Council pauses vote on amendatory agreement for 'Undoing Racism' workshops, seeks evaluation details

City Council members paused final action on an amendatory agreement to continue "Undoing Racism" community-organizing workshops and asked the administration for written details about the program's history, evaluation methods and local train‑the‑trainer plans.

The item, introduced as 3-12 in the Budget, Finance & Governance Committee, drew questions from several council members about how long the city has offered the workshops and whether the administration tracks results. "We added a survey, post session, to gather that sort of feedback," Deputy Mayor Jozanne told the committee and added that, having participated nearly two years ago, the training "was incredibly meaningful" and that the feedback overall has been "very meaningful, very informative, at some points uncomfortable, but appropriately so."

Council Member Lightfoot, who said she participated in the program's original local rollout, said the workshops were intended to be embedded in city operations and noted prior efforts to establish a local chapter and train local trainers. "It was supposed to originally, it started with just senior teams... and that was part of the goal was to embed this into the culture," Lightfoot said, and asked whether there is local interest in a train‑the‑trainer process.

Committee leadership said they would hold the item for the full council meeting so members could get written follow‑up from the administration answering questions including the total number of years the city has offered the trainings, whether there has been a consistent schedule across years and whether local trainers are being developed. No formal vote or amendment to the agreement was taken in committee.

The discussion took place during the committee's introductory item review and centered on evaluation and continuity. Council members asked that the administration provide documentary answers rather than rely solely on verbal remarks at committee.

The administration committed to providing written responses and additional documentation about program years, evaluation results and any plan to develop local training capacity. The committee did not adopt or reject the amendatory agreement at that meeting; council will revisit the item at the full council session.