To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Office of Equity, Human Resources
Staff Name and Phone Number: Melissa Valle (707)565-8631, Janell Crane (707)565-2885
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Racial Equity Action Plan Revisions
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Adopt the final Racial Equity Action Plan
end
Executive Summary:
On May 17, 2024, the Board of Supervisors accepted a staff report on the Racial Equity Action Plan and directed staff to implement the strategies included in it. Following this discussion and Board action, the Office of Equity made minor revisions to the sub-strategies and narrative of the Racial Equity Action Plan for clarity. This consent item presents a final version of the Racial Equity Action Plan with revisions incorporated across all attachments.
Discussion:
On May 17, 2024 the Board of Supervisors accepted a staff report <<https://sonoma-county.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6690571&GUID=84C66534-588D-49BF-BECF-ED31CF64F0AB&Options=&Search=>> on the Racial Equity Action Plan (Action Plan) from the Office of Equity and its Core Team Steering Committee, in collaboration with the Human Resources Department. The Board led a discussion of the proposed Action Plan (Attachment B -REAP Framework) and directed staff to implement the following County strategies as presented in the Action Plan.
1. Create capacity for equity work and expanding pipelines for hiring and career advancement.
2. Offer support and a structure for accountability for management at all levels to develop an understanding of racial equity principles and practices.
3. Invest in data collection and reporting systems to drive change that is responsive to staff experiences.
Following the Board approval of the Action Plan, Office of Equity staff made minor revisions to the Action Plan sub-strategies to reflect some suggested language changes and to enhance clarity.
Strategy Modifications
• Headline strategy 1, sub-strategy (a) has been updated from “Department Heads create staff capacity to operationalize equity work by:
1) Designating a Core Team 2.0 Liaison, and
2) Creating equity positions, or
3)Creating equity FTE allocations for existing staff.”
To now reflect changes in the third provision: “Department Heads create staff capacity to operationalize equity work by:
1) Designating a Core Team 2.0 Liaison, and
2) Creating equity positions, or
3) Redirecting capacity of existing staff.”
• Headline strategy 1, sub-strategy (c). has been updated from “Department Heads support and fund professional and leadership development opportunities to reach all staff, especially staff of color” to now say “Department Heads support and include in annual operational budgets resources to support professional and leadership development opportunities to reach all staff, especially staff of color.”
Additionally, minor language changes were also made to the Racial Equity Action Plan narrative (Attachment A - Racial Equity Action Plan) for clarity. All final versions of the document are published with this item.
Strategic Plan:
This item works in direct support of the Racial Equity and Social Justice pillar Goal 1, Objectives 2, 3, and 4, Pillar Goal 2, Objectives 1 and 2, Pillar Goal 3, Objective 3. The item also supports the Organizational Excellence Pilar Goal 3, Objectives 1, 2 and 3.
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Racial Equity and Social Justice
Goal: Goal 1: Foster a County organizational culture that supports the commitment to achieving racial equity.
Objective: Objective 2: Invest in an ongoing and continually developing racial equity learning program, including understanding the distinction between institutional, structural, interpersonal, and individual racism, for County leadership and staff by end of 2021.
Pillar: Racial Equity and Social Justice
Goal: Goal 1: Foster a County organizational culture that supports the commitment to achieving racial equity.
Objective: Objective 3: Conduct a baseline assessment by mid-2022 of racial equity awareness and understanding among County staff and develop a process to assess progress annually.
Pillar: Racial Equity and Social Justice
Goal: Goal 1: Foster a County organizational culture that supports the commitment to achieving racial equity.
Objective: Objective 4: Develop a shared understanding of key racial equity concepts across the County and its leadership.
Pillar: Racial Equity and Social Justice
Goal: Goal 2: Implement strategies to make the County workforce reflect County demographic across all levels.
