The Olympia City Council will soon appoint inaugural members for the recently-created Social Justice and Equity Commission, city manager Jay Burney announced during the “Reimagining Public Safety” joint meeting with the city council and non-profit organizations on April 12.
Burney said the city had spent nearly 18 months researching, engaging the community and recruiting potential members commissioners for the commission.
“We believe the commission will play a significant role in ensuring a just and equitable Olympia for all people,” Burney added.
The city created the commission to address complaints about incidents of racial and other forms of discrimination, conduct investigations and provide resolutions to the complaints.
The commission will also connect community members to resources and assistance available in the city or state systems. It will also participate in community-wide education on equity and racial justice.
Burney highlighted other notable changes made by the city that underscored its commitment to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for the past two years.
The city, according to Burney, is initiating an equity audit to identify any institutional practices that produce system-based discrimination and eliminate them. “This work will begin later this year.”
He added the city hired three diversity, equity and inclusion coordinators to help move the recommendations forward, both internally and externally.
The city council also reinstituted and hired a police auditor to increase public trust and confidence in the police department by providing an independent review and audit of law enforcement’s internal investigations regarding complaints against the members of the Olympia Police Department and its employees.
The city has taken these measures in response to non-profit community leaders’ demands of elected officials to create new policies focusing on racial justice and race equity in the city.
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