City staff and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisory board presented forward-looking recommendations to council Tuesday that update work from the 2020 DEI task force and propose a multi-year plan for accountability and action.

Gillian Del Rio, the city’s equity program manager, reported the board’s inventory of the 2020 task force shows 37 recommendations overall: 26 completed, six in progress and five beyond current operational capacity. Perrin Timan, co-chair of the DEI advisory board, described six interdependent focus areas: building a representative community, creating a diverse workforce, advancing youth engagement, developing DEI data and accountability systems, strengthening institutional capacity and policy alignment, and expanding equitable resources and infrastructure.

Recommended actions include establishing baseline demographic data, launching leadership and training programs, piloting student shadow days with council and department directors, creating a public equity dashboard and adopting equity impact statements for major policy decisions. The board recommended engaging an external consultant to create metrics, benchmarks and an implementation timeline tied to the council’s 2026 equity goal.

Councilors broadly praised the work and asked staff to clarify short-term actions the city can implement within current capacity versus longer-term needs requiring external support. Several councilors emphasized the importance of communicating results and progress to residents and of ensuring any enforcement or data work does not disproportionately burden marginalized residents.

What’s next: Council will consider the board’s recommendations as part of 2026 goal-setting and staff will include elements of the recommended DEI metrics and reporting in summit materials.