Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Racial Equity Policy Audit topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Oak Park staff outline racial equity assessment findings; policy audit to follow, board asks for faster action
Summary
University of Illinois Chicago’s Great Cities Institute presented findings from a 2023 racial equity assessment. Staff said a six-month racial equity policy audit will start this summer and will feed a Bridal Equity Action Strategic Plan; trustees urged quicker, actionable items and regular reporting during the audit.
Village staff and the University of Illinois Chicago’s Great Cities Institute presented an update July 1 on a racial equity assessment the university completed in 2023 and on a planned racial equity policy audit the village will begin this summer.
Kira Chang, Assistant Village Manager and HR director, said the UIC assessment examined internal operations and external community engagement and that staff plan a policy audit to translate findings into a racial equity action plan. “The racial equity assessment conducted by UIC Great Cities Institute is attached to this agenda item in full,” she said, and introduced Dr. Kathleen Yang Clayton, the lead investigator, to summarize the study.
Dr. Kathleen Yang Clayton summarized the 2023 assessment’s cross-cutting findings: racism is present in Oak Park and manifests in everyday experience, there are persistent divides across neighborhoods, and the village has gaps in centralized data and institutional practices that make it hard to measure and close disparities. She recommended operationalizing equity through improved data collection, internal communications, and capacity building so staff can implement policy changes over time.
Trustees pressed staff and the presenters about timelines, follow-up, and community engagement. Trustee Wesley said the board needs more policy-facing, actionable steps and regular reporting during the policy audit; other trustees agreed that implementation speed matters and asked for interim reporting so the board can act on problems that emerge during the audit rather than waiting for a final six-month report.
Staff said they will begin a racial equity policy audit this summer after selecting a vendor in response to an RFP; the audit is expected to take about six months and to produce a Bridal Equity Action Strategic Plan of policy and program recommendations, implementation steps, and budget implications. Chang and Jackson said the audit’s findings will be brought back to the board with recommendations and that staff will seek to provide interim reports during the audit period.
Reparations and human-rights work: staff summarized legal research indicating Oak Park does not currently meet the strict-scrutiny legal standard for a municipal reparations program modeled on some other cities, but said the village still can pursue reparative-justice programming, community engagement and targeted initiatives. The board directed staff to continue engagement and to include budget, legal, and implementation analyses in follow-up materials.
Why it matters: trustees and staff described the assessment as a baseline for system-level change; several trustees urged the village to accelerate implementation and to convert assessment findings into concrete, time-bound policy actions and measurable indicators (for example, tracking residents’ sense of belonging) rather than delaying action.
