A. Why did we make these plans?
Racial Equity Plans are roadmaps for addressing barriers and disparities, providing equitable services, achieving equitable outcomes for community and staff, and accounting for and evaluating progress toward those outcomes. 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 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.”
In July 2015, Portland City Council unanimously adopted Citywide Racial Equity Goals and Strategies as binding City Policy. The Office of Equity used the Racial Equity Goals and Strategies to develop guidance for City bureaus to create their own five-year Racial Equity Plans later required under Administrative Rule 18.31. The former Citywide Equity Committee created a Racial Equity Roadmap assessment based on existing national efforts to inform strategic plans for racial equity. In January 2016, the Office of Equity published a Racial Equity Plan Manual detailing how to complete a template for bureaus to share progress towards achieving the City’s vision of racial equity. The Manual also included direction on selecting leads and core teams for racial equity plan design and process.
While the Manual included an assessment to provide to the Office of Equity on an annual basis, oftentimes the plans were neither updated nor maintained beyond the two-year mark. Based on feedback from current Equity Managers and Practitioners, plans were exhaustive and unrealistic, with goals that felt unachievable or could not be accurately tracked over time. For some bureaus, initial plans focused on internal policy changes or actions rather than people-centric equitable outcomes. In addition to a rigid format, the plans were also resource-intensive to maintain and were not supported in a way that led to meaningful results.
Since many Racial Equity Plans were adopted in 2016, most expired in the Fall of 2021. The current plans will guide bureaus through July 2025. Using a new outcomes-based accountability framework, the aim of these transitionary plans is to merge Racial Equity Plans, Civil Rights Title VI plans, and bureau strategic planning from 2025 onward.
What is different?
- No longer five-year plans but 18-month plans intended to set the foundation for bureau equity goals between now and the fulfillment of the charter transition
- Along with a shifting plan, the plan timeline shifted as well
- Work on the most recent plans began in May 2021
- Tracking the changes with unified process from the City Budget Office performance team, American Rescue Plan Act Data and Equity Strategies Team/BPS’s Smart Cities Team, and the Office of Equity’s data analyst
- Building a publicly accessible database to track performance on equity outcomes
- Aligning performance goals with City budgeting priorities
- Building deeper systems of accountability to equity
- Opportunity to merge racial equity with Title VI and embed equity goals into upcoming strategic planning
These Racial Equity Plans are intended to be “living” documents that respond to the needs and changes of community and the bureaus themselves. Bureau accountability is built into the data, performance, reporting apparatus/system developed in a collaboration between the Office of Equity, City Budget Office, and Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.
B. How were these created?
Following development of the approach and engaging with key stakeholders, the Office of Equity presented and provided guidance to bureau directors on approaching accountability in the racial equity plan updates, plan timelines, guidance for allocating resources and staff to the planning process and developed the support that would be provided.
The Office of Equity created and provided guidance including a sample guide for filling out the template, and research to support developing bureau outcomes and metrics.
As bureaus worked internally on planning, the Office of Equity secured funding to provide and help support bureau participation in a Results-based Accountability 10-session cohort specifically tailored for updating bureau Racial Equity Plans. The 10-session cohort began in October 2021 and continued through July of 2022. The sessions provided hands-on training for using results-based accountability in the development of Racial Equity Plans, direct bureau coaching, and base content for bureaus’ Racial Equity Plans.
Several changes in process have been made since racial equity work rekindled in 2021 and some of those shifts are reflected in the timeline below. However, in the next section, significant detail is provided on the roadblocks and challenges the Office of Equity, Equity Managers, and bureaus faced in submitting the plans.
