OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Community advocate Preston Love Jr. called on Gov. Jim Pillen to intervene on the Nebraska Commission on African American Affairs, harshly criticizing its decision to place the executive director on administrative leave.
“It has come to my attention that the Nebraska Commission on African American affairs has the audacity to put its current executive director Simone Smith on an administrative leave,” Love said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
Calling Smith “a bright light” on the commission, Love said she had endured a “toxic environment” and lacked the support she needed to “develop a strong and responsible organization.”
If she can’t stay, Love said the whole commission should be dissolved. In the years since its formation, he said, the NCAAA had “not managed the African American affairs in any sensible or structural way,” and even lacked a strategic plan.
Dorothy Johnson, interim chair for the NCAAA, sent a brief response to First Alert 6 later in the day saying only that the commission “is committed to maintaining confidentiality regarding all personnel matters.”
The commission was created in August 2020 as the result of a bill introduced by then-State Sens. Justin Wayne, Ernie Chambers, and Carol Blood.
“Part of (NCAAA’s) charter is to interact with its community and leaders. Most of my cohorts and myself have never had interactions with them. They have gone through many executive directors and commissioners,” Love said in his statement.
Read Love’s full statement
“It has come to my attention that the Nebraska Commission on African American affairs has the audacity to put its current executive director Simone Smith on an administrative leave. The African American commission in my estimation has been dysfunctional since its original inception in 2020. It has not managed the African American aƯairs in any sensible or structural way. They don’t have a strategic plan after 5 years. Part of their charter is to interact with its community and leaders. Most of my cohorts and myself have never had interactions with them. They have gone through many executive directors and commissioners.
Recently one bright light is they have hired a competent black female, Simone Smith, to get the commission on the right track. Since her inception, there has been a toxic environment as it related to the commission getting behind her leadership and her attempt to develop a strong and responsible organization. The attempt to damage her efforts has come to a horrible juncture.
I challenge the Governor and the accountability of other members of the commission to halt further action or eliminate the commission all together because it is not doing anything worthwhile related to the Nebraska African American community anyway, neither proactively or reactively. Now the commission is risking destroying the reputation of the gifted and talented of an African American female, Simone Smith, who is a Howard Law school graduate. I am asking through this release to is for the Governor to issue a cease and desist in the attempt to fire Ms. Smith, but I will be satisfied that if she has to leave then all of the other members of the commission be let go as well.
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