As a result of the feedback provided at the African American meetings,the City Council and Budget and Audit Committee  took the following actions:

• 4/27 Mayor and Council commit to taking action on diversity and inclusion

• 5/10 Mayor Pro-Tern Carr (Council) directed City Auditor, with assistance from independent Budget Analyst, to conduct assessment of the diversity of City of Sacramento employees compared to demographics of Sacramento residents.

• 5/17 Councilmember Warren asks Auditor to emphasize Police Department and $1M diversity expense 6/9 Budget and Audit Committee reviews preliminary audit data

• 7/19 Budget  and Audit Committee  reviews final audit and key findings

• 8/4 Council receives final audit and requests City Manager to develop recommendations

• 9/6 Mayor and City Manager (Director of Human Resources) presents recommendations

The group talked about what is working well in the City and what is not. The Mayor and Councilmembers assured the group of the opportunity to address and rectify the situation.  Follow up meetings with the group were held on May 23^rd, June 22^nd, July 11^th  and August 22^nd  which resulted in feedback from employees,  action items and Council recommendations for improving diversity in the City of Sacramento.

Listed are the challenges and opportunities raised by the group:

• Lack of overall diversity. City workforce does not reflect the community
• Little or no representation in management
• Lack of diversity in public safety, particularly command
• Unfair treatment and discrimination. There are different standards
• Salary and pay equity issues
• Cultural challenges within the organization
• Diversity is not a priority
• Implicit bias in hiring decisions
• No mechanism to train or mentor individuals for positions
• No upward mobility
• People are not aware of management openings; don’t even try for promotions
• Lack of training inside and outside of City Hall for recruitment
• No way to monitor/track progress
• Lack of diversity in procurement and business contracting
• No infrastructure for employees to communicate or advocate to management
• Concern over new City Manager hiring process and understanding of his/her priorities

Opportunities

• Create an action plan;”Diversity and inclusion plan”
• Install accountability  in the plan policies with goals,benchmarks, and timelines
• Create professional development and mentorship programs
• Develop trainings and recruitment programs
• Develop hiring panels for staff to participate
• Improve communications between management and staff
• Create a permanent 3rd part grievance system to ensure process
• Create ways to facilitate conversations/dialogue about staff issues
• Utilize all staff meetings to discuss diversity issues
• Create vehicle for African American staff participation to carry out plan and advocate
• Evaluate best practices within city departments
• Enhance outreach/recruitment at events throughout the city
• Utilize outside groups (Urban League, Observer, NAACP, SETA,colleges/universities)
• Become a model for other cities
• New City Manager and team must value diversity

52 African American employees attended a Black History Month Mixer at Sandra’s Dee’s hosted by Mayor Johnson. At that mixer and through this networking opportunity workplace concerns arose and staff requested a future meeting with the mayor to discuss the issues.