Thread by @shayshinecastle

Hello, #Boulder. Prepare yourself for a v lackluster night of tweeting from me as city council discusses
- Efforts made on racial equity over the last year
- East Boulder subcommunity planning (which is almost done)

Oh, and a quick update on the library district process.

Reminder that next week's meeting will be in person for council and staff. The public is (probably) returning May 17.

First up: What progress has been made on Boulder's racial equity plan in its first year after adoption?

Staff presentation: documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

This also includes the first-ever look (at least that I've seen) of the city's racial equity instrument which is supposed to (eventually) guide all city decisions: for spending, for policy, for programs.

It's a 13-page document with a bunch of questions. Which you can see here: boulderbeat.news/wp-content/upl…

OK, on to the progress. They're broken out by goal, of which there are 5:
- Everyone gets it
- Justly do it
- Community commitment
- Power to all the people
- Representation matters

Under "Everybody gets it" — which is to make sure everyone understands equity, systemic racism, how to make change, etc. — the action items have been mostly training.

All council members have attended Advancing Racial Equity: The Role of Government training

6 council members have attended bias and microaggression training (to be completed by 2022)

987 city employees completed Role of Gov’t training - 75% of survey responses they have better understanding of “ways in which gov’t has perpetuated racism”

455 city employees completed bias and microaggression training - mandatory for all employees, city council and volunteers

(Volunteers include board and commission members)

20 board/commission members have completed bias and microaggression training

177 employees have completed Racial Equity Instrument training

OSMP, library pilot equity assessments and JEDI teams
(JEDI = Justice, Equity, Diversion and Inclusion)

Goal 2: Justly do it
97 vaccine doses distributed in Civic Area, mostly unhoused residents

352 doses at Crest View, Orchard Grove - 65% Latinx or Hispanic

“City dept screened budget requests using questions from the Rapid Response Racial Equity Assessment”

That's different from the full racial equity instrument. It's still questions, but just a few pages instead of 13.

Community connectors hired for flood and stormwater master plan update

Hiring of bilingual Revenue agent in sales tax and biz licensing

Sales tax website translated into Spanish

Spanish added to voicemail and email responses from sales tax/biz licensing

Again, those were all under the Justly Do It goal

Goal 3: Community Commitment
Biz licensing renewal language in Spanish and Nepali

Penfield Tate II renaming of municipal building, mural on library

Funding for documentary “This is (Not) Who We Are”

Work on land acknowledgement

City hosted housing symposium

Also, one that made me lol: Council has issued 13 declarations with topics promoting diversity, equity and multiculturalism

I know declarations can be meaningful, but counting them as "work" on racial equity is... something.

Words are words; actions are actions.

Anyway, Goal 4: Power to all the people
Translation for 12 council meetings (Spanish) plus ASL and Bosnian for 1 meeting

Spanish materials and interpretation, efforts for East Boulder subcommunity planning

13 bilingual cultural connectors did weekly COVID meetings

Goal 5: Representation matters
Bilingual recruitment of boards and commissions

Spanish-speaking HRC member appointed

Personal info redacted from board/commission application info before posting

That last one is important bc it may keep some folks from applying; an applicant a couple years ago (who I interviewed) raise the issue for survivors of DV or stalking.

I didn't capture ALL the actions that the city has done on racial equity; just the "big" ones and/or the ones that didn't require a ton of translation for ya'll.

But anyway, that's what we've been doing on racial equity.

Now on to plans for 2022.

Everybody gets it
- 40% of staff, all new employees attend Role of Gov’t training
- 4 live workshops on racial equity instrument training
- All city staff and council members will attend bias and microaggression training

Justly do it
- 5 case studies on use of the racial equity tool will be created and shared
- Use tool on at least 3 grant or funding programs
- ID procurement processes which can use the tool
- Embed racial equity analysis in 2023 budget

Also, 18 of 19 dept will have JEDI teams: OSMP, Planning, Community Vitality, Arts, City Manager, City Attorney, Climate Initiatives, Communications, Finance, Fire, Police, Facilities & Fleet, IT, Municipal Court, Parks & Rec, Utilities, Transportation, Biz Services

Community Commitment
- ID how many CU, Naropa students are participating in city meetings and applying for positions
- Work with Community Foundation and other agencies to ID, implement strategies
- City-funded Juneteenth celebrations

Power to all the people
- Complete inventory of barriers to communities of color participating publicly
- 100% of board commission members complete bias and racial equity training
- Translate documents and web pages, translate engagement opportunities

Representation matters
- Establish goal for POC, women of color hired by the city
- Update hiring policies, ensure they’re not based on quotas alone
- 100% of hiring managers trained on bias and microaggression
- Understand why employees of color leave the city

"Leadership from council is being noticed" on these issues, says Taylor Reimann says, citing survey results from community connectors. (V small # of folks)

That feels like a good counterpoint to my criticism about declarations. Words may be just words, but at least council is doing them... and a lot of them.

