A Fort Collins report ‘pulled the veil back’ on the community’s inequities. Now what? – Coloradoan

A Fort Collins report released a year ago confirmed what many people already knew: People of different ethnicitiesdont experience life in this city the same way.

As a non-white person in Fort Collins, youre more likely to live in poverty, to be cost-burdened for housingand to be arrested or subjected to police force. Youre less likely to go to college, own a home, have internet access and air conditioning, or trust your local government.

The disparities are clear in the citys Equity Indicators Report, a collaboration between city staff and the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance. The report examined 114 aspects of life in Fort Collins, stratified mostly by race and ethnicity, and found disparities in almost all of them. White residents fared about the same as or better than the general population in every outcome, from income to academic achievement. The researchers also found disparities by gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and disability status.

More: Cultural center opens to help Black students in Fort Collins build confidence, learn history

Some selected findings from the report:

The reports findings were no surprise to the grassroots leaders who are steeped in this work.

Weve pulled the veil back, and we're seeing exactly what we expected to see behind it, said Jamal Skinner, founder and executive director of the Cultural Enrichment Center. The center provides Black children sort of a GPSfor how to navigate existing in a town like this and helps them build self-confidence and self-advocacy, he said.

Skinner and other community leaders interviewed for this story are more interested in what the citys going to do next. The Equity Indicators Project is the first public-facing endeavor of Fort Collins new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office, created by City Council in the shadow of George Floyds murder and nationwide unrest over racial injustice. Differing views on the next steps for the project and the DEI Offices work as a whole display the tension between the urgency of racial inequity and the methodical approach of local government.

The Coloradoan spoke extensively with city staff, council members and local advocates to understand where the city hasmade progress with equity and where there's room for growth. The next section of this story describes the city's historic approach to equity work and advocates' perspectives on that history.The final sectiondetails advocates' suggestions for continued work.

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DEI Officer Claudia Menndez and her team are working to condense the 175-page Equity Indicators Report into an online dashboard that shows disparities in the city and tracks how they change over time, creating a tool to gauge if equity-focused reform is working. A first draft of that dashboard is online now.

The next step is a root-cause analysis assessing what's driving the disparities, so the city can see where local policy could have the biggest impact. Council hasnt yet funded this work, but it could be part of the 2023-24 budget.

Menndez said she sees the Equity Indicators Project as a spotlight on inequities and the dashboard as the door to transparency and accountability as the city works to change them.

The next steps for the project come as the DEI Office marks its seven-month anniversary. Menndez spent much of those first months ascending the learning curve, getting to know the complexities of the citys myriad departments and having in-depth conversations with staff about how equity intersects with their service to the community.

Now shes moving to more public-facing work.On April 28, the city will hold an equity-focused community forum on criminal justice, housing and economic opportunity the three outcome areas posted so far on the Equity Indicators dashboard. For the upcoming 2023-24 budget, Menndez and other staff developed three equity-related questions for each departments budget requests.

The questions are related to how the department can use the budget cycle to diversify public engagement and participation in city programs, with a focus on data-informed methods. The questions specifically reference communities of color andunderrepresented social identities.Each department will need to address at least one of themin their funding requests.

The goal is to infuse the citys existing processes with an equity mindset rather than looking at equity as an additional task, said Menndez and interim City Manager Kelly DiMartino.The latter said shes seen the city take an increasing focus on equity during her nearly 25 years with the organization, particularly in departments where employees have shown passion for the work.

The challenge has been organizing disparate projects into an intentional and consistent citywide strategy, DiMartino said. Until Menndez joined the organization, the city had been without a dedicated point-person on equity since the now-defunct human rights officer position was cut in the 2000s.

There's a lot of interest in this, but how do we get more strategic, and how do we focus the work a little bit more? DiMartino said. I think that we are still on that journey."

