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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 12/11/2018 - Memorandum From Janet Freeman And Tracy Ochsner Re: Gender Neutral Bathrooms And Equity Training1 Social Sustainability 222 Laporte Ave 2nd Floor 970.221.6758 MEMORANDUM DATE: December 5, 2018 TO: Mayor Troxell and City Councilmembers THRU: Darin Atteberry, City Manager Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Kelly DiMartino, Assistant City Manager Lucinda Smith, Interim Chief Sustainability Officer CC: Beth Sowder, Director, Social Sustainability FROM: Janet Freeman, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator, Social Sustainability Tracy Ochsner, Sr Manager, Facilities and Fleet RE: GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS AND EQUITY TRAININGS BACKGROUND On November 20th, City Council requested staff provide information about the status of existing gender neutral restrooms at City facilities and the status of equity trainings for staff, Council and executive leadership. GENDER NEUTRAL RESTROOMS Gender neutral restrooms are an integral step to help ensure the safety of people who identify outside binary gender designations. As such, the City’s internal LGBTQ+ team identified converting existing restrooms to gender-neutral as a best practice and has done some preliminary work regarding appropriate and effective signage in collaboration with CSU. CSU converted their single stall restrooms to gender-neutral in 2017. Signage is uniform across the university and was selected after a months-long process of engagement. (Image attached on last page). In addition, in 2016 the City of Denver incorporated into its building and fire codes a regulation that all single-stall restrooms be designated gender-neutral. Signage for those restrooms can vary. For more information see https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/denver-development-services/help-me- find-/building-codes-and-policies/gender-neutral-single-occupant-restrooms.html Inventory of Existing City Facility Restrooms The City of Fort Collins currently has 104 single stall restrooms known to be designated as unisex. Twenty-four of those are in facilities open to the public as well as employees, including 281 N. College and 215 N. Mason. Eighty-two of those are not available to the public. The City currently does not have a policy regarding requirements for provision of, or signage of, single stall restrooms. Current signage makes no specific designation of the restrooms as gender-neutral, but rather that they are for use by both males and females. (Image attached on last page). DocuSign Envelope ID: 4C21D7E9-8D21-4096-B890-B2A7F20A5C0E EQUITY TRAININGS Since 2015 the City has consistently offered various equity trainings, both internally and externally. Targeted participation and topic areas are as follows: Staff  Inclusion of transgender employees  Power and privilege  Unconscious bias  Racism and advancing racial equity  Equity in sustainability  Cross-cultural communications  Sexual harassment  Impacts of poverty  Respect  Allyship Leadership Race Equity and Leadership Training (REAL) 101  Identified by Councilmembers Horak and Overbeck to bring to Fort Collins after they attended the training at a National League of Cities (NLC) conference  Hosted by the National League of Cities  Comprehensive and shared understanding of the continued impacts of racism  Attended by the Mayor, Councilmembers, City Manager, Service Area Directors and their Direct Reports; and members of the City’s internal equity teams REAL 201 at NLC conference in Los Angeles November 2018 (attended by some Councilmembers and City Manager)  Focus on how local government can advance racial equity Police Trainings  All staff trained on unconscious bias  Staff is currently working with Chief Swoboda on potential trainings related to racial profiling ClimateWise  Curated trainings for local businesses  Lunch and learns hosted by City staff Community Members  Multicultural Community Retreat Training Next Steps In 2019, the equity steering committee will explore appropriate trainings to further develop staff capacity for advancing equity and inclusion, and how we might fund them. The REAL 101 and 201 trainings have provided core foundational knowledge and we look to leverage those learnings as we utilize expertise from the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) to further operationalize our efforts. DocuSign Envelope ID: 4C21D7E9-8D21-4096-B890-B2A7F20A5C0E City of Fort Collins Single Staff Restroom Signage Example CSU All Gender Restroom Signage DocuSign Envelope ID: 4C21D7E9-8D21-4096-B890-B2A7F20A5C0E