Title
Recommendation to Approve Staff’s Approach to Developing a City of Alameda Race and Equity Action Plan for the Organization, including Joining the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE). (City Manager 2110)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
At the July 28, 2020 City Council meeting, City Council adopted a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis. This resolution included direction to staff to develop initial and ongoing actions to address this crisis. Staff has initiated a proposed process to develop a comprehensive Race and Equity Action Plan for the City of Alameda (City) including joining the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and working with the organization, Fair and Impartial Policing, LLC (FIP). Further, Staff is exploring the possibility of joining the Alameda County District Attorney’s 3-D Alternative to Arrest Pilot Program, which is designed to provide law enforcement the ability to link applicable individuals to behavioral health services as an alternative to arrest. Staff will continue to develop partnerships as well as work with the newly formed community-led Steering Committee and taskforce committees to develop and implement the Race and Equity Action Plan.
BACKGROUND
Since June 2020, the City Council and a City Council committee have met several times to discuss issues related to systemic racism. At the July 28 2020 meeting, City Council adopted a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis.
This declaration recognizes that racism causes persistent discrimination and disparate outcomes in many areas of life, including housing, education, employment and criminal justice and can be a social determinant of health, including possible worsened health outcomes. The resolution also acknowledges that communities of color and specifically Black communities have borne the burden of inequitable social, environmental, economic, and criminal justice systems and that the legacy of these inequitable systems has caused deep disparities, harm, and mistrust and that racial equity is only realized when race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes.
Developing a plan to address issues of systemic racism is one of the seven areas of action to which City Council committed as part of creating an equity and justice oriented city. Other areas described in the resolution and which may be covered by the City’s Race and Equity Action Plan include, but are not limited to, promoting equity and justice through all policies, enhancing educational efforts aimed at understanding, addressing, and dismantling racism, assessing internal policies and procedures to ensure racial equity is a core element, advocating for policies that improve health in communities of color and supporting local, state, and federal initiatives that advance social justice, encouraging individual member advocacy to dismantle systemic racism, and building alliances and partnerships with other organizations that are confronting racism.
DISCUSSION
Staff is developing a Race and Equity Action Plan to foster and ensure a safe and inclusive workplace for employees and that a race and equity lens is used to inform the City’s policies and programs. The City will engage partner agencies who specialize in anti-racism work as well as the newly formed Steering Committee and taskforce committees to inform the Race and Equity Action Plan.
As a first step, staff has identified several partners who will be able to provide resources and guidance as staff implements this program and staff will work to identify additional partners as this process moves forward. These partner agencies, who are experts, is a key initial step in the process. Staff has successfully applied for membership to the GARE. Staff is also working on a partnership with an organization called, FIP in order to build staff capacity in areas of anti-racism and implicit-bias-awareness work. This work program will be supplemented by a possible partnership with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office’s pilot program to provide law enforcement with an alternative to arrest by linking applicable individuals to behavioral health resources. In addition, the City’s Recreation and Parks Commission has commenced efforts related to equity and inclusion in the parks and programs provided by that Department.
Government Alliance on Race and Equity
GARE is a national network of government organizations working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all. The City is now a member of GARE, which means that, consistent with Council’s direction, staff has made the commitment to advancing racial equity across the breadth and depth of this jurisdiction.
GARE helps government organizations to develop a “pathway for entry” into racial equity work and supporting and building local and regional collaborations that are broadly inclusive and focused on achieving racial equity. GARE believes that to eliminate racial inequities, it is necessary to develop a collective approach firmly grounded in community and that government can play a key role in collaborations for achieving racial equity, centering community, and leveraging institutional partnerships at the local and regional level. While GARE is an outcomes-and solutions-oriented partner, the organization is clear in its work with government that in order to advance racial equity, government needs to recognize the historical legacy of government having created and maintained racial inequity, explicitly from the foundation of our country, and implicitly for the last half a century. GARE and its members strategically build the capacity of local government to eliminate institutional and structural racism.
As a GARE member, the City participates in regular meetings and has reviewed many of the resources GARE provides to its members. GARE’s framework for change includes a path for jurisdictions to normalize concepts around race and equity and to operationalize those concepts into ongoing processes and policies. The City will engage GARE staff to assist with the following as a priority:
- developing the City’s Race and Equity Action Plan;
- developing and administering an employee equity assessment; and
- delivering a racial equity training curriculum, which includes a “train the trainer” component. A list of the workshops that GARE provides is included as an attachment (Exhibit 2).
Recognizing that GARE membership and services are in high demand at this moment in time, staff is still coordinating with GARE regarding staff availability and formalizing a work plan.
Fair and Impartial Policing
FIP provides implicit-bias-awareness training to law enforcement agencies across the country at all levels of government. FIP is led by Dr. Lorie Fridell who is a national expert on bias and policing, in conjunction with her role as a professor of Criminology at the University of South Florida, and a former Director of Research at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).
FIP provides training targeted in the following areas:
- Recruit and Patrol Officer Training;
- First-Line Supervisor Training (Police Sergeants);
- Mid-Management Training (Police Lieutenants);
- Command Training (Police Captain, Police Chief); and
- Command/Community Training (Command staff along with Community stakeholders).
Concurrent with staff’s work with GARE, the City’s police department is in the process of coordinating with FIP for ongoing staff training.
At this time, the City is working on the following:
- Supporting the community-led steering committee and taskforces, as necessary
- Participating as a member of Government Alliance on Race and Equity
- Engaging GARE to assist with developing an Action Plan
- Coordinating with GARE to provide educational workshops to build a foundation and capacity in topics pertaining to race and equity for all employees in the organization
- Coordinating with Fair and Impartial Policing to provide public safety staff with nationally recognized implicit-bias-awareness training
- Developing City staff committee to support the development and implementation of a Race and Equity Action Plan
- Ongoing research and strategic meetings (City staff) regarding initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Engaging a consultant to collaborate with Recreation and Parks staff and engage the community with a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan for the Recreation and Parks Department
Staff plans to present the draft Race and Equity Action Plan to City Council at a future meeting, but will begin with the education and training components in the next quarter.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
It is anticipated that the cost of developing and implementing the Race and Equity Action Plan will be approximately $75,000 to support the cost of training and partnerships. Staff will include the budget adjustments needed to support this program in the October budget update to City Council on October 20, 2020.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is in conformance with the Alameda Municipal Code and all policy documents.
CLIMATE ACTION
The City’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP) includes a discussion about equity. Further training for staff and the community will help advance CARP implementation using the equity lens.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action is not a project under California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines, section 15378(b)(4).
City Manager Recommendation
The City Manager recommends the Council authorize staff to continue its efforts on the development of a Race and Equity Action Plan for the Organization.
Respectfully submitted,
Sabina Netto, Sr. Human Resources Analyst
Gerry Beaudin, Assistant City Manager
Exhibits:
1. GARE Member Packet
2. GARE Training Modules
3. GARE Theory of Change Model
4. Fair and Impartial Policing Summary
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager