St. Louis Park leaders aim to expand equity and inclusion work

St. Louis Park is beefing up its efforts to advance racial equity at City Hall, with plans to spend a full year training current staff and hiring others for new equity-focused roles.

Over the last year, the council has been using its biweekly "work sessions" to talk about how to take action on big-picture priorities, including bringing racial equity and inclusion into all aspects of the city's work. Council members will present the results of those discussions, and plans for the coming year, at a Monday meeting.

St. Louis Park's communications director did not make city staffers available to discuss the initiative last week.

Just over five years ago, according to U.S. census data provided by the city, more than 80% of St. Louis Park residents identified as white — now that figure is just over 77%. The city has seen growth in the proportion of residents who identify as Black, Indigenous, Asian, Hispanic and of other races and ethnicities.

Similar trends are playing out across the Twin Cities suburbs, where local leaders are trying to figure out how to serve changing populations and make sure new voices are heard in decisionmaking. As communities become more diverse, equity and inclusion directors are becoming standard at city halls. Training on race, cultural competency and bias for staff, elected officials and police is common. Policy consultants have been hired in droves.

Now, cities are figuring out their next moves.

In some communities, public engagement has been flagging. In Golden Valley, a commission focused on police accountability in the west metro city noted a growing sense of redundancy among city commissions, confusion as different groups tackle similar issues and growing meeting fatigue. According to the city, 16 people attended two listening sessions days after the city released a report on racism in the Police Department.

St. Louis Park is eyeing training for staff in all city departments on equity and inclusion, and plans to implement a "year of learning" for city staff and elected officials, according to documents for the Monday council meeting. The training will aim to provide all city officials with an understanding of how to consider equity in their work.

The city is also planning to hire two racial equity and inclusion specialists, at salaries between $65,467 and $81,834. Those hires are in addition to the current director of racial equity and inclusion, who will soon report directly to the city manager after an administrative reorganization.

The new equity staff are meant to in-house some of the equity and inclusion work that has been outsourced to consultants, according to meeting documents. The intent is to make considerations of race, culture, bias and inclusion part of normal city functioning — not just something to address after a crisis, on a short-term contract with an outside consultant.

The expanded racial equity team will also support city staff with suggestions, and help wrangle the growing body of data St. Louis Park is collecting on race and gender in everything from traffic stops to city contracts.