MANSFIELD -- At the end of a sometimes tense one-hour meeting with Richland County commissioners Thursday, local NAACP President Cynthia O'Neal said she was cautiously optimistic the county will make more progress in minority hiring and promotion in the coming year.
"I think it will happen, based on what Mr. Olson told us," she said.
The commissioners presented the NAACP with a report on job totals as of Sept. 24 which showed this year the county's work force is 9.94 percent minority. Of new job hires, 14.29 percent went to minorities.
But O'Neal said she was most concerned by another figure. Two promotions into management were made this year, and neither of those went to a minority.
"It's mind boggling that no minorities were promoted," she said.
Commissioner Ed Olson said one of those promotions was in the dog warden's office and was made in accordance with its collective bargaining agreement. The other was as a case manager with Job and Family Services. Olson said no minority members applied for the position.
O'Neal said she was not fully satisfied.
"Our concern as an organization is we're not seeing a positive increase in management positions. This is pretty negative," she said.
Olson attributed much of the problem to a lack of job openings at all levels.
"One of the characteristics of public employment is people tend to stay (in those jobs) forever," he said.
However, Olson said, there would be about a dozen middle- and upper-management jobs coming open by next summer and some of those would go to minorities.
"I can assure you, at least internally, qualified (minority) applicants will not be an issue," he said.
O'Neal said she hoped that would be the case.
"We want the community to see there is hope in Richland County for African-Americans to get good, high paying jobs here. All the work we've done, all the meetings we've had, we must see results," she said.
"We want to see some African-Americans in high-level positions in the next year."
Olson assured her that would be the case.
"We want to see that number grow also. As this report clearly shows, it is something we are working on and closely tracking," he said.
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