The Office of Equity began internal engagement to gather feedback on Racial Equity Plans and form a new, more accountable process in the next round of Racial Equity Plan updates. In conversations with Equity Managers and practitioners throughout the City conducted in June and July of 2021, a few common needs were identified to inform the creation of new Racial Equity Plans:
- To collaborate across bureaus for engagement, determining equitable outcomes, and not reinventing the wheel when it came to data collection
- To make meaningful and efficient plans that will help create an impact, account for how we serve and impact community, and accurately track progress towards achieving racial equity goals
- To help create synergy between new Racial Equity Plans and existing efforts such as individual bureau’s strategic plans, Title VI plan efforts, and Affirmative Action plans
- To create realistic timelines for the completion of racial equity plan updates and clear guidance from the Office of Equity on implementing accountability
Based on this feedback, the Office of Equity developed a timeline, approach, and provided guidance for the updated Racial Equity Plans. The approach introduces accountability into the planning process in three ways:
- Using Results-Based Accountability (RBA) to frame how existing or planned programs, policies, and actions move the needle toward achieving racial equity.
- Submitting draft Racial Equity Plans for approval by Commissioners and City Council
- Providing a shared strategy and format for ongoing measurement, performance management, and annual reporting at a bureau and City level.
Updated Racial Equity Plan Goals
The shift to using Results-Based Accountability (RBA) developed by Mark Friedman, or an outcomes-based accountability framework is a direct response to suggested improvements to the Office of Equity’s work from communities engaged in 2018 (Strategic Planning Stakeholder Engagement Summary Report September 2018). Stakeholders emphasized the need for structural and systemic changes to strengthen the Office of Equity’s work by increasing authority to hold bureaus accountable, strengthening coordination with other bureaus that have overlapping missions, and to institutionalize equity throughout the City.
In addition, City Council Resolution 381 – 2020 (Declare intent to centralize, guide and coordinate COVID-19 efforts that bolster progress towards the City’s long-term recovery goals) 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.
C. What was the review process?
For 2023-2025 plans, bureaus were required to produce foundational strategies that would support equity efforts of the City through the charter transition. When the bureau plans were submitted, both the Office of Equity Civil Rights Title VI and Equity Team and the City Budget Office Performance Team engaged in a review of the submissions. Except for plans from Portland Fire Bureau, Portland Bureau of Transportation, and Portland Housing Bureau, all Racial Equity Plans were reviewed by the Title VI/Equity and Performance Teams.
To assess the Racial Equity Plans we received, the Title VI/Equity Team made suggestions to amplify the community direction of the outcomes and strategies, pushing bureaus to think more intentionally about the influence of bureaus on “all people living in Portland.” The Performance Management team focused expressly on performance measures and update frequency columns of the plans. They worked to align the measures bureaus named to Citywide resources (like the Performance Measurement Toolkit) and outcomes. The team also highlighted more specific areas of concern for re-writing plan measures.
D. Equitable Outcomes and Accountability
What are 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.
Equity-centered Outcomes-Based Accountability Framework
The new framework is intended to integrate and align an equity centered theory of change or logic model into city work.While we work from outcomes and conditions, the framework is circular to demonstrate the iterative nature of our work.
Equity Centered Outcomes Accountability asks us to consistently use the following steps to plan, invest, make decisions, and evaluate.For equity planning, we asked bureaus to work through and detail the following steps.
- Identify bureau’s outcomes for equity based on your programming, services, and/or policies in strategic plans and through previous public engagement efforts.
- Relate this bureau-specific equitable outcome to a citywide equity outcome.
- Using root cause analysis, identify strategies that would help achieve the bureau equity outcome.
- List the programs, policies, or actions that directly contribute to this equitable outcome and a key result that would indicate success towards achieving the equitable outcome.
- Pick one or many performance measures to track progress over time towards this key result.
- In the process of picking performance measures, ensure that the sharing of this data can be consistent and sustainable for annual updates of the racial equity plan provided to the Office of Equity and Human Rights.
Purpose of Implementing Accountability
- To comply with Administrative Rule 18.31, sections B and C which state:
- All bureaus are scheduled to complete Racial Equity Plans by November 30, 2016
- Each bureau will measure the collective actions detailed in each of their Racial Equity Plans and submit a report to the Office of Equity. As part of its annual report, the Office of Equity will report on the City’s progress towards achieving racial equity.
- To comply with requirements of City Council Resolution 381 – 2020 (Declare intent to centralize, guide and coordinate COVID-19 efforts that bolster progress towards the City’s long-term recovery goals) and City Council’s directive for the Office of Equity and Human Rights, in partnership with bureau-based Equity Managers and practitioners, the City Budget Office, and community partners, to support Bureaus in centering the City’s equity goals in developing and implementing COVID-19 response measures.
