Community organizer, Mizzou librarian to run for Columbia City Council
The field of candidates for the Aug. 5 special election for the Ward 2 seat on the Columbia City Council is widening with the addition of Vera Elwood.
Elwood, who was at the empty chair town hall on May 20, said she was running and put out an official announcement Thursday, May 22.
"I am running for City Council because I love Columbia. I met my husband here. I started a family here. I found my community here. I believe that my experience in public service, knowledge of Columbia, and dedication to community involvement can help make Columbia a truly safe place for everyone," she said in the announcement.
As of now, Elwood will face off against Ken Rice, who has the support of former Ward 2 council member Lisa Meyer, who resigned from the council due to health reasons.
Elwood is the current chair of the city's Disabilities Commission and is a member of the city's Commission on Cultural Affairs. Her campaign tenants include "improving infrastructure, creating a safer and more welcoming city and ensuring every voice in the community is heard and uplifted," the announcement noted.
She is the third generation of her family to have attended the University of Missouri and returned to the city in 2019 to raise her family. She is an foster and adoptive mother, and said she also brings lived experiences as a queer and disabled woman.
"These perspectives have shaped her work leading accessibility, inclusion, and diversity trainings at libraries and organizations across the country," announcement noted.
More: Ken Rice makes bid for Columbia City Council after school board loss
Along with her roles on the city commissions, she also is Youth Program Coordinator at The Center Project, mid-Missouri's LGBTQ resource center, and is a union organizer with Laborers International Union of North America Local 955 and its Mizzou Workers United campaign. Elwood is a University of Missouri librarian and was able to join LiUNA 955 through that role.
"My time in public service has included everything from libraries to community centers to unions to city commissions, but one thing has always remained true. The city can buy as much asphalt as it wants, but if we do not have trained and supported workers to lay it, the potholes aren't getting fixed. Our people should always be our first priority," Elwood said.
She also regularly volunteers with True/False Film Fest, Unbound Book Festival, Mid-Missouri PrideFest, and the Central Missouri Humane Society.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Vera Elwood runs for Columbia Ward 2 council seat in special election
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
E&E News
17 minutes ago
- E&E News
Interior revokes Biden-era encouragement of LGBTQ+ Pride participation
New guidance from the Interior Department is discouraging National Park Service employees from participating in LQBTQ+ Pride month activities or posting about them on official social media. In a May 30 memo, the Interior Department's Civil Rights Office revoked guidance from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last year encouraging bureaus to allow staff to participate ind 'special emphasis months.' The Haaland memo had cleared the way for park rangers to wear their uniforms during Pride parades and other events. She issued the guidance after a top NPS official in May 2024 sent a memo telling staffers that agency policies barred them from attending events in uniform supporting a 'particular issue, position or political party.' Subsequent guidance made clear that included representing NPS at Pride events. Advertisement Acting director of the Office of Civil Rights, Shayan Modarres, eliminated Haaland's guidance in the May 30 memo. The memo also disbanded a committee created during the Obama administration to guide agency participation in 'special emphasis' months, which has included LGBTQ+ Pride month in June. 'The Department of Interior renews its commitment to implement any Special Emphasis Programs in a manner that does not discriminate based on race, sex, color, religion, or national origin in any program,' Modarres wrote in the brief directive. 'This memorandum supersedes all previous Directives on this subject.' The National Park Service did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The new direction from the Trump administration doesn't explicitly discourage Pride participation for park rangers or other Interior employees, but it's been interpreted that way by many park staffers, according to internal emails and messages viewed by POLITICO's E&E News. Some park rangers say the guidance has discouraged them from participating in Pride festivities in their local communities or posting about Pride on their park's social media sites, as they've done in previous years. 'Everyone is extremely on edge,' said one transgender park ranger who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. 'There's definitely an atmosphere of fear and control.' As with the rest of the federal government, the Trump administration has taken aim at the National Park Service's diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Under directives from the White House, NPS has also begun to change its telling of U.S. history. Earlier this year, the National Park Service heavily edited or eliminated webpages run by the agency that talked about transgender people, after President Donald Trump issued an executive order making it the position of the U.S. government to only acknowledge two genders. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also recently ordered new signs to go up at national parks encouraging visitors to report 'negative' depictions of U.S. history, a mandate that former park leaders say could pressure park rangers to change depictions of Indigenous, Black and LGBTQ+ history. The Trump administration's efforts have trickled down to other park decisions as well. NPS attempted to close Dupont Circle, a storied gathering point in Washington's gay rights history, during this weekend's WorldPride D.C. parade due to concerns about damage to park facilities, citing a recent executive order from Trump to increase law enforcement in the district. NPS reversed its position following community pushback, only fencing off the park's historic fountain. The new memo on special emphasis months pivots NPS to a potentially more conservative approach, one that discourages park officials from discussing subjects not directly related to their park's history. A June 3 email sent to NPS public information officers on the West Coast shared guidance from Aaron Roth, the Intermountain associate regional regional director for NPS, to limit social media posts and uniformed participation in special emphasis month events. The email noted that additional guidance from leadership, beyond the May 30 memo, is not expected. 