More: Claudia Menndez picked for city of Fort Collins' new DEI job

Several local advocates said they want to see changes in the city's approach to equity work. Theyre urging the city to avoid "analysis paralysis" and focus on concrete actions to make Fort Collins a more equitable placewhere a persons race, ethnicity and other identities dont shape their experiences.

Its good theres data, said Cori Wong, an equity advocate who gives talks, leads workshops and offers coaching on DEI issues through her consulting company, Positive Philosophy Consulting. But if we get too focused on always looking for more data instead of really assessing these inequitable conditions and realities we should already be aware of, then its like were looking at the finger rather than looking at the moon its pointing to.

Wong is referencing a proverb commonly attributed to Confucius.When a wise man points at the moon, the imbecile examines the finger.

Wongs point relates to another theme in community criticism of Fort Collins history of equity work: That city leaders have focused more on data and public engagement than meaningful action, perpetuating a cycle of seeking insight from people of color, putting the findings in a report or dashboard, and letting the effort gather dust as other priorities take center stage.

This is the MO of the city of Fort Collins, said Johanna Ulloa Girn,co-founder of The BIPOC Alliance whos been attuned to local government for about 12 years. They create dashboards about everything, and then they do a lot of community engagements which, if you talk with a lot of people who are from marginalized communities, they continue to have conversations with the same agencies, the same community members, and nothing happens. This has happened year after year after year after year after year.

Betty Aragon-Mitotes, a longtime advocate for the Latino community, said the issue has gotten to the point where a lot of her friends have stopped attending city events.

Theyve said, Im tired of going to meetings, Aragon-Mitotes said. It seems like all we do is talk, and they say theyre listening, and then nothing happens. If were really being asked to come to the table and I fought to be at the table then I want my voice to be heard.

City leaders and staff acknowledged the criticism, but said equity is a bigger part of their internal conversations, plans and budget requests than people might think.

That might be a perceived cycle, because I have seen the city move and act, Mayor Jeni Arndt said. Still, she added, "people are right to be concerned that action should follow the words and the data.

Much of the city's equity work goes on behind the scenes, staff said. They added it will take time to see the influence of public engagement and institutional changes spread out into the community.

Often, even when there's community engagement done and feedback given for a particular project, the actual project will not be seen for several years, Menndez said. And although internally we may recognize that timeline, the timeline isn't always made public."

Menndez said she wants to reshape the citys public engagement soit feels more like a reciprocal conversation. The city has shifted the timing and format of many public forums to accommodate more people, but engagement events can still feel one-sided.

It needs to be a two-way street, she said. The community is informing us of their needs, but theyre also leaving informed and understanding some of our processes and what were doing to advance equity for all.

The citys equity work has taken many forms over the last several years.

Since 2015, the city has incorporated first diversity and then equity into its strategic plan, which influences the city's budget and policies. Fort Collins City Council adopted a priority for 2018-21 to promote equity and inclusion. The priority didnt return for 2021-23.

Over the last two years, council has worked on several equity-focused projects, including:

Some other highlights of the citys equity progress include a focus on housing equity in its Housing Strategic Plan, the addition of Spanish interpretation at some council meetings and city events, a Historic Preservation project delving into the citys history of intersectional civil rights movements, and the creation of employee resource groups to support city employees of color and those who arepart of the LGBTQ+ community.

More: It takes an army of community groups to get vaccines to Larimer County's nonwhite communities

Council member Susan Gutowsky, who is Hispanic,said she understands the community concern that the city has been more talk than action in terms of equity work. Gutowskysaid thats one of the reasons she and two other council members on the ad hoc Community Impact Committee proposed the new DEI Office in 2021. Council formed the committeein response to calls to examine police funding, but ultimately, the members didnt recommend any major changes to police funding or practices.

It was really bumpy and really difficult, Gutowsky said, describing the initial meetings as a lot of hand-wringing about what to do.

We came to the conclusion that we support our police; we're not going to defund them, she said. But how else can we help the community? And then we came up with the (DEI Office), because we felt that would be our vehicle for getting stuff done.

