2021.07.27 WS Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Rn•INEW IAA BRIGHTON building tomorrow today Council Worksession July 27, 2021 5:00 pm Present: Mayor Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas Councilmember Abdullahi Abdulle Councilmember Graeme Allen Councilmember Pam Axberg Councilmember Emily Dunsworth Absent: Staff in Attendance: Devin Massopust, Ben Gozola Guests in Attendance: Lisa Tabor, Tom Danoway Review of City DEI Initiatives with Lisa Tabor, CultureBrokers and Devin Massopust Massopust introduced Lisa Tabor from CultureBrokers to the City Council. Lisa Tabor, CultureBrokers, provided the Council with an update on the City's initiatives with respect to DEI. She explained her purpose was to set up a governance structure and management function that helps the City achieve racial equity both now and into the future. She explained the DEI Consultancy Strategy Team was launched in July and the members of the team were listed. She reported this team would be developing a DEI philosophy and equity statement, beginning to plan for the DEI Commission Charter and would advise on the DEI next steps for the City. Mayor Niedfeldt-Thomas asked if all of the team members were City staff members. Ms. Tabor reported this was the case. Mayor Niedfeldt-Thomas requested the DEI Director position be changed to DEI Coordinator. Ms. Tabor noted she would make this correction. Councilmember Axberg inquired what the status was on the hiring for this position. Massopust reported the City has not posted for this position,but the job description has been finalized. Councilmember Abdulle thanked Ms. Tabor for her update. He understood equity work was very difficult and would take a great deal of coordination between staff, elected officials and community members. He questioned how Ms. Tabor could have standardized processes for this work when equity was always evolving. He stated he supported the creation of the DEI Consultancy Strategy Team and suggested this team remain in place or evolve into a permanent DEI internal staff work group. He asked when and how the public would be involved in the DEI process. Ms. Tabor stated the standardized approaches she was talking about were processes that worked most often for just about any organizations. She found it worked well to engage the community around specific questions that lead to a result. She explained she liked the idea of the DEI Consultancy Strategy Team converting into a diverse staff work group in the future. She indicated she would be working with the DEI Consultancy Strategy Team to draft an equity statement that would be sent to the