The Bainbridge Island Race Equity Advisory Committee wants to make sure it plays a major role in the hiring of the city’s first race equity officer.
And it wants a say from the start. REAC spent quite a bit of time at its meeting Dec. 1 talking about the job description for the position. Members said the draft job description put together by city staff was too long and detailed.
“The first thing I noticed was ‘holy cow’ there’s a ton of stuff here,” member Frank Jacobsen said. “There’s no way I could do all this.”
Members said they didn’t want to scare off potential candidates. “Some people could be intimidated by this,” Jacobsen said. “It’s so minute in the details we’ve lost the picture of the overall goal.”
Members added that they want someone with people skills, while the job description makes it sound more like a technical position.
Members Clarissa San Diego said empathy is important, while Savana Rovelstad said how the person communicates is key. They have to be “able to go into a space and be uncomfortable,” she said, adding that’s what it takes to talk about race. Jacobsen said life experience is just as important, if not more so than education for this post.
“This is a really important position. We’ve got to get it right,” member Jing Fong said, adding the ability to collaborate also is important. She said the city might want to hire a recruiter for the opening. BI is challenged to find diversity, and people in Seattle don’t normally commute to BI. “We need a range of people; a greater pool of candidates.”
Eric Stahl said members on the policy subcommittee made many suggestions for changes in the city’s draft job description. He said it mentioned all the basics, “to a fault,” but lost impact in doing so. “It’s very ‘buzzwordy,’” he said. Those members recommended combining bullet points so it would look “less scary.” He also said it should mention the position is to take on institutionalized systemic racism and build on the race equity work the city and REAC are already doing.
Also at the meeting, Fong talked about REAC’s recent discussion with their counterparts in Bremerton. “I wish we could combine the strengths of what they have and we have together,” she said. Fong said that group has developed a strong network with its citizens. “Their elected officials have to face the community,” she said. We would “love to achieve a network of allies.”
On the other hand, the BI REAC has much more clout with its government. “We are making progress, but not as fast as we would like.” The Bremerton group is often at odds with its government, especially the mayor. “It floored me they had to file a public records request just to see a job description,” Fong said.
In subcommittee reports, REAC members talked about BI Reads for Justice events. Regarding use of the BI library, Rovelstad said, We want to make sure it’s a “safe place. It’s OK if you get offended. That’s how we move through the process.” They also talked about events for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month, where the movie “Beyond Black and White” will be shown, about Roosevelt High School in Seattle. They suggested students bring their parents to that.
In other news:
•REAC talked about how to fill its current vacancy. Fong said the last time this happened there were a lot of questions about the process — such as who would be on the selection committee and what kinds of questions should be asked. “It was frankly messy,” she said, adding maybe the process should be changed.
Brenda Fantroy-Johnson, the City Council liaison to REAC, said since there is an opening now isn’t the best time to talk changes because that would delay a selection. “We don’t want people waiting” to be appointed, she said. But she did say of the process: “It was sloppy. Let’s clean it up.”
•Fong said in a subcommittee report on the council’s recent meetings that former REAC member Deanna Martinez spoke about how black women in government on BI are not treated well. And Fong said there are concerns in the Japanese American community on BI about preservation of the Suyematsu Farm. “That should be on our radar,” she said.
•REAC also began initial discussions for the process of naming the city’s new police-court facility, and also the art for that building — both the call for artist applications and how the artwork would be selected.