Skinner sees a focus on board creation, dialogues and data collectionas signs that an organization doesnt know how to go about addressing inequity. The shock of seeing cellphone footage of police murdering a man in 2020 seemed to drive a wave of momentum for racial justice, Skinner said, but hes felt that momentum wane over time.

It sort of has deflated into roundtable discussions about the same things that people arent admitting were talked about 14 years prior to George Floyd, he said. For those of us whove been doing the work, it feels like GroundhogDay. Were at a point, probably for the last eight months, of saying, Well, weve had this conversation for well over a year. What are we doing to move forward?

The coming months could be pivotal for Fort Collins newborn DEI Office. Progress depends not only on building trust between the city government and communities of color but also on the political and moral will, as Wong put it, of those who wield decision-making power to acknowledge inequities and allocate attention and resources accordingly.

It also depends on a strategy thats both unified and tailored to the city'svarious departments. Nina Rubin, a leader of Fort Collins' Jewish community, said she's observed that challenge as an executive committee member ofOur Commitment to Self and Society. The group's purpose is to encourage and celebrate businesses and organizations making meaningful progress with equity. The city is one its three main partners.

There is no question that city leadership is supportive of moving forward with DEI, Rubin said. But it is a most unusual conglomerate of departments, and there isnt going to be a one-size-fits-all solution for moving all of that forward. So I commend their commitment to doing this, and I also understand that their commitment will be a challenging one.

Aragon-Mitotes has a lot of reasons to feel discouraged about equity in Fort Collins and one big reason to feel optimistic.

She feels discouraged because she said Fort Collins has taken 10 steps back in terms of racism in the last seven years, since she and filmmaker Shari Due released the documentary Fort Collins, The Choice City ... for Whom?Former President Donald Trumpseemed to beckon in a tide of blatant discrimination, she said, and many of Fort Collins Latino residents are struggling with deteriorating mental health and the threat of evictionbecause of fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gentrification in the Tres Colonias neighborhoods, a key source of inspiration for the film, has worsened, Aragon-Mitotes said. She said there are few Latino homeowners left in the historically Latino north Fort Collins neighborhoods.

Aragon-Mitotes said shes watched as the Buckingham, Andersonville and Alta Vista neighborhoods have shifted in the public consciousness from across the tracks to an "up-and-coming area.

Aragon-Mitotes said shes watched as an influx of government attention accompanied the influx of white residents. Lincoln Avenue was renovated. The dirt field where Latino kids used to play baseball became a manicured field for soccer games. The Vine Drive and Lemay Avenue railroad overpass came to fruition after years of resident complaints about traffic backups.

Its hard to swallow, because its like, why didnt they do that for us? she said. We had dirt streets. Plumbing didnt come in until the '70s. Its like we got left behind.

Still, Aragon-Mitotes said she feels over the moon about Menndez and her new office.

I think its really important that Claudia is in this position, but I really hope that they give her the leeway to do her job and find out how to move forward and fix those disparities, Aragon-Mitotes said.

The Coloradoan asked Aragon-Mitotes and several other sources about their ideas for specific actions the city could take to make Fort Collins more equitable. Everyone had different ideas, but several themes emerged.

The city should look inward and hold itself accountable.

Ulloa Girn, Wong and others suggested that city leaders focus on the place where city policies can have the most significant impacts: Within the organization itself.

As a community member and a person of color who lives in Fort Collins, the No. 1 thing that I want to know is what the city of Fort Collins is doing themselves to attain equity, Ulloa Girn said.

She said she wishes the Equity Indicators Report had measured things like whether people of color feel welcome in city buildings, how many staffers speak languages other than English, what kind of diversity or implicit bias trainings the city is providing to staff, how much money the city has spent settling lawsuits alleging police discrimination, and the level of city funding for equity initiatives. Instead, she said it mostly consisted of things she couldve Googled.

I already know the system is racist, Ulloa Girn said. What I want to know is, what are they doing to change the system? That will indicate to me that they actually are doing something different instead of just keeping track of these outcomes.

