Citizen-Led Unity Council Presents Racial Equity Plan To Arlington City Council

Press release from the City of Arlington:

February 23, 2021

By Susan Schrock

After eight months of research and a series of community conversations, the citizen-led Unity Council presented a proposed racial equity plan to the Arlington City Council on Tuesday, Feb. 23.

The 28-member Unity Council’s mission has been to gather community input, research best practices and recommend strategies that the City of Arlington could implement to promote and encourage greater equity and to advance unity across our community. The Unity Council’s work, which began in July 2020, is part of the City’s commitment to equality, inclusion and the elimination of institutional racism and other forms of discrimination in its policies and practices.

The 132-page comprehensive report focuses on five areas of study: Economic Disparities; Education and Workforce Training; Housing: Health and Wellness: Policing and Criminal Justice. The Unity Council’s presentation identifies nearly 60 recommendations for short-, mid- and long-term goals in these areas based on months of data analysis and public feedback, which included interviews, focus groups and virtual town hall meetings in November, December, and January. The recommendations, which touch on topics such as affordable housing, food deserts, internet access, police relations and more, were drafted based on the work of more than 40 Unity Council and subcommittee meetings.

The Arlington City Council will evaluate these recommendations and create an action plan that can be referred to as the City moves forward with new or amended policies, programs, and initiatives over the coming months.

Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams said some of the more challenging recommendations in the report may take longer to implement, but the City is prepared to act.

“I can tell you a statement that got me worked up, and that ‘not to be putting Band-Aids or workarounds on these (concerns) to satisfy the citizens.’ We have a responsibility here to address these (concerns). There may be some here that are unachievable, that we may not be able to get to, or we may disagree with, but we better have reasons why. This is our time and our opportunity move forward,” Williams said. “We need to show progress here to our citizens quickly.”

Among the Unity Council’s many recommendations is the creation of a permanent task force charged with directly engaging local residents, organizations, and institutions on matters regarding race, ethnicity, and other forms of diversity.

“Each of the 28 people who served on the Unity Council are just as unique and diverse as our City. That’s why one of our goals was to demonstrate that we can, in fact, ‘all get along’ and find common ground despite our differences,” Unity Council Chair Dr. Jason E. Shelton said in the report. “We reached that goal, and along the way have provided a blueprint for showing other large and diverse cities how to address racial and ethnic inequality in a way that is respectful and inclusive of residents."

Click here to read the full Unity Council Report, presented on Feb. 23, 2021.

• Unity Council

• News
• Government
• City Council

Unity Council Report Recommendations

General Recommendations

Concern: City should have a permanent community-based group tasked with monitoring racial and ethnic disparities, as we as bridging racial and ethnic divides.

Short-term recommendation: Establish a permanent task force charged with directly engaging local residents, organizations, and institutions on matters regarding race, ethnicity and other forms of diversity in Arlington. This could include making the Unity Council permanent and/or revising the Community Relations Commission’s goals and responsibilities

Concern: City needs an adequate data source for monitoring racial and ethnic disparities.

Short-term recommendation: Enhance Arlington’s “City Services Satisfaction Surveys” to include a wider range of important variables, such as race/ethnicity, income, and education.

Concern: Arlington City Manager’s Office needs a staff member charged with monitoring various matters relevant to race and ethnic relations.

Medium-term recommendation: Arlington City Manager’s Office to establish a Chief Diversity Officer who will create various programs that aim to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Concern: City should establish a form of public transportation that is more accessible to low-income residents.

Medium-term recommendation: Develop a pilot-program for local residents who qualify for free or reduced rates on Via Rideshare. One option could be to collaborate with Tarrant County WIC and the Arlington Housing Authority.

Concern: There are growing levels of concentrated poverty in particular neighborhoods in Arlington.

Long-term recommendation: Establish anti-poverty programs in targeted neighborhoods that focus on job training, community clean-up, as well as public and private investment.

Economic Recommendations

Concern: MWBE spending by the City is not adequate.

