MLK facilitator divulges plans

The president of a Durham consulting firm said good communication and courtesy should take center stage when local residents take up the issue of renaming Airport Road.

Gita Gulati-Gulati-Partee runs OpenSource Leadership Strategies, the group that has been hired by the town to ensure that meetings of the town's Special Committee to Consider Renaming Airport Road go smoothly.

The issue of renaming the road in favor of Martin Luther King Jr. has been a point of debate since January, when members of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People petitioned the town to make the change.

"These kinds of important discussions require a lot of focus and time," Gulati-Partee said.

The four-person consulting team will first interview all 20 members of the committee.

Committee members then will take part in two full-day workshops Nov. 5 and Nov. 6 and a half-day meeting Nov. 20.

During the two longer meetings, committee members will be engaged in large- and small-group discussions, as well as one-on-one conversations.

"We really want to facilitate good conversation," Gulati-Partee said.

But tackling the renaming issue isn't Gulati-Partee's only goal.

"Our process will support the committee's work to address this immediate question, and, more importantly, will open a pathway to authentic, courageous conversations throughout the community," she stated in a Tuesday press release.

The committee was formed Sept. 13 and was supposed to start work immediately.

But some council members thought the committee needed a facilitator to keep it on track. Others were concerned about the price proposed for those services.

Mayor Kevin Foy, Mayor Pro Tem Edith Wiggins, and council member Sally Greene, the three Town Council members on the special committee, reviewed applications for the position and made the decision to award the contract to OpenSource last week.

The firm will be paid $15,000 for its services - the lower end of the price range Foy initially proposed.

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt, who expressed concern during the hiring process, said that the price for the facilitators is high but that he's ready to move on.

"The council has spoken, and it's been approved," he said. "I really want to be able to do what we can do to make this work."

Gulati-Partee said committee members should be close to a decision on a recommendation after they meet Nov. 6 and will be able to present their findings at the Dec. 6 council meeting - within the time frame Foy set for receiving the presentation.

Committee member and former council member Joe Herzenberg said he sees that as a reasonable goal.

"If we were only meeting for a couple of hours a day, then it could be a problem," he said. "These intensive meetings should get the job done."

Assistant Town Clerk Amy Harvey said three of the 20 people initially appointed to the committee cannot attend all of those meetings. David Kroninger, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, and J. Darren Thompson will be replaced by alternate members.

Harvey said those appointments will be made at the Town Council's Oct. 27 business meeting.

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