After almost two years of work, the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) adopted the Racial Equity Action Plan at a meeting on Tuesday, November 28.
It was the first meeting at which newly sworn-in Commissioner Emily Clouse (District 4) was present. She voted along with incumbent Commissioners Gary Edward, Carolina Mejia and Tye Menser to approve the plan.
District 5 Commissioner-elect Wayne Fournier continued to serve as mayor of Tenino until he led the city council meeting that evening. He was sworn into office by Commissioner Mejia after resigning his seat after the city council meeting.
Thurston County Racial Equity Program Manager Devi Ogden presented the plan to the board and residents. Ogden said they would share the plan on the county’s website and summarize it to the audience.
Thurston County declared racism a crisis on March 9, 2021, through Resolution No. 15995. In August of the same year, the county hired a Racial Equity Program Manager, and in December, the BoCC approved Resolution No. 16097, which established the Thurston County Council on Racial Equity and Inclusion. In the spring of 2022, the county began recruiting council members by reviewing applications in July.
The plan has five phases—Diagnosis, Analysis, Strategic Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring for Sustainability.
The county is currently in Phase 1, Diagnosis. Ogden said the county is in a phase where “people recognize policies and practices don’t serve the intersectionality of community members.”
“Phase 1 of this plan lays a foundation on understanding equity, understanding racism, discrimination and the inequities and barriers that exist in governance, and how we can work to identify those barriers and build trust between our government and our community members to effectively make change,” said Ogden.
The plan has three goals with corresponding strategies:
The plan also includes performance and accountability measures to be transparent to every person included in the work.
The next steps of the plan would be for the Racial Equity Program Manager to meet with each Equity Lead, update the Racial Equity public webpage, onboarding new members to the Racial Equity Council, identify projects and develop plans for community engagement, and meet with community organizations and neighboring jurisdictions.
“Thank you to the members of our Racial Equity Council – they have committed to supporting the efforts of the county and the members have been eager to provide advocacy and guidance to the board on this work,” said Ogden.
The pioneering members of the committee, composed of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) residents, are Juliet Lawson-Hall, Dr. Auzimuth Jackson, Keoki Kauanoe, Marlon Wakefield, Jason Clark, and Evelyn Clark. New members include Anthony Draper, Kamilah Keyes-Brown, Mark Harvey, Deborah Sioux Lee, and Floyd Chapman.
Ogden also thanked residents and community organizations who worked alongside them on the plan.
5 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
FordPrefect
This is a perfect recipe spending public money that will provide no tangible benefit to the community.
1. Declare that racism is a systemic crisis without providing any verifiable evidence.
2. Form a council and hire a manager whose employment is contingent on perpetuating the appearance of a crisis.
3. Implement every recommendation made by the racial equity council, because all who dissent will risk being labeled as “racist”.
4. Broaden the scope of the program and repeat steps 1 through 3.
Friday, December 1, 2023 Report this
Southsoundguy
All of this rhetoric and ridiculous policy is from Seattle circles circa ten years ago. It was trash then and it’s trash now. This is pandering, signaling to Seattleites “look at us, move here because we are diverse.” The commissioners are further selling out authentic community for political clout and it is gross. There is an increasing probability that within 10-15 years, the south sound will have zero meaningful connection to its true history. Instead, everything will become some kind of communist retelling, in which all the white people are evil. Meanwhile, government will have expanded, people will have even fewer property rights, and city areas will be dirtier and more lifeless than ever.
Friday, December 1, 2023 Report this
FordPrefect
Can anyone cite a single example of a federal, state, county, or municipal law, bylaw, code, ordinance, or measure currently in effect that discriminates based on someone’s race, religion, or gender?
Friday, December 1, 2023 Report this
JW
Can we declare an incompetency crisis at the building development center too?
Friday, December 1, 2023 Report this
Kruz81
This is another waste of time and money. These programs cannot produce actual action plans or any tangible results ever. None of the "issues" can even be measured or factually identified. These are all feel good measures for people who are in general confused about what to do. At some point we might see these errors and stop it all like other states have been smart enough to.
Friday, December 1, 2023 Report this