Accept Updated Bureau Racial Equity Plans Report which updates the Racial Equity Plan process, approach, timeline, bureau Racial Equity submissions, and expectations for racial equity work across City governance
The Office of Equity and Human Rights asks the City Council to consider and accept the report “Updated Bureau Racial Equity Plans.”
This executive summary highlights the City of Portland’s enterprise-wide racial equity work. Racial Equity Plans serve as a roadmap for addressing barriers and disparities, providing equitable services, achieving equitable outcomes for community and staff, and accounting for and evaluating progress toward those outcomes. Under Administrative Rule 18.31, bureaus shall complete and submit a racial equity plan to the Office of Equity and Human Rights (Office of Equity), measure the collective actions detailed in each of their racial equity plans, and submit an annual report to the Office – all toward the goal of “greater accountability and community-wide efforts to achieve racial equity in our community.” With most bureau plans expiring in 2021, the City embarked on a new, more accountable process and outcome-based approach for updated Equity Plans.
The report provides an update on the Racial Equity Plan process, approach, timeline, updated bureau Racial Equity submissions, and expectations for future management of racial equity work across City governance. The Plans and acceptance by the City Council will give the City a tool for equitable performance and accountability systems and a foundation for how the City intends to address barriers and disparities and deliver equitable outcomes through policies, programs, and activities.
Official Record (Efiles)
Impact Statement
Purpose of Proposed Legislation and Background Information
The bureau Racial Equity Plan process was explicitly created and supported under Administrative Rule 18.31. The policy calls for bureaus to complete and submit a Racial Equity Plan and progress reports to the Office of Equity and Human Rights (Office of Equity). Since many Racial Equity Plans were adopted in 2016, most bureau plans expired in the Fall of 2021. The Office of Equity gathered internal feedback and formed a new, more accountable process in the next round of Racial Equity Plan updates. The approach introduces accountability into the planning process in three ways: (1) using equity-centered, Outcomes-Based Accountability (also known as Results-Based Accountability) to integrate a logic model and frame how existing or planned programs, policies, and actions address disparities and move the needle toward achieving racial equity; (2) submitting draft Racial Equity Plans for approval by Commissioners and City Council; and (3) providing a shared strategy and format for ongoing measurement, performance management, and annual reporting at a bureau and City level.
These Racial Equity Plans are intended to be “living” documents that can be built on and responsive to the needs and changes of community and the bureaus themselves. Bureau accountability is built into the data, performance, and reporting apparatus/system developed. The City is consistently working to understand how we measure equity and how the work of our bureaus impacts community. Community progress can be measured in the work of the bureaus – how programming and policy developed and directed by the government agencies improves the lived experiences of people in Portland. With ongoing management, the Office of Equity hopes to improve accountability, support data-informed decision-making, and provide greater transparency to communities on impact and progress toward achieving equitable outcomes.
The plans and subsequent management are an important step to support the ongoing implementation of a comprehensive equity strategy that uses the City and bureau policy, budgetary, programmatic, service-delivery, procurement, data-collection processes, grantmaking, public engagement, research and evaluation, and regulatory functions to enable the different bureau’s mission and service delivery to yield equitable outcomes and improve the lived experienced of all people in Portland, including underserved communities. The plans submitted in this report ensure compliance with the administrative rules and will guide bureaus through July 2025. Using the new framework, the aim of these transitionary plans is to merge Racial Equity Plans, Civil Rights Title VI Plans, and align with any strategic planning from 2025 onward.
Financial and Budgetary Impacts
There is no immediate budgetary impact to accept this report. The report is intended to update the work and practice of racial equity throughout the City.
There may be potential budgetary impacts depending on how bureaus choose to implement these plans and use to inform future decision-making. Ongoing performance management, tracking changes in racial equity plans, and continued alignment and integration with partner processes, most notably continued work with the City Budget Office Performance Team and Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Smart City PDX Team, should yield information about progress and impact, along with built-in layers of accountability that could facilitate or aid bureau budgeting decisions.
With the charter transition and our work with our partners towards a more unified model, comes the opportunity to embed the work of racial equity plans more meaningfully into City budgeting and operations. While there are currently no immediate budget implications for this report update, we hope this integration of equity, performance management, and the budget will become a cornerstone for City budgeting sessions.
Community Impacts and Community Involvement
This report discusses, at length, the ways community demands and needs have influenced the creation of racial equity plan work and how the bureaus developed outcomes to respond to those demands.
The city of Portland Resolution 381 – 2020 included a directive from City Council giving the Office of Equity and Human Rights authority to hold bureaus accountable to components of the Equity Toolkit and subsequent resources that prioritize Black, Indigenous, people of color, people with disabilities and other historically and presently oppressed communities. By moving from the goals and strategies listed in past racial equity plans to an outcomes-based accountability approach, guided by the concept of “targeted universalism,” with stronger, meaningful output and outcome measures, the Office of Equity hopes to improve accountability and provide greater transparency to communities on impact and progress towards achieving equitable outcomes.
Equitable outcomes are the conditions of well-being we want for our community. These conditions include the elimination or minimization of disparities in services, resources, or access in the City’s work to support diverse Portland communities, including people with disabilities, older people, racial and ethnic communities, immigrants, refugees, people who are LGBTQIA+ or two-spirit, and veterans, while also supporting and working towards longer-term solutions. This population accountability focuses on the well-being of whole populations within a jurisdiction, provides strategic and unifying alignment, and is a critical approach to determining progress towards a more equitable, just, and thriving future. While equity outcome starts with the condition of well-being for communities, outcomes also include recognition of a societal issue or racial and social injustices that have led to current inequities. If these issues didn’t exist or didn’t already exacerbate existing disparities, then the equity outcome would have already been achieved.
Community, including City employees, have been involved in the development of Racial Equity Plans from the beginning. Some evidence of that involvement and those efforts in the plan development process include:
The planning approach and framework for Racial Equity Plans was developed in response to community feedback during 2018 strategic planning stakeholder engagement.
Both internal and external stakeholders in Racial Equity Plan conversations included representatives from community-based orgs serving communities of color, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Bureaus were encouraged to look to community developed reports and plans as part of Racial Equity Plan development.
Community engagement was named as a key to inform all steps and components of plans and bureaus were encouraged to use their own community facing/community engagement activities, research and data to inform planning development.
100% Renewable Goal
Not Applicable
Document History
Item 991 Time Certain in December 6, 2023 Council Agenda
City Council
Accepted
- Aye (5):
- Mingus Mapps
- Carmen Rubio
- Dan Ryan
- Rene Gonzalez
- Ted Wheeler