PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council is drafting an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement for adoption into the city’s policies.
While no formal action was taken to adopt the statement, council members Monday revised the document, which had initially been drafted by the Culture and Society Committee.
The statement declares the city’s commitment to, and accountability for, prioritizing diversity and equity issues.
“We embrace individual uniqueness and foster a culture of inclusion that supports both broad and specific diversity initiatives,” the statement says. “We value inclusion as a core strength and an essential element of our public service mission.”
The city is working on establishing an Equity, Access and Rights Advisory Board, and the diversity statement is a step in that process, said Councilmember Owen Rowe, who sits on the Culture and Society Committee.
“This is a statement of principles or values rather than a list of specific actions,” Rowe said.
Changes to the draft statement were minimal and included the removal of the word “seeking” from a statement about diverse residents and visitors and replaced it with “welcoming.”
Council members also added language about working with other local governments and non-governmental organizations to promote equity and inclusion across various areas such as housing and healthcare.
Council members also discussed where in the city’s policies to place the statement. It was not typical for cities to codify such statements, according to City Attorney Heidi Greenwood, but it could be included in the personnel policy or passed as a nonbinding resolution.
“I think the other value of having it be a resolution, is that because it’s been long time in coming, we as a city, not this council but some members of this council, committed during the summer of 2020 and the whole Black Lives Matter protest to taking on this work we haven’t really had kind of an end product,” said councilmember Libby Urner Wennstrom.
“This didn’t get dropped and forgotten, we actually have been working on it,” she said.
A resolution for standing up the Equity, Access and Rights Advisory Board is tentatively scheduled for the council’s next business meeting on this coming Monday.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
