Thread by @shayshinecastle

I'm sick, but it's Tuesday and there's a city council meeting in #Boulder.

Thankfully just a study session. Tonight we'll be discussing:
Racial equity efforts
Snow/ice removal
Vision Zero

I hope ya'll are doing literally anything else, but I'll be threading discussion anyway.

Our new city attorney, Teresa Tate, is at this meeting, her first.

First up is a look at the city's racial equity efforts so far.

Boulder adopted a racial equity plan in Feb:
boulderbeat.news/2021/02/11/rac…

Lots of stuff in there, but essentially it's a plan/statement/whatever to ID any city programs, services, etc. that perpetuate systemic racism and... stop doing that.

Guess I could have just used the city's words for what the plan is: “The primary outcome of the plan is to ensure that the COB will advance racial equity by ensuring that its policies, programs, and practices are free from institutional and systemic racism.”

There were 5 goals
1. Everybody gets it - city will “normalize and operationalize” understanding of systemic racism

2. Justly do it - “city will take action to end racial disparities in city services”

3. Community commitment - city will strengthen partnerships with orgs, groups that are committed to racial equity

4. Power to all the people - city will “expand influence” of PoC

5. Representation matters - city will eliminate barriers, create opps for diverse workforce

We're gonna visit what's been accomplished under each of those goal areas.

Everybody gets it
- Mandatory training for CC, staff
- 671 staff, 8 of 9 prior CC completed training on role of gov’t in advancing racial equity
- 401 staff, 8 of 9 prior CC completed bias and micro aggression training

(I'll let you guess which CC member *didn't* do those trainings...)

Justly do it: Racial equity tool being implemented on 5 projects
- Board and commissions: Trying to recruit, retain PoC and getting 100% compliance on training
- Vaccine distribution: 97 doses at clinics, 50+ to unsheltered, 352 at Crest View Elem, Orchard Grove mobile home park

- Homelessness: Eliminated 6-month residency requirement, outreach workers now asking/ will ask qs about micro aggressions or discrimination that “which tempered a person’s connection to resources”

- Housing: NEWR began in 2021

- Police oversight: Recruiting PoC for panel

(It seems weird that the city is taking credit for NEWR, eviction prevention / legal help for renters, when that was a citizen-led initiative, but whatever. It's happening and it helps.)

Power to All the People
Community connectors - 22 integrated into ~a dozen programs. Some priorities:
- East Boulder Subcommunity Plan working group (specifically with San Lazaro)
- Emergency response (COVID)
- Parks & Rec master plan update
- Police master plan update

and ...
- Flood and Stormwater Master Plan update

Representation matters
- Aforementioned board and commission work
- City working on Racial Affinity Policy and city staff groups for participation

Aimee Kane, equity manager:
"What we know is that race is the greatest predictor of one’s access to success in our systems … that gives us the opp to introduce framework, tool and resources that could also be applied to other populations."

Kane: "Racial equity is closing the gaps so that race does not predict one’s access to success."

Kane also explaining equity vs. equality:
"Equality is when we’re treating everybody the same. Equity acknowledges that dif ppl start in dif places ... and levels the playing field"

Boulder has passed 2 racial equity resolutions, in 2015 and 2019. The first was focused more on inclusivity, while the more recent one (and the plan) is really about anti-racist work, Kane say.

Kane: "Adoption of the plan was a brilliant exercise in thought and commitment. The adoption of a plan isn't enough. What we need to do is take that action."

Which is what we'll be discussing tonight.

"This has been many years in the making," says engagement specialist Ryan Hanschen. Includes *lots* of engagement, including some more focused and intentional efforts than the city usually uses to ensure participation from communities of color.

We'll get another update in Feb-March, like a one-year thing. Before that, community connectors will share community priorities with council ahead of their agenda-setting retreat.

Reminder: That retreat is where council decides what it will be working on for the next 2 years. This group should have more flexibility bc the last council actually accomplished a bit. (At least compared to the council before that.)

Brockett: I'm hopeful these racial equity goals will be "an integral part" of our workplan for the next two years.

Friend: It's been a struggle for me to follow how/when we will embed the racial equity tool in *every* decision we make. How have we incorporated that?

"It still feels sometimes aspirational."

How do we get to a place where it's automatic? Friend asks

Folkerts: We have impact statements on all the items we get on council. (So the financial impacts of each item, the social impacts, the environmental impacts...)

"Sometimes they feel safe in a way," Folkerts says. Can we expand those, perhaps?

Winer: It would help me to know what our successes are, or what has changed. 'We used to do this, now we do that.' That kind of thing.

Forgot that I was going to use council members first and last names for awhile, since some of them are new. I assume you know who they are.
So far: Aaron Brockett, Rachel Friend, Lauren Folkerts, Tara Winer

Yates: One example of where this was an afterthought was when we were considering a gas tax on bigger trucks and SUVs. We did all this work and *then* someone thought of the impact on working-class folks.

How do we get that to happen sooner in the process? Or start with it?

Speer: I'm still struggling to conceptualize how the racial equity instrument works, or how it's used. A walkthrough would be helpful.

As far as I am aware, it's a set of questions that decision makers (like dept. heads) are framing before they ... make decisions. But perhaps it's evolved since then.

Speer: I'd also like to see budget for what we're spending on these efforts.

Matt Benjamin: How do we display this? Are we 1% of the way? 50% of the way? I'd love to be able to visit the city website and see those bars tick up as dept meet their goals.

"There's no visual, it doesn't seem like we can really see that tangible growth."

Friend: "We had some glitches with posting who completed the trainings. The previous council had committed to having that be public facing. Then we kind of walked that back."

That's all for this topic. I guess council was just providing feedback. We'll get answers to some of their questions (hopefully) at the next update in Feb-March

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!