- To increase the effectiveness of equity-related goals by framing results from a people-centric approach first and then identifying measures to track service and benefit distribution, and outcomes from relevant programs/policies.
- To consider the root causes of inequities and disparities, and to use data to track the impact of programs, policies, and actions on the results from root causes.
- To account for progress towards the Citywide Racial Equity goals and other equity goals and strategies in concurrent planning efforts.
- To develop a transparent and digestible way of reporting on progress towards equitable outcomes identified by each bureau.
- To develop a transparent and digestible way of measuring impact – understand who is being served, how they are being served, and whether we are having the desired impact.
- To facilitate informed decision-making, evaluation, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
- To gain more visibility and support for equitable outcomes and the programs, policies, services, or actions intended to address disparities and increase racial equity throughout the city.
- To guide City investments and funding towards programs, policies, services, or actions that successfully move the needle on the City’s racial equity goals.
E. How often will these change?
One of the main challenges bureaus faced during the development of these plans was employee turnover from 2021 to now. Many of the people who completed Results-Based Accountability training in 2022 are no longer with the City. As a result, some of the subject matter expertise and institutional knowledge was lost during those transitions. Generally, most plans do not align with baseline milestones, asks, or standards outlined by the Office of Equity and Human Rights. Bureaus were meant to establish equitable outcomes (conditions of well-being for everyone living in Portland, not just City employees) and articulate how they currently work or intend to contribute to those outcomes to minimize disparities. Unfortunately, most bureau plans have a largely internal focus that obfuscates the original intention of the plans – to improve upon the experiences of people living in Portland through the civil services provided by the City, mostly by closing gaps or addressing disparities that make lived experience in the City inequitable.
The City government transition presented several challenges to the organization and completion of Racial Equity Plans. Many of the barriers can be attributed to the Office of Equity’s current lack of oversight authority in fulfilling its mandate from community and City Council. A new Equity Officer position and an elevated Office of Equity in the new City Organizational structure will bring about a more unified and collaborative equity network throughout the City.
F. What are the new plan opportunities?
There are so many opportunities for the City as an enterprise to build from in equity work and Title VI plan development. These plans support the goals of the transition, development of a shared, enterprise-wide framework, and more collaboration and alignment across bureaus. The Racial Equity Plans are a foundational for work that will push past transition and supports ongoing, cross city improvements, as well as the Office of Equity led City Equity Outcomes and Indicators.
With the charter transition comes the opportunity to embed the work of Racial Equity Plans more meaningfully into City budgeting and operations. As a City “... committed to anti-racism, equity, transparency, communication, collaboration and fiscal responsibility,” meeting the outcomes of the bureaus is key to realizing the values of Portland’s City government. The clearest opportunity to realize these values in city operations in three-fold:
- establishing the interim Racial Equity Plans to carry bureaus from now to July 2025,
- embedding racial equity and required Civil Rights Title VI planning into strategic planning for the bureaus as we turn the corner in July 2025, and
- committing to a direct report for the Office of Equity and Human Rights to the City Administrator role while ensuring every bureau has an equity manager and lead for which the work of racial equity and Title VI is central.
The latter is especially important to avoid the pitfall of over-obligated equity staff that we have observed during the development of Racial Equity Plans to this point.
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.
G. Racial Equity Plans by Bureau or Office
Hiring, retention, and a supportive workplace remain high on the priority list of every Equity Manager and bureau; this included hiring more Black and Indigenous identifying contractors and people of color in City organizations. Many bureaus also named community engagement, encompassing the development of community advisory groups, building relationships with Indigenous communities, and representation of marginalized communities in policy development.
For example, the Bureau of Development Services has named community-specific outreach services to respond to needs in underrepresented neighborhoods and an equity training program for inspectors in their plan. Likewise, the Bureau of Environmental Sciences has named both environmental justice and equitable workforce development as priority areas for their organization moving forward. The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has also added efforts for outreach to the BIPOC community and internal practices to support BIPOC employees within their bureau.