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Gov. Jay Nixon recently swore in the 16 people he selected for the newly created Ferguson Commission. Five of the commission members are from the Florissant / Hazelwood area including Hazelwood Supt. Grayling Tobias and former Hazelwood Mayor T.R. Carr.

Nixon created the commission to study the underlying issues raised by events in Ferguson. He has asked the commission to issue a report with policy recommendations by Sept. 15 of next year.

More than 300 applications and nominations were received after Nixon announced the creation of the commission. Commission co-chairs are Rev. Starsky Wilson and Rich McClure.

The five members from the Florissant / Hazelwood area are:

• Reverend Traci Blackmon, Pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ;
• T.R. Carr, Jr., Professor of Public Administration at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville, former mayor of Hazelwood;
• Scott Negwer, President of Negwer Materials in Ferguson;
• Brittany Packnett, Executive Director of Teach For America;
• Grayling Tobias, Superintendent of the Hazelwood School District;

Other members are:

• Rev. Starsky Wilson, CEO of the Deaconess Foundation;
• Rich McClure, former president and COO of Unigroup;
• Dan Isom II, Director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety;
• Bethany Johnson-Javois, CEO of the St. Louis Integrated Health Network;
• Gabriel E. Gore, attorney and partner at the law firm of Dowd Bennett LLC;
• Rose Windmiller, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Government & Community Relations at Washington University.
• Rasheen Aldridge, Jr., community organizer and Director of Young Activists United;
• Becky James-Hatter, President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri;
• Felicia Pulliam, Director of Development for FOCUS St. Louis and Ferguson resident;
• Kevin Ahlbrand, Detective Sergeant with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and President of the Missouri State Fraternal Order of Police;
• Patrick Sly, Executive Vice-President, Emerson.

The Commission will be responsible for issuing a report with policy recommendations in the several areas. The areas are citizen-law enforcement interaction and relations; racial and ethnic relations; municipal government organization and the municipal court system; and disparities in areas including education, economic opportunity, housing, transportation, health care, child care, business ownership, and family and community stability.

The commission “most important work will be the changes we see in our institutions and our work places, in our communities and in our interactions with one another,” said Nixon. “Change of this magnitude is hard; but maintaining the status quo is simply not acceptable.”

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