(Reuters) – Missouri’s governor on Tuesday named 16 members to a panel charged with making recommendations to fix social and economic inequalities in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb hit by protests since a white policeman fatally shot an unarmed black teen in August.
Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, took the action as the region braced for a decision by a local grand jury on whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Protests are expected, particularly if Wilson does not face criminal charges.
Nixon’s Ferguson Commission has until September 2015 to make recommendations after reviewing the social and economic conditions that contributed to the unrest triggered by Brown’s Aug. 9 death.
