Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 02/08/2016 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: February 8, 2016 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–6:00pm Committee Members Present: Committee Members Absent: Wade Troxell, Chair Gino Campana Kristin Stephens City Staff: City Staff Absent: Darin Atteberry, City Manager Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Jacqueline Kozak-Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer Dianne Tjalkens, Admin/Board Support Nalo Johnson, Grants Development Specialist Janet Freeman, Administrative Assistant Ray Martinez, Councilmember Kelly DiMartino, Assistant City Manager Heidi Phelps, CDBG/HOME Program Administrator Beth Sowder, Director of Social Sustainability Mike Beckstead, Chief Financial Services Ginny Sawyer, Policy and Project Manager Andrés Gavaldón, Strategic Finance Director Wendy Williams, Assistant City Manager Janet Miller, Assistant Human Resources Director Tyler Marr, Graduate Management Assistant Maureen McCarthy, Compliance Coordinator Mike Chavez, Firefighter II, Poudre Fire Authority Amy Lewin, Senior Transportation Planner Dan Weinheimer, Policy and Project Manager Holly LeMasurier, Director of Community Connections, FCMoD Invited Guests: Mary Ontiveros, CSU Community Members: Dale Adamy, citizen Kevin Jones, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce Myles Crane, Human Relations Commission Jordan Mrowinski, Summitstone Health Partners Nancy Tellez, Human Relations Commission Dierdre Sullivan, UC Health Alison Newman, UC Health Kat Laws, UC Health Deanna O’Connell, UC Health Jennifer Salvada, UC Health Alma Vigo-Morales, Diversity Solutions Group Wade Troxell called meeting to order at 4:05pm Approval of Minutes: Gino moved to approve the January minutes as presented. Wade seconded. Motion passed unanimously, 3-0-0. Think Tank Item 3-2016: Diversity & Inclusivity—Nalo Johnson, Mary Ontiveros & Janet Freeman Introduced Equity and Inclusion team with the City—includes community members and staff. Value Statement: A place where everyone feels valued, safe and connected. • Diversity: difference, elements include ethnicity, gender, orientation, etc. (numbers) • Equity: free from bias or favoritism (practices, policies, programs) • Inclusion: method of supporting diversity through equity (quality of efforts) Future Vision—sustainable, resilient, TBL • Environmental—CAP • Economic—bodies at table who speak to various demographics—reach broad segment of population • Social—vibrancy and investment Population Statistics • Census—90% white, 11% Hispanic/Latino o PSD enrollment—74% white, 18% Hispanic/Latino • One third families make less than $49K/year. Need $64K to be self-sufficient. • Wage Gap (m/f): 38% consistent over 15 years. • Larimer County—One of least diverse in state but becoming more diverse. o Senior population expected to increase 50-75% in next five years. o Populations of color in CO will increase 20% by 2050. • Boomers retiring, leading to greater employment opportunities, but more difficult to live and work in Fort Collins due to rising cost of living. Local Trends • Qualitative Data • Disparate Impact: unintended discriminatory consequences. o Ex: Disabilities. Disability average income $733/mth. Average wait for accessible unit is 6 months. Must be discharged from care facility to qualify for housing. • Attracting and Retaining people of color—difficulty feeling supported, prejudice at school, may not move to Fort Collins due to lack of diversity. o Inclusion Skills—HRC is facilitating community conversations. o Microaggressions—intent vs. impact. Anecdotal evidence. CSU students experience this more in community than on campus. o Bystander Intervention—pursue training, education, awareness around discrimination  Ex: Black History Month two years ago—speaker invited friend to talk at library. In Q&A citizen used n-word. No one said anything. • Action—became stepping off point for Principles of Community at CSU. 2 • People want to intervene but need training—prevent escalation. • Practice/courage • Challenges o Affordable Housing—impacts quality of life and employee retention—disparate impact on vulnerable populations o Built Environment—gentrification, Hispanic population—can they relocate in Fort Collins when sell? o Transportation—impacts resiliency, self-sufficiency, quality of life—Max does not extend to human service agencies in north Fort Collins. o Seniors—mobility, aging in place. o Homelessness—supportive services, LGBT youth esp. vulnerable o Child Care—impacts ability to live/work o African Americans have highest poverty rate in Fort Collins. Followed by Hispanic population. o 1960-2010 poverty rate decreased. o Will become “community of concern” (HUD) at 20% poverty. • Workforce should mirror demographics of city o 12% of City staff are people of color.  34 black employees at City. 11 classified, none in leadership roles.  Limits options for diversity points in policy setting and advising roles. o BFO teams prioritize offers. Include staff and citizens.  49 staff members, only 3 are people of color.  Seek equity in gender and race.  Underrepresentation. o Boards and commissions—time and resources needed to serve. o What to do:  Develop social equity policy, tools and trainings. Identify as organizational values in strategic plan.  Expand ways interact with community.  