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Stockton DEI lead details hiring, training and equity framework; council presses for implementation plan
Summary
Priya Nixon, the city’s inclusion lead, presented a two‑tier plan to embed diversity, equity and inclusion across city hiring, training and programs. Council members pressed for concrete 30/60/90‑day deliverables, raised funding and reporting questions and asked staff to return with a more detailed implementation timeline.
Priya Nixon, who has been overseeing Stockton’s inclusion initiatives since June 2024, told the City Council on June 24 that the city’s DEI work will be organized in two tiers: near‑term operational changes and longer‑term structural reforms.
Nixon said Tier 1 includes a full recruiting and hiring practice evaluation, an internship pipeline with local minority‑serving institutions, moving performance evaluations to an online platform to capture inclusion‑oriented goals, and expanded training and reporting. "So the resolution ... affirms the importance of culturally inclusive practices, services, and programs," Nixon said, reading language from the council’s July 2022 resolution that she said guides the work.
The presentation prompted extensive council questioning about resources, departmental authority and measurement. Vice Mayor Lee pressed Nixon for actionable deadlines and said he wanted “updates in 30, 60, 90 days,” asking specifically whether a written plan and cost estimate could be provided. The vice mayor and several council members also raised concerns that DEI staffing and budget authority had been reclassified within human resources and that some DEI funds had been redirected; Nixon said she would provide documentation, and staff agreed to return with further detail.
Council members asked how the city would diversify ranks in public safety. Nixon cited ongoing recruitment partnerships with Delta College, University of the Pacific and Stanislaus State and said the city is building memoranda of understanding and an internship task force. "We're working on developing MOUs so that it is easier to engage with them and faster," she said. Members of the council also pushed for an equity framework to be applied across projects and for clearer reporting to demonstrate progress.
Public commenters urged transparency about committee membership and questioned whether community voices — including Vietnamese, Hmong, Pacific Islander and LGBTQ residents — are adequately represented on DEI bodies. Councilmembers agreed to ask staff to return with a more specific implementation plan, including metrics and a clearer scope for the advisory committee the 2022 resolution contemplated.
Next steps: staff agreed to provide written plans and metrics and to return with more defined timelines and options for funding and committee composition. Nixon told council she could report back with a more detailed work plan for council review.
