Polivka says board should look beyond race

Wants committee to focus on ZIP code, include white people and single mothers

WARREN -- When asked to create a steering committee to address racial health disparities, create a resolution declaring racial health disparities a public health crisis and pledge a community effort to address the issue, a Trumbull County commissioner suggested race be left out of it.

Commissioner Dan Polivka said he supports the formation of a steering committee, but asked that it focus more on poor health outcomes by ZIP code and include poor white people, even though many public bodies are passing resolutions declaring racism a public health crisis. Poor health outcomes are thought to be connected to systemic, long-term racism in communities, disproportionately affecting black people, regardless of income, according to resolutions passed in other areas.

The "disheartening" comment displays white privilege and ignorance, said members of IVoteBlack Trumbull County.

"Dan Polivka's white privilege and ignorance of the state of Trumbull County is visible in his comments about health disparities for all races. This is of the same nature of people that say 'all lives matter' at a Black Lives Matter event. All lives will matter when black lives matter," the group said in a statement.

Polivka said at a meeting Wednesday that addressing the issues in a racially focused manner does not promote unity in the community, adding that he does want to see better health care for African Americans, but that any committee also should focus on poor white people and single moms. Otherwise it could be "divisional." The information used to study local health outcomes does not break the data into a category for single moms.

"Comments like this are a distraction to the real issues at hand and the issue is that there is a health disparity for black people and an increased health disparity for poor black people," the IVote Black statement reads.

Polivka said he supports a resolution and a committee, he "just wants to make sure that those in the lower income are included, too, and single moms struggling as well regardless of the color of their skin," Polivka said in a conversation following the commissioners' regular Wednesday meeting.

"We really feel hurt and offended by these comments. A person that we once respected who we thought was sensitive to the issues of the community has no idea what's going on," IVote Black's statement read.

Commissioner Frank Fuda said he is concerned for all races, not just African Americans, but the race disparities need to be solved.

While no one is saying that health outcomes for poor white people in the community should not be addressed -- just like Black Lives Matter doesn't mean that all lives don't matter -- racial disparities exist for entirely other reasons, based on systematic racism and will take special attention to correct --attention that cannot ignore race as a factor, said Bria Bennett, a founding member of IVote Black.

"Black Lives Matter is not just about police brutality. I think this is where we see the disconnect. Black Lives Matter in health, in education, in many issues. We expect our elected officials to get into the community, to find out what is really going on instead of assuming they know what is going on in the lives of people of color, especially when he isn't African American," Bennett said.

"To adequately and appropriately address health inequities present in our community, racism must be called out and directly confronted as an underlying or root cause for the stark differences in health outcomes, life expectancy, wealth and income, educational attainment, housing conditions and other factors that contribute to the ability to live a long healthy life," a letter from the Trumbull County Combined Health District to commissioners states.

The sentiment is echoed in a similar letter sent by Sarah Lowry, director of Healthy Community Partnership Mahoning Valley, to support efforts Wednesday evening by Warren City Council to declare racism a public health crisis. Council members voted unanimously on the resolution.

In addition to passing the resolution, city council also agreed to create a Racism Task Force for creating positive changes within Warren. The task force would be charged with creating a strategic five-year plan identifying problems and ways to resolve them.

Each council member will select a Warren resident to serve on the task force. Progress reports will be submitted to council periodically. A final plan for improving health benefits to traditional African-American communities will be presented in July 2021, according to Councilwoman Cheryl Saffold, D-6th Ward.

"The plan would involve a cross spectrum of topics including employment, education, crime, housing, health care and criminal justice, she said. "We are looking forward to hearing from the task force in the future as we give them our 100 percent support."

Healthy Community Partnerships and the health district worked together on the community health assessment, the 2020-22 Community Health Improvement Plan and in a committee responding to the aspects of the survey, to develop strategies to address the issues.

The partnership is a way for the community to come together to solve the disparities, said Jenna Amerine, health educator / Creating Healthy Communities program coordinator for the health district.

Because the health assessment showed the clear health inequities with "staggering data," the 2020-22 Community Health Improvement Plan identified the disparities by race and ZIP code.

"Respondents who identified as black / African American reported having significantly higher rates of obesity, more frequently reported feeling sad or hopeless for two or more weeks in a row in the past year, higher infant mortality rates, and more frequently reported feeling upset, angry, sad or frustrated as a result of how they were treated based on their race than respondents who identified as white," Lowry's letter states.

Black people also have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, according to the health district.

"Statistics are in direct opposition to (Polivka's) comments. This would not be a discussion if there was not evidence to prove this point. It's really concerning that the United States has experienced a pandemic where statistics show that black Americans are dying of COVID-19 at three times the rate of white people and a Trumbull County official suggests we need to focus on all races," a statement from IVote Black reads.

"The numbers are eye opening, to say the least. I don't think anyone can question the numbers are related to race," said county health commissioner Frank Migliozzi, who noted that although ZIP code and income are factors in the data, the numbers show black people face disproportionate disparities.

Migliozzi said he wants to see minority people on the steering committee to get feedback from the black community about proposed goals, objectives and strategies, and to ensure ideas on how to correct the issues from the black community are heard, which could lead to better programs and implementation, he said.

The three commissioners said they want to see a "cross section" of people on the committee, including black people, low-income white people and business owners, Polivka said.

"We feel hurt that someone that is supposed to be serving people of all races goes into a meeting like this and refuses to acknowledge there is a problem. Look at the statistics. I am taken aback that these people we have elected to fight in our best interests are totally blind to what our best interests are," Erica Royster, a founding member of IVote Black said.

The state and federal government create programs to specifically address racial inequality for a reason, and the county should, too, Royster said.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said he agrees with forming a steering committee, made up of a "cross section of people from all walks of life."

rfox@tribtoday.com