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Attachment A <br />Minutes Excerpt <br />March 18, 2019 <br />City Council Meeting <br /> <br />a. Government Alliance on Race and Equity Update <br />Assistant City Manager Olson briefly highlighted this item as detailed in the RCA <br />and related attachments dated March 18, 2019. <br /> <br />Councilmember Etten thought Ms. Olson was on the right path. He suggested if <br />hiring staff that reflects a community, then the City it is more likely to have <br />programs and services and actions that connect with that community. Because the <br />staffing and hiring process largely lays within the purview of staff who have done <br />the training versus the Council, he thought it would be something that would be <br />easier for staff as a group to own and take action on. <br /> <br />Councilmember Groff stated staff is on the right path and this is probably a lifelong <br />process for everyone and not something to be done in a year. He applauded the <br />goals and measurability the group has, noting it is one of the things that is so hard <br />to do in this field, but he thought Ms. Olson spelled out some ideas and he was very <br />hopeful and supported this. <br /> <br />Councilmember Laliberte thanked Ms. Olson for the presentation and the work that <br />the fourteen staff and the rest of the organization has done over the course of the <br />past year. She stated because some of these goals are aspirational, she thought it <br />would be interesting to see what the metric is for measuring success. <br /> <br />Councilmember Laliberte stated when Ms. Olson was talking about the hiring <br />process, the application process, the example was actually one of gender. She was <br />curious how hyper focused it will be to review policies, review applications, review <br />interview processes specifically for race because Ms. Olson went through this and <br />this is the goal because even with the City’s HRIE Commission, it is often talked <br />about renters and the seniors in the community who also need jobs these days. She <br />wondered how filtered that work will be or how inclusive/exclusive will that be. <br /> <br />Ms. Olson thought that was an excellent point and question. One of the things she <br />thought was very important is that this work, even though it leads with race, it does <br />include other areas that these tools can be applied to, not just with race. Although <br />the group will be looking for race, her guess is that when reviewing policies and <br />procedures, it will encompass groups other than people of color. <br /> <br />Councilmember Etten agreed and thought that when looking at the title, it is race <br />and equity and a lot of that equity tool frame is looking at how are different people <br />impacted that are outside of the majority. He thought the tool kit will get to those <br />things that might relate to gender, economics, or race. <br /> <br />Councilmember Willmus agreed with much of what his colleagues put forward and <br />that implementation certainly is long-term. He thought much of what is before the <br />Council is internal to the organization and those are things that the City can really <br /> <br />