Alternative options for prioritizing resources for needs. Ex: ADA compliance. Current Initiatives • Equity Team—formed November 2015. o Promise Statement: City promises to steward a sense of social belonging for ALL in Fort Collins. o Identify stakeholders o Strategize engagement • ADA Compliance • Multicultural Retreat 2015 & 2016 • Community Engagement—HRC project • Trainings—Ex: SSD training for Bridges by Heidi Phelps • Human Relations Commission • Reduced Rate Programs • Bilingual community engagement liaison for hard to reach populations • SSD Strategic Plan o Equity and Inclusion theme area  Promote welcoming, inclusive community  Basic needs—equal access  Transportation options  Communication/education/outreach—internal and external 3 • City Strategic Plan—new equity/diversity/inclusion strategic goal • BFO Offer in Development—resourcing equity and inclusion study, FTEs to support the work Best Practices • Looking at other communities. • Longmont—banner campaign for belonging presented in multiple languages with photos of residents; salary bonus for multilingual employees who perform interpretation services. • Other communities: Eugene, St. Paul, Seattle, Portland o Office of Human Rights o Vendor outreach—minority owned companies o Pipeline training program for city jobs—targets low income youth and people of color. Networking and experiences. o Racial equity toolkit o Equity trainings for employees • City has opportunity to be facilitator and leader o Fort Collins scored 3 on STAR Community Assessment in Equity and Empowerment section. • Envision o Adoption of best practices o Partnerships with key organizations Ex: ICMA, National League of Cities, etc. CSU • Need to feel welcome and included in community. • Pay attention to difficult to reach. • Two communities in similar space—work together for common agenda. o PSD, hospital, CSU, etc.—collaboration critical • Focus groups for faculty of color found: o Recruitment okay. Harder to retain. o Difficult to get people to relocate here. Children of color harassed in school.  PSD concerned and working on problem.  School Board looking at equity and achievement gap.  Two years ago had 17 schools with no teachers of color; now only 6. • Need to resource effort or will stay conversations. • CSU definition of diversity—includes race and ethnicity, plus veterans, disability, culture, first generation status, familial status, gender identity/expression, geographic background, national origin, religion, socioeconomic status, etc. 17 dimensions in definition. o Major increase in students with disabilities—universal design, accessibility. o First generation—25% of students. Highest gap in graduation rate. o Familial status—more students coming from foster care, homelessness, lack of family, etc. o Gender Identity/Expression—new pronouns o Geographic background—coming from areas with cultures that vary more widely from US culture. o Religion—understanding necessary—university community is opportunity o Socioeconomics—many on financial assistance. Impacts housing/lifestyle/ transportation 4 Comments/Q & A: • Mary brings constructive perspective to CSU. Desire to be an understanding community and be welcoming for all. Open to dimensions/perspectives. World Class community/city/university—opportunities in dynamics between CSU and municipality. • STAR score is for community or City organization? o Community. Collaboration of City organization and community at large. • People clearly concerned about issue (demonstrated by attendance). Concern around education. Preaching to choir. How do we message to harder to reach? o Can’t require training. Finding more people signing up for trainings who have been in situations they didn’t know how to handle. Word of mouth. Create environment where it’s safe to learn/make mistakes together. Fear factor: no one wants to be labeled racist or ignorant. More news about communities that have problems. o Establishing equity and inclusion as cultural norm is critical. o Tool development—Allow people to interact with issues. Relate to everyday work. o University understands its mission/vision. But how? Developed Principles of Community to show how focus on research, teaching, access, engagement, etc. Shows how to interact with each other. Non-threatening. o Longmont has inclusion day to celebrate cultures. Support fosters equity norm and conversations. • How do you make people feel safe to have fair public dialogue? Avoid having people get “tagged” when use incorrect language? Disappointed that organization has underrepresentation in categories mentioned. But City is working hard. How do we move forward? Learn from those who have achieved. o Longmont—Did not have Hispanics attending museum. Targeted outreach led to popular/successful Day of the Dead exhibit. • Appreciate positive perspective, look at opportunities. Observation: tolerance is not as high as would like. Most people want to be supportive of diversity, but may fumble. City could have role to engage. Need campaign to deal with tolerance level. Ex: empower bystander, and recipient who receives intervention. What else can we do now? o Ex: When internet began—not a train leaving the station—a jet. Diversity and inclusivity is a jet. Need to be on it. Lot of work. Recognizing that not everyone will get on board. Critical mass is not 100%. Can make progress with less than 100%. o Tolerance is lowest common denominator.  Implies negativity.  Welcome, value and affirm. Cannot just welcome. Value what is said and affirm contribution. Not decoration.  Developing relationships. o How to get past anger?  For some is legitimate. Go deeper to find cause. o Methodologies—utilize multiple conversations in multiple communities: churches, schools, neighborhoods. Coordinated effort. Provide skills sets to leadership.  