By Molly McBride, WCSC
City of Charleston officials said the Racial Bias Audit is still on schedule after a subcontractor asked for more money for the third-party review of the audit.
This third-party review is the final step to the Racial Bias Audit of the department which began in 2019. A subcontractor was tasked with completing this third-party review, to determine how the Charleston Police Department implemented the results of the 2019 Racial Bias Audit.
City officials said in late July, the subcontractor informed them he would need more money than the original contract to complete his work. The city then temporarily paused the contract until the primary contractor, who’s out of the country, is available to resolve the situation.
This pause sparked concern among Charleston Area Justice Ministry Officials.
“In order for us to gauge the success of the audit and the call for the audit, besides what we get from reports from the department, we need a report from this independent assessment team,” Arthur McFarland, the former Co-President of the Charleston Area Justice Ministry said.
City officials said the meeting to resolve the situation is currently scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
In late July, when a subcontractor informed city officials he would need more money than the contract allowed to complete his work, the city temporarily paused the contract until the primary contractor, who was out of the country, was available to meet to resolve the situation. That meeting is currently scheduled to take place on Wednesday, August 16. In the meantime, the audit remains on schedule and is expected to be completed before the year is out.
A volunteer campaign organizer for CAJM, Treva Russell, is also a volunteer campaign manager for Tamika Gadsden who is running for mayor of the City of Charleston.
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