Debate over who appoints members of Tampa’s Citizens Review Board (CRB) reached a shaky compromise Thursday.
Council members voted 4-3 to share appointments to the 11-member police oversight board equally with Mayor Jane Castor, leaving one seat open for the NAACP to nominate a member from its organization.
But the NAACP’s appointment will still be subject to Castor and the city council’s review, a decision activists say gives the mayor majority control over the panel through her ability to veto the nomination.
James Shaw, legal panel chair of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, has been rallying for months to get Tampa’s city council to remove Castor’s majority control of the appointments, and to vote on giving the review board its own attorney and subpoena power.