Objective: Objective 1: Identify opportunities to enhance recruitment, hiring, employee development, and promotional processes to reflect the value of having the perspectives of people of color represented at all levels in the County workforce.
Pillar: Racial Equity and Social Justice
Goal: Goal 2: Implement strategies to make the County workforce reflect County demographic across all levels.
Objective: Objective 2: Implement countywide strategies to recruit, hire, develop, promote and retain County employees of color, produce an annual report card assessing progress, and update strategies as needed.
Pillar: Racial Equity and Social Justice
Goal: Goal 3: Ensure racial equity throughout all County policy decisions and service delivery.
Objective: Objective 2: Establish regular and publicly available reports on racial equity in County policies, programs, and services.
Pillar: Organizational Excellence
Goal: Goal 3: Become an employer of choice with a diverse workforce that reflects our community, and an employer with a positive work culture that builds engaged and developed employees.
Objective: Objective 1: Implement programs and identify opportunities to support employee work-life balance and a positive work environment, including a Telework Policy.
Pillar: Organizational Excellence
Goal: Goal 3: Become an employer of choice with a diverse workforce that reflects our community, and an employer with a positive work culture that builds engaged and developed employees.
Objective: Objective 2: Conduct an employee engagement survey by mid-2022, and based on survey data, develop and implement strategies to incorporate survey outcomes into future operational planning.
Pillar: Organizational Excellence
Goal: Goal 3: Become an employer of choice with a diverse workforce that reflects our community, and an employer with a positive work culture that builds engaged and developed employees.
Objective: Objective 3: Support employee professional growth and retention by investing in high quality training, development, and leadership programs.
Racial Equity:
Was this item identified as an opportunity to apply the Racial Equity Toolkit?
Yes
See attachment C.
Prior Board Actions:
• May 17, 2024: Received staff report on Racial Equity Action Plan and directed staff to implement the County strategies in the Action Plan.
• August 18, 2020: Established the Office of Equity.
• March 2, 2021: Approval of Sonoma County Five-Year Strategic Plan resulting in the creation of a Racial Equity and Social Justice Pilar.
• June 8, 2021: Approval of Professional Services agreement with Equity and Results, LLC for $391,900 for consulting services, over 3 years, for the development of Racial Equity Learning Program and competencies on Anti-racist Results-Based Accountability methodology. Agreement was later amended to increase the current contract total of a not-to-exceed amount of $431, 275 and extend the term of the agreement to June 30, 2024
• February 1, 2022: Received a Strategic Plan update, accepted Objective Implementation Plans, and approved Strategic Plan Funding recommendations which included $240,000 for OOE RESJ goal 1.
• June 13, 2022: Approval of professional services agreement with Equity First Consulting, LLC, for $218,000 for a 3-year term ending on June 30, 2025 to provide facilitation and strategic planning support for Office of Equity, Core Team and Steering Committee in the creation of a Racial Equity Action Plan.
• December 6, 2022: Approval of Office of Equity Vision Mission, and Values and update on the Racial Equity Learning Program, Close of Phase 1 and Phase 2 Core Team Steering Committee work.
• February 6, 2024: Received presentation from Human Resources regarding the status of recruitment efforts within the county.
• March 12, 2024: Adopted a Resolution Declaring Racism as a Public Health Crisis in Sonoma County which included a commitment to support the development, adoption, and implementation, of a countywide Racial Equity Action Plan that acknowledges, confronts, mitigates, and creates accountability for creating solutions for the pervasive damage caused by institutional, systemic, structural, and interpersonal racism within the County of Sonoma.
Fiscal Summary
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
N/A
Attachments:
Attachment A Racial Equity Action Plan_English
Attachment B Action Plan Framework_English
Attachment C: Racial Equity Analysis
Attachment D Racial Equity Action Plan_Spanish
Attachment E Action Plan Framework_Spanish
Attachment F: Racial Equity Analysis _ Spanish
Attachment G: Summary Report _ Spanish
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None.