"We're still normalizing language and understanding," says Aimee Kane, equity manager. "We are also leaning heavily into operations," and will continue to do so over the next year.

Another good point, and that goes to Goal 1: Everybody gets it. There has to be an education process first to make sure folks in the city understand systemic racism and equity issues and therefore supports future work.

Benjamin: Is there some sort of minimum you'd like to set to see if dept are meeting goals for the JEDI teams?

Kane: We requested that each dept provide at least one person interested in being an equity ambassador.

I wonder if the JEDI team has patches. I would join one to get a JEDI patch.

"We had ample people raising their hands and saying, 'I want to be a part of this,'" Kane says.

Speer: Is there a plan, or when will we move to trainings that are BIPOC specific for folks to go and be in a safer place? "Putting ppl who've been victims of racism into a group" with others "is sometimes really traumatic."

Kane: No BIPOC specific trainings planned at this time, but we're working on affinity spaces and some other employee resources, here in the next quarter.

Speer: Can folks of color opt out of these trainings?
Ana Silvia Avendanol: Everyone goes through this journey, including people of color. We have biases as well. It's not seeing ourselves as victims, but providing a space to be validated and support each other as colleagues.

"There's sensitivity around it, and there's intentionality," Avendañol says. We're not just creating groups because they sound like a good idea. We want to make sure they're providing support.

Speer: What is the shining star for departments? Where are they trying to get to?

Kane: That's what the JEDI team is partly for, to determine what the work is for each dept. For some, it's just needing to talk about these things more. It will be dif for all of them.

I should clarify: Talking about DEI issues more *to start with*

Joseph: As a POC who has gone through these trainings, "sometimes you leave not feeling better but feeling worse."

Avendañol: This can be a space for our colleagues of color to share what we've been through. We're having more facilitators of color jump in and say they want to lead or be part of this.

"But it is totally up to you how much you want to share and not share. It is about you."

Joseph asking a q about the two racial equity instruments: The full one and the rapid one.

Again, the rapid response one is 2 pages, 4 questions. It's for when $$ was coming available and decisions had to be made quickly.

Like during COVID. It's being used less now, Kane says. We're pointing dept more to the full equity assessment.

There are also dept assessments, Kane says.

Kane: "It's a handbook for dept as they start their JEDI work. It's a step by step process, 'Use this resource for this. Here's how you have conversations with your colleagues.'"

Folkerts: How are we getting feedback internally or externally to know how our progress on this important issue is going?

Kane: We're hoping to repeat our community perception survey in 2023 so we can compare to the 2019 baseline. Also an employee engagement survey or something similar.

Quick correction: Avendaño's name is, well, that, and not Avendañol. I mistook a punctuation mark for an L. My apologies.

Friend: "It's going to be difficult to move forward without community buy-in. Racism and implicit biases die hard." What are we doing externally?

Kane: "This is systemic change we need to do across the community." I spend a lot of time meeting with service groups and explaining our work. "You all as policy makers and ambassadors have to be involved in those conversations."

Winer: I remember the bias and micro aggression training from when I was on the parks board. It was life-changing.

Winer going over some of the 2021 achievements she's excited about.

It was a Top 10 list, which I appreciate.

Brockett: I've found the community connector program "to be so powerful. Getting that active outreach and hearing from them directly, I've found it incredibly helpful."

The more we can get a racial equity analysis, on a topic by topic basis, the better off we will be, Brockett says. Is it possible to have a sense as we deal with each topic how much we've analyzed these issues?

The city already kind of does this for other things, like financial, environmental, social, etc

That is, every time council discusses something, in their packet staff notes the implications of the topic through each of those lenses.

I would be super open to adding a fourth lens, Brockett says, on racial equity.

Speer: In all these materials, I don't see where there is accountability for us as city council to take equity into account during our decision making. I feel like it's missing. Maybe it's at the ballot box...?

Benjamin: We need to get to the point where this work is foundational to our institutions.

Joseph praising the community connector program. "I really hope other cities will learn from us."

I believe this is modeled on a program that started in Boulder COUNTY. Specifically, Carmen Ramirez and now-commissioner Marta Loachamin.

commfound.org/blog/riding-ro…

I interviewed them a few years ago (when I was still at the Camera) but never had time to turn it into a story, to my very great regret.

Folkerts: I have to admit, I'm more excited about the next steps, about what happens after we evaluate departments and make changes in policies, etc.

"For me, that's the work that ... has the biggest impact to create change."

Friend revisiting her earlier point: "If we're moving in a way the community doesn't agree with, our work can be undone by ballot measures or people getting voted out. We have to bring the community along, or it won't have long-term impact."

"We may need to dig deeper with our constituents. We all need to work hard to build that bridge," Friend says.

That's the end of this topic.

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