Wong agreed, adding that the city should focus on its sphere of influence.

We have a better chance of making change if we all recognize where we have the opportunities to intervene and make more equitable changes, she said.

Aragon-Mitotes said its imperative that the city work to increase diversity on its staff and city council.Council currently has six white members and one Latino member, Gutowsky. Ray Martinez, a previous council member and former mayor, is also Latino. Otherwise, the city has had very few people of color on City Council.

We cannot have people that dont understand our reality making policy decisions that affect us, Aragon-Mitotessaid. They look at life through a different lens because of their environment, their income, their background. They dont know the struggles of so many people of color.

The lack of diversity sets the city up for the carousel ride of continually seeking policy input from people of color, Wong said.

It needs to be acknowledged that people in these positions of privilege and power often do not know enough about the actual concrete challenges and what it takes to navigate them, she said. So we need to completely rework our whole system of leadership in that sense, and not in a way that just tries to take from people with lived experience who navigate systems of inequity, or from community leaders who have greater perspective, when it doesn't benefit them at all.

One potential way to diversify council, in terms of ethnicity as well as income, would be to pay council members a living wage for their work. Council members earn $853 permonth, and the mayor earns $1,280. Because of the low pay, most council members are retired or have some other form of financial support. Just two of councils seven membershave full-time jobs in addition to being on council, and both have been upfront about the challenges of balancing work with their council duties. Since people of color on average have significantly lower income than white residents of Fort Collins, the income barrier effectively reduces the likelihood of non-white people running for council.

Council could act on the pay issue by referring it to voters. A 2019 ballot measure that wouldve increased council pay lost with 41% of the vote.

Diversity on council is important, but so is diversity on staff, said Eric Ishiwata, an associate professor of ethnic studies at Colorado State University. He suggested the city focus on professional development for people of color to increase diversity at all levels, including middle and upper-level management.

When underserved or historically marginalized residents start to see people who look like them in positions of leadership, then all of the sudden, those offices or agencies seem to be more welcoming, Ishiwata said.

The city introduced an employee resource group in 2019 to retain employees of color by giving them a safe space to connect with each other. Staff have also created a talent recruitment guide with an equity lens, expanded recruitment outreach, experimented with blind hiring where all identity information is redacted from applications, and added language to job postings acknowledging that research shows women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs if they dont meet every aspect of the job description. The addition notes that the city is interested in finding the best candidate, even if they come from a different background.

Another area where the city lacks diversity is on the boards and commissions that influence council decisions. As of 2017, about 94% of the volunteers were white, compared to a population that is 80% white, and 69% earned more than $75,000 a year, compared to a population where 39% of people meet that income threshold.

Council prioritized reimagining boards and commissions for 2019-21. Term lengths and meeting format are now more flexible, but council members said boards have yet to become significantly more diverse.

More: Fort Collins leaders look to diversify city boards

The city should focus on action rather than words.

Some advocates interviewed for this story said the citys equity work can sometimes seem performative. An example is the citys planned land acknowledgment statement, which got funding in the 2022 budget, and the proposed Indigenous Peoples Day resolution.

Those are such empty words, said Christinia Eala, a Lakota activist and co-founder of Tiyospaye Winyan Maka, an organization promoting alternative housing, education, energy and food sovereignty for Indigenous families. Tell me, how many treaties have been honored? We were massacred and wiped out and pushed off our homeland, our rights for hunting were taken away, and we were corralled into concentration camps. … In a city that was built on the blood of the Arapaho, the Shoshone, the Lakota, the Apache and the Ute people, thats empty.

Eala, who emphasized she was only speaking for herself, said a more meaningful way to build trust between the city and the Indigenous community would be to give land back and not interfere with any Indigenous peoples activities on the former Hughes Stadium site. City workers removed a ceremonial sweat lodge from the land last fall because they didnt realize the cultural significance of the structure. Indigenous community members are planning another event at the site this summer.