Long-term Recommendations: Implement data collection, create an Office of Business Diversity, reduce barriers of communication with MWBEs and find solutions to reducing barriers to MWBEs being prime contractors.

Concern: MWBE program needs to be strengthened.

Short-term Recommendations: Create an MWBE Department and develop contracting requirements and accountability for City departments and prime contractors. Enhance Arlington’s “City Services Satisfaction Surveys” to include a wider range of important variables, such as race/ethnicity, income, and education.

Concern: Commercial capital access for MWBEs needs to be increased.

Long-term Recommendation: Increase lending to minority business by connecting MWBEs with banks, encouraging banks to lend more to MWBEs and recruit additional lenders with a track record of lending to MWBEs.

Concern: More job opportunities are needed in East Arlington.

Long-term Recommendations: Establish a job resource center in East Arlington library, staffed by at least one individual, and encourage companies to conduct job fairs in this area. Conduct job and Arlington Resource Sharing Group fairs in East Arlington on an annual basis.

Concern: Need to increase affordability of transportation to get to work.

Medium-term Recommendation: Consider a pilot program that subsidizes Via service for persons with certain income level.

Concern: Continued Unity Council effort needed.

Long-term Recommendations: Maintain the Unity Council, in some form, as a standing committee past delivery of February report. Implement an independent MWBE public oversight committee chosen by the City Council members.

Education and Workforce Training Recommendations

Concern: Improved internet access is needed for families with limited resources or in an area with low connectivity.

Medium-term Recommendations: Increase internet availability and increase free public WiFi hot spots throughout Arlington.

Concern: Community is not aware of available community resources such as educational assistance, job training, work opportunities, etc.

Short-term Recommendation: Create Community-Outreach-Networking-Empowerment-Communication-Tool (CONECT) – a centralized location for resources and assistance.*

Concern: Increase low-income student and parent participation in ISD programs.

Short-term Recommendation: Conduct “Education & Workforce Training Fair” twice annually in public areas throughout where needed the most.

Concern: Increase racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in curriculum.

Long-term Recommendation: Diversify lesson plans and curriculum to be inclusive of relevant culture and identity.*

Concern: Address microaggressions occurring in schools.

Medium-term Recommendation: Require diversity training for students and teachers and organize conversations on the same.*

Concern: Increase availability of counselors to students to address mental health issues.

Medium-term Recommendation: Hire additional guidance counselor resources for school districts.*

Concern: Increase higher education preparedness in high-poverty high schools.

Medium-term Recommendation: Add programs such as college advisors and internship programs.*

Housing Recommendations

Concern: Existing zoning ordinance disadvantages older or established neighborhoods at a disadvantage for redevelopment.

Short-term Recommendation: Establish different standards for infill housing development.

Concern: Zoning ordinances can be barriers in developing sustainable, equitable communities which include housing that is affordable.

Medium-term Recommendations: Examine existing ordinances to eliminate barriers to develop housing that is affordable and find tools to develop affordable neighborhoods with accessible services.

Concern: There are insufficient resources for the public to learn about home rental, buying and home ownership.

Medium-term Recommendations: Work with educational institutions to include financial education to ensure that graduates are financially responsible. Review homebuyer and renter education to see if it is sufficient. Seek to implement changes where resources are insufficient.

Concern: There is inadequate housing inventory that is affordable and accessible for all income levels.

Long-term Recommendations: Research how to include household debt in the evaluation of housing cost burden. Use the date in the Housing Needs Analysis and debt burden data to identify housing needs and target solutions to gaps. Reduce barriers to renting.

Concern: Arlington neighborhoods to do not uniformly represent diversity of the city’s population.

Long-term Recommendations: Examine possible reasons behind the current housing maps by race and ethnicity. Encourage development of proximate housing that varies by affordability and type with access to services throughout the city.

Health & Wellness Recommendations

Concern: Communities of color are disproportionately affected by gap in physical and mental healthcare services.

Short-term Recommendation: Create dedicated city staff position of Chief Equity Officer to implement and monitor strategies targeted to erase disparity in healthcare for residents of Arlington. This position would report directly to the City Manager and work in collaboration with health care providers.

