Vandeventer Avenue, in Grand Center.