Giving land back could be in the cards for Fort Collins. The city plans to hire a facilitator to carry out an extensive public engagement process related to the future of the Hughes land, which is now zoned as open lands after a successful citizen initiative. Returning some or all the land to the Indigenous community is among the options for the land.

Ishiwata also suggested that the city take action by creating community initiatives and events designed to bring together people of different cultural backgrounds. The city is culturally and ethnically siloed, he said, evidenced by the fact that an estimated 38% of the Latino population lives in mobile home parks. The Equity Indicators Report also found that most of the citys census tracts werent representative of the communitys diversity.

There are certain risks that come with having a stratified community where poor folks of color are exclusively in this one network, and that network has very few intersections with other resident groups, he said. The way to try to mitigate those risks is to intentionally work to build bridges across those boundaries.

Those kinds of cultural events and outreach are on Menndezs mind. She agreed that the city needs to get the word out about resources like Spanish interpretation, and she said the city ismakingheadway on cultural events and collaborations. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day march, hosted by CSU with supportfrom the city, took a different route this year to pass by homes once owned by historic Black families. She said those kinds of events are important for the visibility ofFort Collins communities of color, who make up about 21% of the population.

It might depend on where youre going or whether you choose to see it or not, but Fort Collins is a more colorful place than sometimes we think, she said. So how do we highlight that and bring those efforts together?

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The city should demystify the budget process and seek out feedback in a way that feels less like checking a box.

Several of those interviewed lamented the highly technical nature of the city budget and esoteric city processes that raise barriers to involvement in local government. After all, they said, its hard to advocate for change if you dont know how local government works or you lack the time or know-how to dissect hundreds of pages of budget documents.

The BIPOC Alliance assigned a 12-person team to comb over the 2021 budget, Ulloa Girn said, but it was still difficult to make sense of how much money the city was spending on equity initiatives. Their feedback about the budgets contents at public hearings didnt result in any significant changes to funding.

The criticism prompted changes to the 2022 budget process. Staff released a budget in brief summary in both Spanish and English going over the higher-level points of the budget and the citys process. But boiling down a 9-or-10-figure budget into a more digestible format that allows residents to compare the citys stated goals to its actual spending? That remains an unsolved problem.

A related issue is the lack of public engagement around the budgeting process. The city hosts several events and public hearings for each budget, but theyre often sparsely attended.

Poor attendance at the budget engagement events left Francis, the mayor pro-tem, feeling unsettled. Shes wondered if Fort Collins needs to invest in more education about participation in local government and more alluring engagement events. The city could follow in the footsteps ofDenver-based Warm Cookies of the Revolution, which uses things like bingo, obstacle courses and dance parties to get laypeople civically engaged.

Ulloa Girn said the city needs to stop talking about how to bring more people to the table and just leave the table altogether.

Put people on the streets; hire people to go home to home and distribute information; go to meetings at (local organizations) go everywhere, she said.

And when you get feedback, she added, you need to either take it or really explain why you arent taking it.

Advocates also said the city is missing part of the picture on things like Spanish interpretation. Providing interpretation is a good start, Ishiwata said, but the city also needs to make sure Spanish-speakers feel welcomed at those events and that their input makes a mark in the decision-making process.

If we really are going to recognize that our economy and our health and the wellbeing of the entire community depends upon all of our residents being heard and included, Ishiwata said, then there needs to be not just a space but also a political voice and decision-making power for all residents as well.

More: CSU has been working on inclusion for decades.Mary Ontiveros built her legacy around it.

The city should invest resources into parts of the community that have been underserved.

Wong came back to this point often: The best way to address inequity is to make it easier for people to get what they need.

If we have resources we can reallocate, redistribute and reinvest, then invest in the leadership among the people who have firsthand experience of the issues and make it easier for them to do and get what they need, to apply their knowledge and their expertise, she said.

Originally posted here:

A Fort Collins report 'pulled the veil back' on the community's inequities. Now what? - Coloradoan