The city of Durango hopes to make strides in diversity among city employees after receiving results from its Racial Equity Employee Survey, performed by the Government Alliance on Race and Equality.
The survey was done to evaluate diversity and racial equity knowledge, skills and experiences among city employees, which can then be used to take greater steps toward racial equity and diversity within city operations.
“The gist of the survey was the city and its employees saying that we’re open and willing to talk about diversity, equity, inclusion,” said Tom Sluis, spokesman for the city.
The need for more information about the city’s diversity within its staff surfaced in February when Durango City Council organized its strategic plan.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion were goals that we put into our strategic plan,” said Durango Mayor Kim Baxter. “To determine what we need to do in order to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive, we need to have a look at where we are now, so we can determine where we need to go.”
A 55-item online survey was sent to all 503 city employees. Two hundred employees participated in the survey, for a 39.8% response rate. However, only 194 of the questionnaires met GARE’s completion threshold, which equates to 38.6% completion rate.
“The survey was run because we want to make sure the diversity in the organization reflects the diversity of our community,” Baxter said.
Of the 200 respondents, 50.3% were male, 81.1% were white, 10.7% identified as Hispanic or Latinx, 5% identified as multiracial, 1.9% identified as Native American or Native Alaskan, 0.6% identified as Black or African American, 0.6% identified as Asian or Asian American, and 4.3% identified as disabled.
Results of the survey revealed significant differences across race and ethnicity. The survey notes that moving forward it will be important to find new ways to include perspectives of Black people, Indigenous people and people of color.
“Overall, respondents indicated a high degree of willingness and capacity to engage in DEI work and a majority agreed that they thought it was valuable to examine and discuss the impacts of race, in particular,” said Erin Hyder, with the city of Durango’s Human Resources Department.
In terms of resources regarding racial equity, about 46.5% agreed their department provided resources necessary for addressing racial disparities and achieving racial equity, while 64.3% agreed the city encourages employees to participate in racial equity trainings, workshops or events.
“This data collected was an important step to provide a starting point as we identify next steps internally to help move toward reaching City Council’s goals of advancing DEI initiatives within the city,” Hyder said.
Just over 44% said their department provided racial equity training. Across all respondents, 8% indicated their department had a racial equity work group. Only 3.8% of respondents said their department had a racial equity plan, and 1.6% said they consistently use racial equity tools.
GARE said in its summary of the data collected by the survey that Durango should emphasize building internal infrastructure to guide and coordinate racial equity efforts.
“Launching this survey and collecting this data was an important first step in assessing where the organization is starting from as we build a DEI road map outlining how the city can build upon our internal infrastructure to guide and coordinate DEI efforts to normalize, operationalize and organize efforts across the organization,” Hyder said.
Baxter said taking a closer look at diversity issues among city staff members stems from a national effort to more closely examine racial equity and other forms of diversity.
“I think there’s a national awareness that’s very helpful in reminding us that maybe we’re not doing as well as we should be doing in these areas.” Baxter said.
The data collected by the survey will now be used by the city to determine Durango’s long-term organizational racial equity strategy.
Moving forward, Sluis said the city is in the process of bringing in a third party DEI consultant to offer more specific suggestions about changes that can be made based on data from the survey.
“Let’s make an improvement here,” Baxter said. “Let’s make a more equitable and inclusive world.”
njohnson@durangoherald.com
