Baltimore’s Chief Equity Officer Dana P. Moore was elected as chair of the city’s Local Control Advisory Board on Monday evening.
Moore also serves as the director of the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights.
Ashiah Parker, the executive director of the No Boundaries Coalition — a resident-led advocacy organization tasked with addressing racial and economic disparities in West Baltimore — was elected as the committee’s vice chair.
The Baltimore Police Department has been under state control since 1860.
The Local Control Advisory Board was created under legislation sponsored by Sen. Cory V. McCray (D-Baltimore City) to allow Baltimore residents to determine if the city government should regain control of the Baltimore Police Department via a charter amendment during the 2022 or 2024 general election.
McCray also serves on the board.
Under McCray’s bill, the advisory board is charged with studying potential issues that could arise from the transfer of the department from state to city control.
The committee’s first interim report is due to the city council, the General Assembly and Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr. (R) by Dec. 1, 2021.
Prior to her designation as Baltimore’s first chief equity officer by Mayor Brandon Scott (D), Moore was the first woman appointed as the deputy and acting city solicitor. She also previously served on the Planning Commission and the Baltimore City Board of Liquor License Commissioners.
Moore was nominated by Baltimore Police Sgt. Robert F. Cherry, who is on the committee as a representative of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Parker was nominated to serve as chair by City Council President Nick J. Mosby (D), who said it’s integral that community members have a strong voice in the board’s decision-making process.
The best way to do that, he said, is to have the chair not be a representative of the government.
“I have nothing but love and respect for Dana Moore … however, I think as related to the symbolic representation of what we’re attempting to do today and the point in which we’ve gotten here today — and it’s taken so long — that it’s really important to … have a solid community voice at the helm,” he said before nominating Parker.
Moore was nominated chair on a vote of 12-4.
Though the legislation only called for a board chair, Mosby asked about the potential of appointing a co-chair or vice chair.
Following the vote establishing Moore as the committee head, Scott put forth a motion to nominate Parker as the board’s vice chair.
Parker was nominated as vice chair with no opposition.
The Local Control Advisory Board’s next meeting is Nov. 30.
Hannah Gaskill
Reporter
Hannah Gaskill was a reporter for Maryland Matters. She left the publication in May 2022. Gaskill received her master’s of journalism degree in December 2019 from the University of Maryland. She previously worked on the print layout design team at The Diamondback, reported on criminal justice in Maryland for Capital News Service and served as a production assistant for The Confluence — the daily news magazine on 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR member station. Gaskill has had bylines in The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune, among other publications. Before pursuing journalism, she received her bachelor’s of fine art degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016. She grew up in Ocean City.
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