A New Framework for Accountability and Progress in Post-DEI Florida
Tallahassee ALERT’s Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment Is Going to Voters
On August 17, 2026, the Leon County Commission voted 5-2 to place the Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment on the November ballot.
Formally presented as the Community Impact Assessment Charter Amendment, this citizen-sponsored measure creates a new framework for examining how historic government policies and practices continue to shape conditions in Leon County communities.
Tallahassee ALERT sponsored this amendment and led the community effort that moved it through the Citizen Charter Review Committee and the County Commission.
Now, we are calling it what it is: the Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment.
Its purpose is clear. Our government should assess the ongoing effects of its past decisions, publicly report the findings, and explain how it will respond.
Across Florida and the country, traditional diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are being restricted, dismantled, or eliminated.
Some political leaders are treating the end of DEI programs as permission to stop examining inequality altogether. They want the public to believe that if government no longer uses the language of race, equity, or inclusion, it no longer has a responsibility to confront unequal conditions.
Tallahassee ALERT rejects that conclusion.
Black communities still live with the consequences of decisions about roads, housing, zoning, infrastructure, environmental exposure, public facilities, and government investment. Removing DEI terminology does not repair a neglected neighborhood. It does not replace missing infrastructure. It does not reverse decades of disinvestment or explain why some communities continue to experience conditions created by government action.
The political language may change. The conditions remain.
The Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment offers a new way forward.
A Post-DEI Model Built for Accountability
The amendment establishes a place-based, data-driven approach to government accountability.
Instead of assigning benefits or eligibility based on race or other protected classifications, the framework examines geographic areas, historical government actions, present-day conditions, and measurable outcomes.
If approved by voters, the amendment would establish:
Recurring community impact assessments
Geographic analysis of adverse community conditions
Examination of relevant historic public policies and government practices
Public reporting of assessment findings
Review by the Leon County Commission
A public response from county government
Continued evaluation of whether conditions are improving
Assessments could examine the effects of infrastructure decisions, environmental burdens, land-use practices, public investment, and other government actions on communities over time.
This framework does not ask government to favor one race over another. It asks government to examine what it did, measure the conditions that followed, make the evidence public, and respond.
Community-Led Policy Innovation
The Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment began with a demand rooted in the Black community: government must be accountable for the lasting consequences of historic public policy.
When new state and federal restrictions threatened the original approach, Tallahassee ALERT did not abandon that demand. We adapted the policy without abandoning its purpose.
“This started as an effort to make government accountable for the lasting consequences of historic public policy, but the political and legal environment forced us to innovate,” said Dr. Bruce Strouble, chair of Tallahassee ALERT. “We refused to accept the argument that the end of DEI should also mean the end of transparency, accountability, and progress.”
The result is a framework designed for the political and legal realities of the post-DEI era.
It is geographically focused. It is data-driven. It is transparent. It is designed to comply with current law. Most importantly, it preserves the public’s ability to examine unequal conditions and demand a government response.
This is Black political leadership doing what it has always done: confronting injustice, adapting to resistance, and creating tools that can strengthen democracy for everyone.
Assessment Is the Beginning of Accountability
The amendment does not create direct payments. It does not establish race-based eligibility. It does not guarantee a particular appropriation, program, or policy outcome.
What it creates is the public infrastructure required for accountability.
Without an assessment, officials can claim there is insufficient evidence.
Without recurring measurement, government can avoid determining whether conditions are improving.
Without public reporting, important findings can be buried or ignored.
Without a required public response, elected officials can acknowledge a problem without explaining what they intend to do about it.
The Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment connects those steps:
Assess the conditions. Report the evidence. Require a response. Measure progress.
That process would give residents, neighborhood leaders, journalists, researchers, and community organizations reliable information to evaluate public policy and hold elected officials accountable.
From Historic Harm to Measurable Progress
Government accountability cannot stop with symbolic acknowledgments of the past.
Acknowledgment matters, but acknowledgment without assessment can become ceremony. Assessment without public reporting can become another document on a shelf. Reporting without a government response can become another way to describe a problem without changing it.
“Accountability cannot stop at acknowledging the past,” said Bryan Stringer, executive director of the Capital Area Justice Ministry. “Real accountability means having the courage to examine how decisions made yesterday are still shaping lives today—and then being willing to act.”
The amendment creates a framework through which Leon County can move from acknowledgment to evidence, from evidence to public accountability, and from accountability toward measurable progress.
A Model With National Potential
Communities across the country are confronting the same question: How can local governments continue pursuing fairness and accountability when traditional DEI initiatives are being restricted?
The Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment provides one possible answer. It does not pretend that historic harms disappeared because certain terminology became politically contested. It creates a lawful mechanism for examining places, policies, conditions, and outcomes.
This model could help communities:
Document the continuing effects of historic government decisions
Identify geographic patterns of disinvestment or adverse conditions
Strengthen transparency around public spending
Evaluate whether government action is producing measurable progress
Preserve accountability without relying on prohibited classifications
Give residents better evidence with which to advocate for their neighborhoods
Leon County has an opportunity to establish a model that other jurisdictions can study, adapt, and improve.
The Community Brought This to the Ballot
This amendment did not originate with consultants or political insiders.
Residents raised the demand. Tallahassee ALERT sponsored the proposal. Community members spoke at public meetings. The Citizen Charter Review Committee debated and refined it. Supporters continued organizing through legal concerns, political resistance, revisions, and setbacks.
“This process demonstrates the value of home rule and citizen participation,” said Miriam Tellechea of the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee. “Residents brought this idea forward, the Citizen Charter Review Committee refined it through public hearings, and now Leon County voters will have the opportunity to decide.”
Securing ballot placement was a major victory for grassroots democracy. But getting on the ballot is not the same as winning at the ballot box.
Tallahassee ALERT Will Lead the Education Campaign
Tallahassee ALERT is launching a countywide campaign to educate voters about the Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment. We will hold community meetings, distribute educational materials, engage neighborhood leaders, answer questions, and explain how the amendment would work. Our first campaign gathering will be the Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Campaign Power Lab.
Campaign Power Lab
Thursday, August 27, 2026, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Leon County Main Library, Program Room A; 200 W. Park Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida
“This entire journey has been a beautiful experiment in grassroots democracy,” said Serenity Williams, deputy chair of Tallahassee ALERT. “We listened, we adapted, and we built something that reflects the voices of our community. Now we are going back into the community to explain what we built—and the people will decide.”
The Work Continues
The post-DEI era cannot become a post-accountability era.
We will not accept a political framework that prohibits the government from examining how its own decisions contributed to current conditions. We will not allow changes in terminology to erase history, obscure evidence, or silence communities seeking answers.
The Historic Harms Assessment and Accountability Amendment offers a new path:
Historic truth. Public assessment. Government accountability. Measurable progress.
Tallahassee ALERT sponsored it.
The community advanced it.
Leon County voters will decide it.
Now we must educate, organize, and mobilize.
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