IOWA CITY, Iowa (KWWL) – City leaders in Iowa City showed support for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Tuesday night, by giving commissioners until June 2023 to complete their charges.

The commission was set to expire in June 2022, but commissioners had asked for an extension because they felt their best work was just getting started. The commission was slowed down by several resignations and a one-month stoppage in early 2021.

“I’m happy to see the council committing to an extended timeline for the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. The hard work of my 8 fellow commissioners is admirable, and it keeps me going,” TRC chairman Mohamed Traore said in an email to KWWL.

The commission was formed in September 2020 as a body to investigate claims of racism and help oppressed groups get reconciliation. The commissioners have been working with immigrant workers in their push to get COVID relief funds, and have just started working with BIPOC students in the Iowa City Community School District who feel oppressed.

“I’m so proud of everything they (fellow commissioners) have done so far, and excited to continue working alongside them,” Traore said. “I’m glad to know we will end 2021 with more than a year to finish our work, rather than just 6 more months.”

This vote shows a majority of City Council supports the TRC, something Traore and other commissioners have doubted in the past. In September, Council denied a contract from an outside firm to work with the TRC as a facilitator. Mayor Bruce Teague said at that time, and has continued to say, that the TRC should not continue its work “until a divide has been healed with the larger Black community”.