Strategies—Don’t want to see just conversations. Do something. • Trainings for business community. • How do you bring people in? Pipeline idea is active. Have people who are not exposed to university, cultural opportunities, unique aspects of city, programs, jobs, etc. Start early to engage. Don’t want separate group/underclass who is under-engaged and can’t 5 participate on boards and commissions. Community is better when everyone is engaged. Programs needed. o Community-wide dialogue for what “boxes” willing to provide (see equity slide). Not sure understand what all the “boxes” are.  Infrastructure.  Ex: Buying shoes—equal is everyone gets size 9 loafers. Equity is getting own needs met.  Equity may mean inequality somewhere else. Ambitious goals for CAP, RZW. Need to get similar movement here as well. o Actionable items— Dubuque, Iowa did community survey on equity.  Housing—People don’t want low income housing in their neighborhoods. Stereotypes. But in Fort Collins low income housing is well distributed and indistinguishable from other multifamily.  Compiling data, committees, talk. As part of committee identifying stakeholders and process. • Hate is imbedded in term ignorance. Learned through adoption process that ignorance is lack of knowledge, unawareness, inexperience, etc. Opportunity to learn. • Surprised by some of the data. Initial response is defensiveness. Demonstrate passions— world class. What does world class mean for people with disabilities, homeless, etc.? (Note: Executive team made up of 50% women). Peter Kageyama—co-creation— everyone has a voice and responsibility to community. o Story of major employer who lost Indian woman because she felt lonely. Future liability as competitive workforce. • If don’t resource, it won’t get done. Intentional. Priority. o Intentional daily. Not one time event. Practice. o Sustainable. o Cultural norm. • Community, government, CSU, PSD. Alignment in all institutions in city. Work together. Doing a lot through Neighborhood Services. Art of Neighboring. Honest and open. Love our neighbor. • Council has always had some diversity. People have voted for diverse Council members. DO: Next Steps • Conversations—important to address ignorance. Climbing ladder to tolerance, welcoming, affirming, etc. • Identify stakeholders. • Training and tools for organization and community. • All supervisors meeting on World Class for All. • Pipeline—engaging early—education/youth • Campaign (ex: It’s On Us) • Continue researching best practices • Intentional fostering of cultural norm • Prioritization/resources • Business training, PSD, hospital. Co-creatorship. • HRC continuing leadership Public Comment Myles Crane— • Engage Center for Public Deliberation in diversity conversations. • Since most people of color who are feeling disenfranchised speak Spanish, have Spanish speakers available to interpret at all City events. 6 • HRC outreach committee will have youth focused forums at library. Contact Beth Sowder for more info. Maureen McCarthy— • Standards of behavior, civility, respect, but people have to be able to share stories. • Must have strongest facilitators at public meetings. Channel anger and keep safe. • Exciting process. Other Business: NLC Preparation—Dan Weinheimer Room in the Inn was valuable experience. Edible Garden in Seattle. When Councilmembers attend, how do we leverage trips to be intentional in gathering best practices? Schedule learning sessions. Tyler Marr wrote descriptor of how to operationalize. What are best areas to focus learning? Three goals: legislative visits, conference, best practices. Busy agenda in meeting with agencies as well. Overview of Agencies • Federal level agencies—Loveland included in meetings • White House—Science and tech advisors rolling out city initiative • Staff members of legislation • Mayor’s Office—climate action/zero waste/inclusivity and diversity/solutions to homelessness/managing growth/core density/economic development/community identity/ housing affordability with growth • Focus? Comments/Q & A: • Areas DC is doing well? o Different style of government. Different constraints. Influence of federal government. High security. • Science and technology • Inclusivity and diversity. • Shared economy. • Better meeting—developing relationship with NLC so have more points of contact. o Clarence and his team. o Meet and greet.  September will be better opportunity. • Next time—CSU and City. o Interest/willingness. Identify issues and timing. • Dan will look into site visits. • Georgetown—recycling of food waste/organics o Ask Lucinda about waste diversion best practices in DC  Waste to energy  Zero waste plan Unscheduled Items Discussion: Area field sports—80% of people who play have to leave town. Large events not held here. Economic benefit to providing a complex/capability. Niche: high altitude training. Visit Fort Collins is involved. Bill and Holly Wright, Triple Crown Sports (Dave King). 7 • Was direction from Council years ago to move away from this focus. Additional needs: lighting, parking, etc. Difficulty for neighbors. Direction was less programming of fields and more open time. Relook at that assumption and model. • Property set aside for regional park? o New reservoir is new 100 acre regional park. o Bob Adams/Wendy Williams/ Kurt Friesen /Triple Crown/Arsenal-Storm • Economic health and strategy. Partner with UC Health and CSU. o Partner with hospital. o Visitors spend money in town. o Embed open areas in old gravel pits; less issue with lighting. Future Agenda Items • March: Shared Economy • April: Planning for Mountain Vista and Mulberry Corridor Update—Cameron Gloss • May: Community Architecture—Kiki Wallace (tentative) • June: Regional Wasteshed Discussion (tentative) Meeting adjourned at 6:12pm. 8