Concern: Entities serving disadvantaged residents could use additional support such as Mission Arlington, Open Arms Clinic, private and nonprofit groups, churches, and health organizations.

Medium-term Recommendation: Leverage relationships with trusted providers to enable and support efforts in care delivery.

Concern: Physical and mental health disparities exist in some areas of the city, especially 76010 and 76011.

Medium-term Recommendation: Support a mobile health care program to provide basic primary care, mental health care and referral by exploring funding sources and convening stakeholders to implement.*

Concern: Lack of affordable transportation options inhibit ability to receive care and services.

Medium-term Recommendation: Enact a program to provide free or subsidized rates on Via for residents in need.

Concern: Information regarding health and wellness is not distributed effectively to many residents in need, especially those in poorer areas.

Long-term Recommendation: Explore and implement alternative means of disseminating information to all communities.
Concern: Lack of healthy food choices and presence of “food deserts.”

Long-term Recommendation: Investigate City ordinances and/or policies to promote the presence of healthier food choices in areas determined or identified as food deserts.

Concern: Arlington is consistently ranked low in the healthiest cities’ identifications.

Long-term Recommendation: Create a citywide awareness initiative involving City leadership as well as citizen leaders and organizations providing not only examples of healthy living practices, but opportunities to achieve them.*

Policing & Criminal Recommendations

Concern: There is a deep divide between Arlington’s youth and police.

Short-term Recommendation: Expand the Police Athletic League to include sporting activities throughout the entire school year.

Medium-term Recommendation: Build upon the police ride-along program to include students and young adults.

Long-term Recommendation: Start a program to connect K-12 students with APD related to similar interests or hobbies.
Concern: Some Arlington police officers are not as well educated about or connected with the communities they patrol.

Short-term Recommendation: Pair new officers with officers of a different race and background and directly engage with communities of a different race in their districts.

Medium-term Recommendation: Create a plan to encourage patrol officers to attend community events, patronize diverse restaurants, meet with different community events, and make connections with residents.

Long-term Recommendation: Create an immersive program for officers to connect with the communities they serve; suggestions include having officers live in their beat for one week with HOAs and other organizations that serve the area.

Concern: Stress can put police officers’ mental and emotional health at risk and therefore it may prevent them from carrying out their responsibilities as public servants and healthy citizens.

Short-term Recommendation: Revised psychological program to include racially diverse professionals, survey APD about adequacy of current program and implement indicated changes.

Medium-term Recommendation: Schedule regular psychological evaluations for all officers such as an evaluation administered every 3-5 years and a mandatory evaluation after a traumatic event. Consider hiring a full-time APD Chaplain as part of this process.

Concern: APD Police Academy and In-Service Training should allow for more community input/interaction and include more training that focuses on police misconduct.

Short-term Recommendation: Institute a review process that includes City Manger’s Office and APD leadership, qualified professionals, and community members to review and evaluate high-profile national incidents of police violence and misconduct to incorporate time-sensitive changes in policy, training, or other processes.

Medium-term Recommendation: Invite concerned members of the community to review training and add a member of the Unity Council to the Police Training Advisory Board.

Long-term Recommendation: Institute a bi-annual review process that includes City Manager’s Office, APD leadership, qualified professionals, and community members to review current trends, training resources for possible inclusion into the APD training model.

Concern: An abundant amount of data that could assist in identifying racial disparities and behavioral trends of officers in policing exists, but the crime analysis unit is understaffed and unable to adequately utilize this data to enhance and/or create departmental policy that addresses those issues.

Short-term Recommendation: Increase staff dedicated to analyzing data by hiring more in-house professionals or contracting to experts.

Medium-term Recommendation: Implement periodic internal and external review of analyzed data to monitor officer behavior and trends (with respect to disparities) and adjust policies accordingly.

Long-term Recommendation: Translate review into layman’s terms and disseminate to the public to seek feedback.

(*Collaboration with or action by community partners will be required for implementation.)

This press release was produced by the City of Arlington. The views expressed here are the author’s own.