CC Minutes - 08/08/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor Piercy suggested that that the Communities of Color process needed to be an ongoing one. City Manager Taylor said that the City used to do so, but it was generally focused at the executive level. The proposed plan envisioned a richer discussion involving more people, including the elected officials. Mayor Piercy suggested the City ask the affected communities how often such an event should occur. Mayor Piercy called for questions and comments from the council. Ms. Ortiz said she participated in several Community of Color events and found them to be both painful and frustrating as no progress seemed to be made in response to the input and criticism offered at those events. People often used the opportunity to tell the City what it was doing wrong and there was no opportunity for dialogue. She hoped another format could be found. Ms. Ortiz asked if the job description for the diversity consultant was on the City’s Web site. Mr. Chouinard said yes. City Manager Taylor noted his hope the position resulted in more retention of employees. Ms. Bettman expressed appreciation for the changes made to the plan and said she looked forward to participating in the privilege training. Ms. Bettman thought it a good strategy to involve boards and commissions in the diversity training. She suggested a complementary piece would be the development of a strategy to actively and specifically seek the same input from communities of color that the City sought from the community in general. Ms. Bettman liked the element of the plan regarding the council’s collective reaction to acts of racism in the community and found it important. She asked how that could be implemented, as she usually heard about racially related incidents long after they occurred. There did not seem to be a process in place to alert councilors about incidents so that they could react or collectively take a stand. She suggested that be incorporated into the objective. Ms. Bettman asked about the participation rate for optional courses. Mr. Chouinard said it was quite good. The City had so many training requirements that it did not want to overwhelm staff. Staff was also evaluated on its participation in such extra trainings. Mr. Kelly thanked staff for the changes made to the action plan, which he considered generally positive additions. He thought it important for the council adopt such a plan, but he wished he was happier with the plan, and looked forward to revisiting it. Mr. Kelly believed the plan continued to be weak in regard to the community and organizational elements, and cited as an example of the organizational element the lack of any mention of the organization’s response to the recent evaluation of the City’s diversity elements. He suggested that an action item stating that the organization would respond to the issues raised in the evaluation was needed. Mr. Chouinard said the two diversity consultants would be meeting with the executive managers in September as part of the follow-up. Mr. Kelly hoped the council would hear something about that. With regard to the community element, Mr. Kelly said if the City decided that outreach that cost money was a good thing, the document lacked mention of any way for it be funded. He also called for organizational and community outcomes as well as mayor and council outcomes. MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 8, 2005 Page 8 Work Session