Board emphasizes equity-based scoring to prioritize Black and Brown-led applicants

Vice Chair James McDowell read comments from the absent chair into the record, stressing an equity-forward approach to the methodology. "She wants to make sure that the methodology is equity based, or equity based scoring criteria, build scoring metrics that award substantial points to applicants who are African American, Black or African American, Black and Brown communities, led organizations or businesses," McDowell said.

Board members discussed how to operationalize those priorities in scoring rubrics, recommending concrete examples and drop-down lists for reviewers. Some members urged that governance and contracting should reflect impacted communities and that formerly impacted individuals be intentionally included in roles the methodology favors. Staff agreed to produce a cleaned draft of the methodology with suggested scoring examples for the board and to convene working groups to finalize drop-down categories before the next substantive meeting.