'Without more detail, we recommend official/uniformed participation in celebratory activities, including social media posts, to be kept to events that relate closely to your park's specific mission [purpose],' the email states. Additionally, the email states 'There should be no official participation in parades associated with special emphasis months.' Park superintendents are granted discretion on whether a park should participate in an event, the email says, noting also that official participation in parades for national holidays is permitted. At a June 4 all-hands call with the service's communication staffers, employees were told they can continue to use social media to post about special emphasis months, as they have in previous years, according to one NPS staffer who was on that call. But the call has been interpreted slightly differently among NPS staffers. Following that call, a regional interpretations manager sent an email to NPS staffers in the South, explaining that 'monthly messaging themes still exist and are relevant for many parks, but there is no longer a broader mandate to communicate the monthly messaging.' They added: 'We are certainly not prohibited from discussing these topics IF they are directly relevant to our park significance, stories and documents.' The internal communications don't explicitly say the new guidance refers to Pride celebrations, but some staff are interpreting the guidance as directed at LGBTQ+ events because of the timing ahead of the start of Pride month. 'We've been told we can't make posts about quote, unquote, special emphasis months, but they didn't send that email out during Black History Month. So we know it's certainly for Pride Month,' the transgender NPS employee said. 'I'm assuming that marching in Pride parades is going to be a no-go.' Pride participation has been a flashpoint at the park service during both Democratic and Republican administrations. Last year, NPS Deputy Director Frank Lands effectively told park rangers not to march in Pride parades while in uniform, sparking pushback from park staff. Haaland intervened soon after, explicitly directing bureaus to decide when staff can wear their uniforms to special emphasis month events, including those celebrating LGBTQ+ people. Haaland ordered 'Bureau leaders or their designated officials to determine how and when bureaus should participate in these externally organized events. This could include marching units in parades, booths at parades, events etc. This would allow employees to participate in uniform representing their respective bureau.' The Trump administration memo revokes that guidance from Haaland. Jonathan Jarvis, who served as director of the NPS during the Obama administration, said questions about participating in Pride reprise with each change in administration. Jarvis said he strongly supports uniformed park rangers marching in parades 'when the event commemorates some component of American history related to park units such as the Civil Rights movement.' One NPS employee in the District of Columbia region, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, noted that the question of how park rangers can celebrate Pride was 'much more of a kerfuffle' during the Biden administration, after Land's directive went out. Now the Trump administration's approach appears to be more about making life harder for employees of the federal government, that park staffer said, pointing to the administration's aggressive efforts to shrink the workforce. 'It seems honestly like less of an anti-Pride/anti-queer magnifying glass than just another part of the strategy of making employees feel scared and not providing them clear information, and degrading quality of life for federal employees,' the employee said. The staffer said the ultimate impact is a chilling effect on anyone wanting to participate in Pride events, celebrate it or post about it in official channels. 'It's a lot out of fear,' they said. 'There's mixed messages going around.'
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Bishop Budde hopes Pride Month can be ‘antidote' to ‘unnecessarily hurtful' rhetoric
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who asked that President Trump 'have mercy' on LGBTQ children and immigrants during a prayer service he attended in January, says she hopes Pride Month celebrations this year help LGBTQ people heal from months of amped-up speech and policies targeting their identities. 'I pray that it is a really joyful, inspiring gathering where people feel safe, where they feel seen, where they feel supported, where they can laugh and learn,' Budde said about Pride in an interview with USA Today published Monday. 'Maybe it is a good antidote to some of the meaner rhetoric that has been unnecessarily hurtful. And just be a balm for people. We all need that.' Budde, the Episcopal leader for the Washington area, made national headlines when she used a prayer service following Trump's inauguration to make a direct plea to the president — who sat in the first pew of the National Cathedral with first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance — on behalf of 'people in our country who are scared now.' 'There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,' Budde said during the service. She said most immigrants, even those without proper documentation, were good neighbors, and the vast majority are 'not criminals.' She told ABC's 'The View' in the days following her sermon that she would welcome a one-on-one conversation with Trump but would not apologize, as he demanded in a lengthy post on Truth Social. 'I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others,' Budde said. Since returning to office in January, Trump has signed several executive orders directly targeting transgender Americans, including one he issued on his first day declaring that the U.S. recognizes only two unchangeable sexes, male and female, and prohibiting spending on 'gender ideology.' Other orders aim to bar transgender people from serving openly in the military, end federal support for gender-affirming care for minors and ban transgender girls from participating in girls' and women's sports. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that Trump has 'no plans' to issue a proclamation recognizing Pride Month this year. Budde told USA Today that Pride and its message of community and acceptance carries an 'urgency' with it this year. 'It feels as if there are some values, some accomplishments, some strides that are being called into question, and a fairly aggressive effort on the part of many to take away some of the things that have been so hard fought for,' she said. 'It's both a time of celebration and a reminder that this is who we are, and these are our beloved and this is who we stand with.' 'There seems to be a lot to be gained by keeping us divided and to project really false statements onto whole groups of people. That has not stopped, which is just worrisome and a bit heartbreaking,' Budde said. 'This is not, for me, a partisan thing. But I do want to constantly stand for and remind people of the values that are bedrock to me as a person of faith, but also to our country and to emphasize that we have far more in common with one another than we differ.'
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Judge blocks administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing anti-diversity and anti-transgender executive orders in grant funding requirements that LGBTQ+ organizations say are unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar said Monday that the federal government cannot force recipients to halt programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion or acknowledge the existence of transgender people in order to receive grant funding. The order will remain in effect while the legal case continues, although government lawyers will likely appeal.
