CC Minutes - 06/13/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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B. WORK SESSION: Race Priority Issue Action Plan City Manager Taylor introduced the item, noting that Human Resource and Risk Services Executive Director Lauren Chouinard would present the proposal action plan for the council's priority issue on race. Mr. Chouinard introduced several members of the team who worked with him on development of the action plan. He said the task of developing a race priority issue action plan was daunting because the direction from the council did not include details. He said that members of the team represented a wide range of experiences in diversity work and their approach acknowledged that diversity work focused on action as well as words and was both personal, public and institutional. He noted that the council typically established policy and delegated implementation to City staff; the action plan represented work tasks for council members individually and collectively. He reviewed the action plan, which included short- and long-term outcomes, identified several initiatives that represented ongoing work in the community regarding race and race relations and set forth specific action steps to be taken. Mr. Poling called for questions and comments. Ms. Bettman commented that the council had a long discussion at its process session regarding goals. She said that the goals represented priorities for the City organization, which would go forth and implement them. She asked why the team took the approach that race priority was primarily a council issue. She said that education and outreach to the council was a good idea but one of the reasons the issue was raised by the council was the existence of unresolved organizational issues. She cited racial profiling as an example. She asked how the action plan would address those issues. Mr. Chouinard replied that the plan did not directly address those issues but rather illustrated the work that was going on; the council could identify more work to be undertaken or redirect staff efforts if it wished. He said that the nature of the council's discussion was interpreted to mean the council wished to have a discussion around race and race relations so it could make a statement to the community, which was why the plan reflected work at the council level. Mr. Pryor stated that the plan was a good start and established several important points regarding race, including increasing awareness and building and enhancing relationships. He said that it was not clear how to proceed beyond the plan in order to create substantive impact in the area of race relations, such as creating more participation and enfranchisement in the process. He noted that the outcomes did not include establishing systems whereby people from different cultures and backgrounds were actually a part of the process and wanted the plan to include outcomes regarding the creation of processes that allowed people to be involved in decisions that affected their lives. Ms. Ortiz acknowledged that the subject of race and diversity was difficult to discuss because often people became defensive. She liked the plan and felt that the council was responsible for setting the tone for the community and a conversation at the council level was important. She was concerned that the list of current initiatives described in the plan did not necessarily mean the City organization was committed to that particular issue. She said that there needed to be more than just conversations but was not certain how success was defined. Mr. Kelly appreciated the work on the action plan but said that race and race relations were very deep emotional issues. He liked the tasks for the Mayor and council as it was important for leadership to set the MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 13, 2005 Page 3 Work Session