Recommendations from Bellevue’s Centering Communities of Color Initiative Former Vice Chair:
Below are my recommendations for cities who want to engage with communities of color in partnership for an equitable collaboration for all:
If individual community members and leaders of color are providing their labor of any kind, for the mutual benefit of the city and their community, especially on topics of equity, social and economic upliftment, equality and inclusion, those members should be compensated as a consultant to ensure an equitable collaboration.
If community members of color interact as a collective with the city as a workgroup or initiative without the protections and formality of a committee or commission, there should be clear roles and responsibilities laid out.
Cities should instill a formal committee or commission to meaningfully collaborate with communities of color on topics of equity, social and economic upliftment, equality and inclusion.
If community members of color are not paid as consultants for their labor, any work they do for the mutual benefit of the city and their community must be capped to confines of meeting times agreed upon by the city employees and community member(s) of color to avoid inequitable working conditions for the community members.
If harm is caused to community member(s) of color engaging with city staff when working for the mutual benefit of the city and their community, a human resource escalation process should be put in place to review and remedy the concern to prevent future occurrences.
If allies to communities of color are concerned about potential issues of abuse, harm or misconduct from city employees working with communities of color engaging in work for the mutual benefit of the city and those communities, an escalation process should be in place to review and remedy the concern to prevent future occurrences.
City employees and community members of color who work in collaboration for the mutual benefit of the city and their communities, especially on topics of equity, social and economic upliftment, equality and inclusion; should be deemed competent and approved by a panel of employees and community members of color with bias and harm reduction training and/or experience in order to move forward with that work.
If city employees engage with communities of color for the mutual benefit of the city and their communities, feedback should be collected from community members they are working with and shared regularly via public facing routes, email, newsletter, council presentations, open community meetings, etc.
If the city uses the intellectual property and labor of any kind from community members of color for the mutual benefit of the city and their community, the city staff should provide regular updates on use, including if that use is continuous and shared amongst differing city departments and entities beyond the original use context of the intellectual property and labor.
If the city hosts an event for the mutual benefit of the city and communities of color, and that event uses the intellectual property and labor of any kind from community members of color, city staff should ensure that community members are individually cited for their contributions and/or compensated.
If the labor of community members of color transforms the work of city employees by more than 25%, for the mutual benefit of the city and their community, those community members should be individually cited for their contributions in every form of this work, ongoing.
Jeri Tiernan
